Civil Society, the State and Political Engagement in Israel: Politics, Anti-Politics and Non-Politics

Prof. Naomi Chazan, currently Head of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, completed three terms as a member of the Knesset, representing the Meretz (Democratic Israel) Party in February, 2003. During her parliamentary career from l992 to 2003, she served as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, and as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (concentrating on issues of the peace process and Israel’s foreign relations), the Economics Committee, the House (Knesset) Committee, the Education Committee and the Committee on the Status of Women. She is considered one of Israel’s leading legislators of the past decade, specializing in human rights, gender equality and consumer affairs.

Born in Jerusalem, Professor Chazan holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a professor emerita of Political Science and African Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she served as Chair of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. She was the Robert Wilhelm Fellow at the Center of International Studies at MIT during 2004-2005, and was a visiting professor of Government and a visiting scholar at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She has lectured at dozens of universities and research institutes throughout the world. She has authored and edited eight books on comparative politics and has written numerous articles on Arab-Israeli relations, Israeli politics, African politics, and women and politics.

Professor Chazan is currently President of the Board of the New Israel Fund and Chair of its Shatil Committee. She has served as Vice-President of the International Political Science Association and was a member of the Executive Committee of Parliamentarians for Global Action. She chaired Hemdat, the Association of Freedom of Religion in Israel, and is one of the founders of the Israel Women’s Network, the Israel Women’s Peace Net, the Jerusalem Link, Bat Shalom, Engendering the Peace Process and the International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Israeli-Palestinian Peace. She is also active in various professional, human rights, and peace organizations.

Disengagement from formal politics in Israel has become more pronounced in recent years. This process assumes two, quite different forms: anti-politics (a type of protest, which exhibits signs of exit, but is actually a 21st century variant of voice); and non-politics (withdrawal from the public sphere, which may superficially appear similar to anti-politics, but in actuality is a variant of exit). All too often, these two distinct processes are confused because of the empirical difficulty in distinguishing between their various manifestations. This presentation will discuss each of these phenomena in the context of contemporary Israeli politics, and their implications for citizenship, the state and political change. The working assumption of this analysis is that engagement in civil society is a major tool in differentiating anti-politics from non-politics. In both cases, this trend is a function of the weakening of the state and of the state's capacities — something that cannot be addressed merely by introducing reforms aimed at stabilization at the level of the political system alone.

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