Academic Director: Professor Reuven Gruneau
Chaired by: Finance Minister Silvan Shalom
The Israel Democracy Institue's Tenth Annual Economic Conference (the Ceasarea Conference) took place in Jerusalem on July 3-4, 2002. The choice of Jerusalem as the venue was made as a gesture of solidarity with the city, at a time when it is confronting severe security concerns along with an economic recession.
Dr. Arye Carmon, President of the Israel Democracy Institute, said that this year the economic conference will be taking place in full cognizance of the security and economic state of emergency. In his estimation, as a result of the situation and the choice of Jerusalem as a venue, decision makers will play a more central role in the discussions than they have in such previous gatherings.
“In previous years,” said Carmon, “we elected to hold the economic conference far away from the center of the country in order to draw the decision makers and economy leaders to the periphery so that participants would be able to detach themselves from their daily concerns and focus their attention on the discussions. The distance from the center indeed proved itself, but this year we felt that in light of the difficult situation prevailing in the state at this time it would be fitting to hold the conference in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, which is the decision-making center and a security front as well as an economic and social one.”