The Palestinian Forum for Israeli StudiesA few weeks after Netanyahu's sixth government took office in Israel, massive demonstrations erupted against the right-wing judicial reform plan. The protest movement began to expand in the last week of March 2023, bringing nearly all facets of life to a standstill. It is evident from the general scene in Israel that the judicial reform plan aims to extend the settler, religious, and populist influence of the new right to other sectors within the deep state. This move is perceived as a profound and existential threat to Israel's democracy by many protesters. In this episode of Madar podcasts, Dr. Hassan Jabarin, director of the Legal Center for the Arab Minority Rights in Israel – Adalah, a lecturer at law schools, and a specialist in constitutional law, provides an in-depth analysis of the situation inside Israel. He explains who the opposing camps are, the real motives of the protesters, and the broader implications of the judicial reform plan.
This episode focuses on the structural changes that Netanyahu's sixth government seeks to introduce in the relationship between the legislative branch (the Knesset) and the judiciary (the Israeli Supreme Court), aiming to expand the powers of politicians and reduce the normative oversight role of the judiciary. Dr. Amtanes Shehadeh, former Knesset member and director of the policy unit at Mada al-Carmel Center, analyzes the consequences of the right-wing, religious, settler, and extremist Israeli government's assault on the judicial system. He explores how these changes aim to extend the government's hegemony over key state institutions and how this might impact the future of the occupation of the territories occupied in 1967.
This is the third episode in a series on Israeli elections, coming just days after the formation of Netanyahu's sixth government at the end of 2022. Antoine Shalhat, researcher and editor of the Israeli Scene Supplement at MADAR, reviews the Israeli government, its components, and the general policies guiding the coalition. He focuses on the consequences of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir's transition from the fringes of Israeli politics to central roles in government decision-making circles, highlighting the impact of their right-wing settler-religious extremism on the Israeli political landscape.
This is the second episode in the Israeli election series, part of the fourth season of the MADAR Podcast. In this episode, we host Barhoum Jeraisy, a researcher specializing in the political map in Israel, to discuss the electoral system. Jeraisy will explain how to prepare for an election round in Israel, the vote counting system, and the procedures for assigning a candidate to form a government after the vote count is completed.
The first episode of the "Israeli Elections Series" presents a comprehensive overview of all political parties in Israel, their positions on the Palestinian issue, their electoral size, and their place on the political-partisan map inside Israel. Our guest in this episode is Mr. Antoine Shalhat, editor of the Israeli scene at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies- MADAR. He provides a detailed explanation of the partisan identities of all players in the Israeli political arena. This series will continue to publish episodes successively, dissecting the entire political situation in Israel. It aims to provide a critical understanding of the electoral process, partisan differences, and explanations about the electoral system and other related topics.
