Institute for Zionist Strategies

Institute for Zionist Strategies

המכון לאסטרטגיה ציונית
Founded	2005; 20 years ago (2005)
Headquarters	Jerusalem, Israel
Key people	Yoel Golovenski, president Yoaz Hendel, Chairperson Miri Shalem, Chief executive officer
Website	IZS homepage

The Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy (formerly named Institute for Zionist Strategies) is a conservative Israeli think tank, founded and headed by prominent right-wing figures. It was established in 2005 by Israel Harel and Attorney Joel Golovensky, and is based in Jerusalem. Its chairman during the years 2013-2019 was Yoaz Hendel. As of 2023, it is headed by Meir Ben-Shabbat, and was renamed as Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy. Senior staff in the Misgav Institute have significant overlap with that of the Kohelet Policy Forum, including Kohelet chairman Moshe Koppel.

Activities

Some of the activities of the Institute include the following.

Constitutional Task Force

The Institution wrote a draft for a possible constitution, which was presented in 2006.^{[1][self-published source?]}.^{[2][better source needed]}. The draft constitution emphasizes the sections defining the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, and it significantly alters the relationship between the judicial authority and the legislative and executive authorities. The Constitutional Task Force listed among its members: Prof. Avraham Diskin, Prof. Moshe Koppel, Prof. Berachyahu Lifshitz, Judge (ret.) Uri Strosemn, Rabbi Dan Barry, Dr. Yitzhak Klein, Adv. Joel Golovensky and Israel Harel. This draft constitution was not adopted.

Foreign Funding for NGO's

This project studied more than 20 NGOs in Israel and their donors. The Institute, in collaboration with NGO Monitor, issued a joint report claiming that foreign governments were funding NGOs in Israel in order to influence Israeli policy and public debate.^[3] As a result, a bill was proposed to the Knesset requiring funding disclosure by NGOs receiving support from foreign political entities. The bill was approved in February 2011 and was not well received by the European Union.^[4]

Accusations of Bias in Academia

The IZS, as part of the research of Dr. Hanan Moses, examined the extent of "bias toward post-Zionist discourse" in sociology departments throughout Israeli universities and whether what the Institute views as the "Zionist narrative" is given equal treatment in Israeli academia. The investigation claimed that all Israeli universities except Bar-Ilan University have what the research describes as "post-Zionist bias" in their sociology departments. Those claims were compared by some to McCarthyism^[5][6]

References

1. IZS Draft Constitution: http://www.izs.org.il/eng/default.asp?father_id=169&catid=198 Archived 2012-03-31 at the Wayback Machine.
2. https://www.knesset.gov.il/protocols/data/html/huka/2006-11-26.html. ^{[bare URL]}
3. "NGO report: B'Tselem tops European funding list". The Jerusalem Post. 2 December 2009.
4. EU upset over Israeli bid to scan NGO funds. 9 September 2010: http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/israel-palestinian.61i
5. Im Tirtzu's onslaught / No to the thought police 18 August 2010: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/im-tirtzu-s-onslaught-no-to-the-thought-police-1.308670
6. McCarthyism in Tel Aviv 17 August 2010: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3938500,00.html).

External links

• Official website