Institute for Zionist Strategies

A team of experts headed by Prof. Avraham Diskin that formulated the IZS draft constitution.[1] In preparation for the opening of the 17th Knesset, this task force gathered a number of academics, politicians, judges, rabbis and other public figures at the IZS and drafted a proposed constitution for the State of Israel. The detailed proposal includes the various components necessary to the constitution. 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 lists 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. In July 2006 the IZS submitted to the president and the Knesset its constitution, entitled "A Constitution for the State of Israel." The Constitution Committee attended the hearings conducted by the 17th Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, headed by MK Menahem Ben-Sasson.[2]

This project studied more than 20 NGOs in Israel and their donors. The Institute, in collaboration with NGO Monitor, issued a joint report, "Trojan Horse - The Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs", stating 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]

The Young Leadership Program initiated the Re-Signing by the 17th Knesset of the Declaration of Independence: On Independence Day, to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary, the IZS, led by the Young Leadership group of the Institute, asked all members of Knesset to show their faith in the values of Zionism, as expressed by the founders of the state Declaration of Independence by signing it, thereby affirming they would have signed it if they were present in 1948. Ninety MKs signed.[5]

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 the Zionist narrative is given equal treatment in Israeli academia. The investigation revealed that all Israeli universities except Bar-Ilan University have a clear post-Zionist bias in their sociology departments and this is particularly acute at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tel Aviv University. This study set off much criticism from far left-wing Israelis[6] who compared it to McCarthyism[7]