Issues

Peacekeeping in Israel: Towards an Open Society in Sustainable Democracy

Philip Stewart

Religiia i obshchestvo na Vostoke, Issue IV (2020), p. 162-183.

 
DOI: 10.31696/2542–1530–2020–4–162–183

The article discusses the opportunities and challenges faced by one of efforts for deepening democratic path in Israel, the Citizens Accord Forum (CAF) founded in 2002. The author has been an informal partner and advisor to the CAF director for the past eight years. The Forum conducts a range of projects, including an Arab-Jewish newspaper, a multi-ethnic youth center, work with the Knesset, the only large-scale public meeting regularly attended by prominent Jews and Arabs, known as the Jaffa Convention, as well as dozens of on-going groups of Arabs and Jews using deliberative dialogue to address or manage practical problems in their communities. The more precise formulation of CAF’s objectives is a shared society in a sustainable democracy. CAF understands democracy as a system of governance in which power comes from the ability of citizens to decide and act on shared concerns — beginning in their communities — and thus work to shape their common future, both through what they do with other citizens and through their institutions. The shared society and the sustainable democracy, are interdependent elements.

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Keywords: deliberative civil dialogue, civil values, religious freedom, equality and liberty, shared society, sustainable democracy, Citizens Accord Forum, Israel

Volume: 162-183

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