Israeli Strategic Forum

Introduction
News & Publications
Team

From 2006 to 2015 ORG partnered with Israeli institution, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, to host a series of workshops to grapple with under-discussed issues within Jewish-Israeli society. The project created a new framework for a national dialogue in Israel and an active thinking group from across the spectrum Jewish-Israeli communities. Participants in the project came from different social, political, professional and geographic arenas in Israeli society with access to a multiplicity of networks and creative expertise. The focus was on equality in Israel and aimed to inform Israeli policy making, by connecting real-time politics to repercussions and ramifications of decisions at the local, national and even international levels.

The project advanced the equality debate while prioritising high-level engagement. In 2010, the Israeli Strategic Forum produced The Time is Ripe, which recounts the results of a series of workshops involving Jewish-Israeli citizens that encouraged in-depth collective thinking on the nature of the Israeli state how it should develop a fruitful and peaceful relationship with Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Palestinian people and its wider neighbourhood.

Between 2017 and 2020, with EU funding, together with Israeli partner I’lam (Arab Center for Media Freedom Development and Research), ISF is taking a new approach which seeks external expert advice through the commissioning of policy papers which will then be discussed at workshops and then used as the basis for a comprehensive Israeli strategic report. The report will be widely disseminated in the hope that it will inform and impact Israeli discourse and policy.

The Israeli Strategic Forum project is supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

Photo credits © Judah Passow

Publication: 17 May 2017

ORG Evidence on UK Policy Towards the Middle East Peace Process

Oxford Research Group (ORG) recently submitted evidence to a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into UK’s policy towards the Middle East Peace Process. Read more »

Publication: 4 December 2012

Israeli Strategic Forum: Paths to a More Equal Israel

The Israeli Strategic Forum (ISF), convened by the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, in partnership with Oxford Research Group (ORG), has met twice in Israel in November 2012. The group includes leading figures from across the whole spectrum of Israeli society. The intense discussions unpacked the issues that divide Israeli Jewish society. The topics discussed include, among others, gender relations, religious-secular tensions, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi hierarchies, and issues of inequality between Jewish and Palestinian Citizens of Israel. Read more »

Publication: 13 February 2012

Middle East Project: Palestinian Citizens of Israel

Our Middle East programme has launched a new project engaging with the "forgotten Palestinians", the 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel. Since the ongoing conflict in the region has always focussed on Israel’s relationship with Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and the neighbouring Arab states, the Palestinian citizens of Israel have been neglected as a national, religious, linguistic and cultural minority. However, Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about 20% of the population of Israel, and are both key to the peace process, as well as deeply affected by any future settlement. Still, they have so far not been given a real voice to contribute to processes and negotiations that will affect their future. In close consultation with local partners and prospective participants, we have shaped a new project that will seriously engage with the issues of the Palestinians in Israel. We aim to foster inclusive internal dialogue among Palestinians in Israel to develop a strategic vision in order to impact policy-making in Israel and internationally. Read more »