This episode explores what kind of democracy is being defended in Israel today. Who are the supporters of the ruling coalition and what explains the popular appeal of the right-wing parties? Listen to a discussion with a wide historical context about the present political crisis, which many scholars have called a constitutional coup.
Guests featured in this episode:
Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani is a Senior Research Fellow at the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Tel Aviv University. Shenhav-Shahrabani has taught at Stanford, Princeton and Columbia Universities, among others. He is the editor-in-chief of Van Leer’s “Maktoob” series of translations from Arabic, and the editor-in-chief of the “Theory and Criticism in Context” series. He was head of advanced studies at Van Leer and edited its journal, “Theory and Criticism.” He also chaired the Horowitz Institute for Social Research and is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study in France.
His English language books include “The Arab Jews” (2006) and “Beyond the Two State Solution” (2012). Born in an Iraqi-Jewish family, Yehouda is one of the founders of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, an extra-parliamentary movement which has sought to challenge the ethnic structure of Israeli society.
