Israeli Civil Society during Crises and Wars

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

In times of crisis, when the regular routine is disturbed and service delivery, especially public services encounter difficulties, civil society is usually filling that gap. This is true for crises in general, such as natural disasters or pandemics; it is especially true in times of war.
During its 75 years of existence Israel has experienced several armed conflicts, some escalating into all-out wars. The activities of civil society during these wars have been studied in the past and its roles analyzed (Zaidise, 2008; Katz et.al., 2007; Kabalo, 2020).

From the perspective of civil society, the war in Gaza started at a time of heightened activity, mostly of a protest nature. The main issue was the defense of the democratic regime given attempts by the government to curtail it (Katz & Gidron, 2022). The war has stopped all those demonstrations and directed civil society’s energy to provide needed services to a variety of populations.

The panel will analyze civil society’s involvement during the war in Gaza from three conceptual perspectives: (1) a community resilience perspective; (2) a feminist perspective, and (3) serving elites perspective. These angles of civil society’s activities during war should help conceptualize its roles in other locations and around different crises.

References

Kabalo, P. (2020). Israeli Community Action: Living through the War of Independence, Bloomington, Indiana University Press

Katz, H., Elon, Y, Gidron, B., Yogev, H., Yaacobi, M., Levinson, E., Raviv, E. (2007). The Third Sector during the Second Lebanon War: Advantages, Limitations and Its Relations with the Government (Hebrew). Civil Society and The Third Sector in Israel, 1(1), pp. 39–64.

Katz, H. & Gidron B. (2022) Encroachment and Reaction of Civil Society in Non-liberal Democracies: The Case of Israel and the New Israel Fund, Nonprofit Policy Forum https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2020-0043

Zaidise, E. (2008). The Democratic Role, Function and Effect of Civil Society in Times of War: Learning from the Israeli Experience, Democracy and Security, 4 (1), 69-85

Sub Unit

• The role and position of the Third Sector during crises and conflicts

Moderator

• Mark Sidel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Individual Presentations

• Community Resilience 'under Fire' – How Israel Survived its War of Independence and is this Relevant for 2023? - Paula Kabalo, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Invisible Work at War”: What is Voluntary Work’s Role in Times of War? - Inbar Livnat

• The Dual Role of Serving Elites in Times of Crisis and Conflict - Benjamin Gidron, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Hagai Katz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev