The Israeli Far Right: A Comparative View

Focus Week am Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS): Facing the Far-Right/ Zum Aufstieg der Rechten

Talk by Charlotte Wiedemann (LIAS public fellow) in English

In Israel, political parties and societal groups from the extreme right have gained substantial influence over the last two decades. This is visible today within the political executive power as well as in the wider society: About 30 percent support far right opinion patterns, according to recent Israeli surveys. On the one hand, right-wing extremism in Israel shares some similarities with the same phenomenon in other countries, on the other hand and more importantly we see specific features born out of the particularities of a Jewish state, the Jewish history of annihilation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The topic of "land" and the right to land play a major role in an ideological landscape where radical settlers` influence has moved from the fringes of society to its central institutions.

In Germany, with its close ties to Israel due to the history of the Shoah, serious research on this topic is underdeveloped. When the issue is addressed in media or public discourse, usually critical Israeli scholars or activists are invited to speak - which points once again to a particularity: In spite of the growing far right influence the freedom of opinion and the academic freedom still exist for Jewish Israelis to a large extend.