This Special Issue is dedicated to the study of public policies in Israel. The issue illustrates the dynamics, specific character, and complexity of policy approaches to diverse issues in Israel. Our aim is to analyze challenges and offer practical remedies. By focusing on public policies, we highlight concepts and strategies of policy management. We also offer recommendations for improving the understanding of some intricate issues and, ipso facto, social conditions in a number of spheres.

This issue is the result of a collaboration between the Association of Israel Studies and its sister organization the European Association of Israel Studies. Together we held, in March 2021, our first joint workshop on Public Policies in Israel. We brought together sixteen scholars interested in all spheres of public policy: culture, society, economy, religion, technology, and security. These were scholars from Israeli, European, American, and Indian universities. Analyzing decision-making mechanisms from different angles helps identify tendencies that permeate the political system and, indeed, society at large.

Israel is not an ordinary country. It is a land of contradictions, schemes, and tensions. It is the only Jewish country in the world. From its inception, it has adopted a democratic system of ruling while maintaining a constant state of emergency for over seventy years. Since 1967, Israeli leaders think it is possible to maintain the democratic character of the country while maintaining the military occupation in the West Bank. Violence, manifested in wars and terror, is a constant presence that prevents tranquility. Israel is a world leader in innovations and investment in research and development, but it also nurtures the anti-modern Haredi community. It was founded on socialist principles but has adopted many capitalist principles, trying to accommodate the tensions between the two isms, socialism and capitalism. Although Israel is aspiring to be perceived as liberal, there is no separation between state and religion, and the liberal-democratic values of liberty, equality, and tolerance are constantly challenged by Orthodox Judaism that has a monopoly on many important social services for Jewish citizens, including personal family affairs: birth, marriage, divorce, and death. Judaism and liberalism are not easily reconcilable.

The contributions in this Special Issue offer an in-depth reflection on how the Israeli government and other state institutions define principles, rules, and guidelines established to address specific problems (Howlett and Cashore 2014). Acknowledging that public policies are developed and implemented first and foremost to achieve specific objectives, the authors examined carefully and critically the shape, content, and development trends of specific public policies. They also constructively assess adopted policy solutions and offer new policies.

Public policies are aimed to protect and enhance public health and rights of individuals and groups, distribute wealth and resources, reconcile conflicting claims for scarce resources, encourage and foster cooperation between different organizations, manage societal assets, prevent disasters and calamities, and prohibit morally unacceptable conduct. Public policies may take many forms: stipulated in laws, regulatory measures, funding, and course of action. Actors include governmental bodies, NGOs, interest groups, and the judicial system.

Israel is a highly centralized society. The public sphere is under constant pressure of politicization (Palonen et al. 2019). On many occasions, public policy agenda becomes an object of political rivalry, and the management of specific policy areas is opened to political bargaining. Israel is also a highly fragmented society, where the political system is based on proportional representation. All governments since the birth of Israel were coalition governments. The coalition in 2023 (as of October 27) is comprised of Likud (right-wing party), National Unity (since October 12, 2023, a liberal party), Shas (an ultra-Orthodox party of Mizrachi origins), Religious Zionism (an Orthodox party), United Torah Judaism (an ultra-Orthodox party of Ashkenazi origins), and Jewish Power and Noam (two extreme right-wing religious parties). The present opposition to the government is comprised of Yesh Atid (liberal party), Labor (social-democratic party), Israel Is Our Home (ethnic party representing mainly immigrants from the former Soviet Union), and Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am (two Arab parties). The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, is thus comprised of twelve factions. Each has its own agenda. Each is pushing for policies aimed to better the best interests of its constituents. The history of Israel's state- and nation-building as well as its cultures and religions greatly affect its style of governance.

The first two articles in this Special Issue are concerned with different policy aspects of Israel's dealing with COVID-19. In “Decisiveness in Domestic Public Policies: Case Studies of Israeli Gas Fields Development and COVID-19 Pandemic Response,” Artur Skorek argues that Israel has traditionally been resolute and decisive in the implementation of its policies. He examines two case studies: the development of offshore gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean and the COVID-19 pandemic containment strategy. Both cases show similarities in decisive and extraordinary measures that the government attempted to use. At the same time, in the first case study the effort was mostly unsuccessful while in the second one Israel's pandemic response was quick, relatively rigorous, and successful.

In “Tracking and Tracing in Israel during COVID-19: Balancing between the Need to Protect Public Health and Individual Right to Privacy,” Raphael Cohen-Almagor and Eldar Haber analyze the Israeli government's decision to allow the internal security agency (known as ISA or SHABAC/SHABAK) to collect data for tackling the spread of COVID-19. The article discusses the track-and-trace method in light of constitutional standards. In doing so, it echoes the call for democracies to refrain from using such draconian measures that are dangerous for civil rights and liberties and could further normalize governmental surveillance beyond the scope of national security. Notably, the authors propose an alternative model of using the tracing technology by considering the obligation to preserve human life and the right to individual privacy among other rights and liberties, arguing that measures infringing on the right to privacy must be effectively restricted in time and meet standards of necessity, proportionality, and scientific validity. The authors argue that respect for the dignity of the person requires socially responsible contact tracing technologies and applications guided by the rationale of balancing. The government needs to balance one against the other the right to health versus the right to privacy. The balancing act should be done in a socially responsible manner to ensure that individual privacy is not infringed upon unnecessarily (Cohen-Almagor et al. 2012).

The following two articles concern state and religion. Niva Golan-Nadir's study “State Management of Unpopular Religious Public Policies in Israel: A Comparative Outlook” questions the strategies used by state institutions to maintain their unpopular policies. She wonders to what extent citizens are content with these strategies and offers a model for classifying various methods that state institutions use to manage unpopular policies. The article examines three cases of religion-based policies in Israel: marriage, public transportation on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), and kosher food inspection in public institutions. In each case, State institutions employ different policy measures to mitigate societal discontent without changing the core of the policy itself.

In turn, Laura Wharton in “Israel's Management of the Western Wall: Deconstructing Policy” addresses the power struggle over the Western Wall, the most important site in Judaism. Immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War, different bodies sought to win control over the site. These included the Minister of Building, the Mayor of Jerusalem, the Department of Antiquities, the Parks Authority, the Jewish Agency, and the Knesset. Wharton explains how the Western Wall's current status is the outcome of decisions that led to the subsuming of the national-historical significance of the Western Wall into a narrow, religious one. Religious authorities have been taking charge of the site. The article presents viable policy alternatives to the existing paradigm and suggests that the current status of the Wall is an outlier relative to mainstream public opinion, in conflict with public opinion.

The next article, written by Karolina Zielińska, is titled “Israeli Policy of Prevention and Response to Oil Spills on Land and Sea: The Role of Non-Governmental Entities.” The article focuses on tracing the rights, activities, and impact on policymaking and implementation the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have. Zielińska assesses public policy structures and practices, highlighting the role and importance of NGOs in shaping public discourse and undertaking actions on issues of public concern. Zielińska argues that NGOs provide vital resources and play an important role in sharing information, lobbying, litigating, and direct action. The article provides a broad overview of the oil infrastructure in Israel, discusses the legal and practical fundaments of oil spill prevention and response policy, and analyses two case studies of oil-related accidents, demonstrating the intricacies of non-governmental entities’ involvement patterns.

Finally, Tal Dekel and Lior Elefant's article “The Role of Public Policy in Gender Inequality in the Arts in Israel” deals with Israel's cultural policy and public funding for the arts in two specific fields: the plastic arts, that is, sculpture, painting, photography, and so on, and the film industry, that is, documentary and fiction, both short and full-length movies. The article takes a gender perspective, focusing on obstacles women artists face when trying to access public budgets for the arts. The study applies intersectional analysis—a perspective that considers gender, ethnicity, class, religion, and nationality—to refine the analysis of the data and explore the ways public policy affect women of various social backgrounds. The authors contend that women artists are affected by multifaceted power dynamics, reinforced by the economic factor and also by socially constructed patterns of behavioral preferences. Dekel and Elefant further argue that although all female artists are affected by public policy of the arts and are disadvantaged relative to male artists, some women artists are more affected and harmed than others—depending on their social position. The article concludes with suggestions for improving public policy for the arts.

This Special Issue offers a timely and important contribution analysis to the study of public policies in Israel as well as recommendations for policy amendments. Therefore, it may be of value not only to the scholarly community but also to public policy actors, primarily politicians and public servants. The insights and the specific policy proposals open a scope for further deliberation and discussion by interested parties. We trust that many more volumes on Israeli public policy will follow.