Kohelet Policy Forum

The Kohelet Policy Forum (KPF) (Hebrew: פורום קהלת) is an Israeli nonprofit think tank. Founded in January 2012 by Professor Moshe Koppel, who now serves as the Forum’s chairman, together with several Israeli academics such as Avraham Diskin, Avi Bell, Emmanuel Navon and Yitzhak Klein, public figures, intellectuals and activists.[1][2]

Kohelet Policy Forum
פורום קהלת‎
Formation2012
TypePublic Policy Think Tank
HeadquartersAm Ve'olamo 8
Location
  • Jerusalem
Chairman
Moshe Koppel
WebsiteKohelet.org.il

Mission

The KPF website states that the organization has three main goals: to secure Israel's future as the nation-state of the Jewish people, to strengthen representative democracy, and to broaden individual liberty and free-market principles in Israel.

In pursuit of the first aim, the forum has promoted the Basic Law proposal: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.[3] In addition it encourages democratic accountability and judicial responsibility, while discouraging unjust judicial activism and the undue legalization of the public realm.[4] However, The KPF does not come out against the supreme court as an institution and has filed a friend of the court briefs in a number of appeals.[5]

A dedicated unit within KPF, the Kohelet Economic Forum, is particularly focused on the pursuit of the third goal: broadening individual liberty and free-market principles. KEF, headed by former senior Treasury official Michael Sarel, has a staff of economists and has published dozens of detailed policy papers on economic policies in Israel.

Criticism

In July 2021, Zehava Galon wrote in Haaretz that the Kohelet Policy Forum “with foreign funding, is trying to turn Israel into a fundamentalist state under the guise of liberalism”.[6]

Resources

KPF is a non-governmental organization which relies only on private donations and does not accept public funds from any government, domestic or foreign.[7] The largest donations have been made anonymously, and amount to several million dollars sent through an American nonprofit organization called American Friends of Kohelet Policy Forum.[8] An investigative article published at "Haaretz" presented conjectures regarding the identify of some major donors, but neither KPF nor the individuals named in the article confirmed these conjectures.[9][10] The Forum’s legislative research, policy papers, and other research based products[11] are offered to Israeli decision makers for free.

References
  1. "Kohelet Policy Forum - Home Page". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  2. Misgav, Uri (2014-02-23). "Bennett urges 'zero tolerance' for Israeli Arabs' national aspirations - National Israel News". Haaretz. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  3. Jeremy, Yonah (2014-02-23). "Bennett: Zero tolerance for national identity besides Jewish | JPost | Israel News". JPost. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  4. "Kohelet Policy Forum - Home Page". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  5. Israeli Supreme Court decision 9149/10 regarding KPF's application to join as friend of the court
  6. Zehava Galon: חברה חופשית אינה מחביאה את הנשים בה / Gender Segregation at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University Is Just the Start Haaretz, 4 July 2021.
  7. "פורום קהלת (ע"ר)". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  8. Shuki Sadeh (October 5, 2018). "The Right-wing Think Tank That Quietly 'Runs the Knesset'". Haaretz.
  9. "Jewish American tycoons are financing far-right policies in the US and Israel". Middle East Monitor. 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  10. "The U.S. billionaires secretly funding the right-wing effort to reshape Israel". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  11. Jerusalem Post, Dr. Aviad Bakshi, the director of legal affairs at the Kohelet Policy Forum who argues that Arabic is not an official language in practice


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