Kohelet Policy Forum

The Kohelet Policy Forum (KPF or Kohelet; Hebrew: פורום קהלת) is a conservative, right-wing Israeli nonprofit think tank.[1][2][3][4][5] It was 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.[6][7]

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

The KPF has three main goals, according to its website: 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.[8]

Jewish national policy

Judicial policy

The forum encourages democratic accountability and judicial responsibility, while discouraging unjust judicial activism and the undue legalization of the public realm.[9] Their work underpins the 2023 Judicial reform in Israel, although Chairman Koppel has come out against the "override clause".

However, The KPF does not come out against the Supreme Court as an institution and has filed friend of the court briefs in a number of appeals.[10]

Economic policy

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. 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."[11]

Network

The KPF founded the Shiloh Policy Forum, a settlement organisation, and pays the salaries of three of its staff. In February 2023, Kohelet research fellow Avital Ben-Shelomo became director general of the Education Ministry of Israel. Both founders of Next Generation – Parents for Choice in Education are KPF researchers. Several other NGOs, including the Coalition for Autonomy in Education, Choosing Educations, Tacharut – the Movement for Freedom of Employment (which works against the Histadrut), Our Interes – Your Lobby in the Knesset, Hamerchav Shelanu ("Our Space"), are also part of the KPF network, although the links are not widely publicised. The KPF trained a group of anti-LGBTQ groups. The Civil Society Forum is connected to KPF. The Israeli Immigration Policy Center has worked alongside KPF.[12]

Funding

According to its own account, KPF is a non-governmental organization which relies only on private donations and does not accept public funds from any government, domestic or foreign.[13]

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.[14] Haaretz identified Jewish American billionaires Jeff Yass and Arthur Dantchik as the Forum's principal donors.[15][16] The Forum's legislative research, policy papers, and other research based products[17] are offered to Israeli decision makers for free.

References
  1. David M. Weinberg: How did Kohelet Forum become Israel's dynamic think tank? Jerusalem Post, 3 December 2022.
  2. Shuki Sadeh: "The Right-wing Think Tank That Quietly ‘Runs the Knesset’." In: Haaretz, 5 October 2018
  3. Meirav Arlosoroff: "Israel’s Most Influential Think Tank Puts Agenda Over Data." In: Haaretz, 22 January 2023
  4. Philissa Cramer and Ron Kampeas: Advocates for Netanyahu's judicial reforms are increasingly pressing their case in English Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 26 January 2023
  5. [Jewish American tycoons are financing far-right policies in the US and Israel] Middle East Monitor, 12 March 2021.
  6. "Kohelet Policy Forum - Home Page". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  7. Misgav, Uri (2014-02-23). "Bennett urges 'zero tolerance' for Israeli Arabs' national aspirations". Haaretz. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  8. Jeremy, Yonah (2014-02-23). "Bennett: Zero tolerance for national identity besides Jewish". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  9. "Kohelet Policy Forum - Home Page". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  10. Israeli Supreme Court decision 9149/10 regarding KPF's application to join as friend of the court
  11. Zehava Galon: חברה חופשית אינה מחביאה את הנשים בה / Gender Segregation at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University Is Just the Start Haaretz, 4 July 2021.
  12. Shuki Sadeh: הזרועות של קהלת: אלה העמותות והגופים שפועלים סביב הגוף המשפיע בימין In: Haaretz, 2 February 2023 / "The Kohelet Tentacles: Inside the Web Surrounding the Right-wing Think Tank." In: Haaretz, 12 February 2023.
  13. "פורום קהלת (ע"ר)". Kohelet.org.il. 2008-07-16. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  14. Shuki Sadeh (October 5, 2018). "The Right-wing Think Tank That Quietly 'Runs the Knesset'". Haaretz.
  15. "Jewish American tycoons are financing far-right policies in the US and Israel". Middle East Monitor. 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  16. "The U.S. billionaires secretly funding the right-wing effort to reshape Israel". Haaretz. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  17. 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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