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The article explores the long-term consequences of permissive constitutional arrangements, drawing on a comparative study of Israel, India and Sri Lanka. In all three countries, constitutional drafters at the foundational stage adopted permissive arrangements that avoided controversial decisions on conflicted identity-related issues. In all three cases, three to six decades after independence, the permissive constitutional approach was replaced by more decisive formal constitutional principles. Such unpermissive constitution making was meant to limit the range of options available for future legislation or constitutional interpretation by courts, and preferred nationalist, religious and ethnocentric identity. This article seeks to investigate why such developments occurred in the three countries, and what can be learned from them about the durability and normative advantages of permissive constitutional arrangements. Empirical analysis of the long-term consequences of permissive arrangements illustrates the limited durability that appeared to characterize some of these arrangements. The present assessment also reveals how in some cases, the main ideational conflict at the heart of the constitutional debates has shifted over the years. Nevertheless, the central argument put forth by this article is that, despite ongoing challenges, permissive constitutional arrangements should still be regarded as a valuable constitutional tool for advancing political compromise and facilitating stable democratic institutions. The analysis demonstrates the crucial role permissive constitutions may have as a political tool designed to circumvent violent conflicts and as an analytical tool, thereby offering insight into current constitutional conflicts over ideational issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of having an Arab university in the State of Israel is exceedingly controversial, but also of great value and political and cultural significance. Can such a dream become a reality in a state that defines itself as Jewish, as well as democratic? This article discusses the vision of establishing an Arab university, including the previous attempts to establish one, the barriers and obstacles encountered, the reality of inequality of academic rights, and how this dream might actually be brought to fruition. The creation of an Arab university could represent an important step in serving the needs of Israel's Arab citizens, promoting their status in the state, and protecting their identity, culture, and even existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, in divided societies, social entrepreneurship can be an effective strategy for regional development if it is integrated with conflict engagement. It views both social entrepreneurship and conflict engagement through a social constructionist lens and employs theory building methods from action research and programme theory evaluation. The argument is presented in the form of a 'programme theory of action', called the 'Studio for Social Creativity' that provides the conceptual and practical basis for promoting development in Israel's northern periphery, a region characterized by socio-economic stagnation as well as deep social divisions, especially between Jewish and Arab Palestinian inhabitants. The programme theory of action includes a description of the context, the problem framing, underlying assumptions, action strategies and intended outcomes. It hypothesizes that integrating social entrepreneurship and conflict engagement impacts regional development by redefining inter-group relationships, enhancing social networks, activating social capital, leveraging diversity and challenging existing power structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What, if any, is the value of sport to processes of peace and reconciliation? After introducing the largely rhetorical arguments for and against the value of using sport as a vehicle to promote peace building in divided societies, this article makes a more detailed and forensic examination of the evidence based on: the role played by sport in South Africa before and after apartheid; and second, drawing upon the author's own experiences garnered over more than two decades of conducting research and leading sport-based intervention initiatives in Northern Ireland and Israel. The article argues that sport is intrinsically value neutral and under carefully managed circumstances it can make a positive if modest contribution to peace building. The mobilization of an engaged sociological imagination in the context of a broader human rights agenda is central to this contribution. Drawing upon notions of pragmatism, left realism and praxis, the article concludes by presenting a 'ripple effect' model that illustrates the circumstances under which sport can make a difference in the promotion of social justice and human rights in deeply divided societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the puzzle of how societies still grappling over the common values and shared vision of their state draft a democratic constitution. It argues that an incrementalist approach to constitution-making enabled such deeply divided societies to enact either a written constitution or function with a material constitution by deferring controversial choices regarding the foundational aspects of the polity to future political institutions. It demonstrates how various types of incrementalist constitutional strategies – such as avoidance of clear decisions, the use of ambivalent and vague legal language, or the inclusion of contrasting provisions in the constitution – were deployed in the constitutional drafting of three deeply divided societies: India, Ireland and Israel. By importing the existing ideational conflicts into their constitutions, and by deviating from the common perception of constitution-making as a revolutionary moment, the framers in these three cases enabled their constitutions to reflect the divided identity of ‘the people’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remarkably little research has been conducted on policing in Israel. This is a major omission in the scholarly literature, given the security situation in the country and the role of policing in the control of the minority, Arab population. One specific deficiency in the literature is the limited research on police officers who come from minority ethnic groups - in Israel and elsewhere. According to the conventional wisdom and official policies in many multiethnic societies, ethnic diversification of a police force should improve police relations with minority populations - either because it will improve the overall treatment of the minority or because of its symbolic value. Yet this assumption has rarely been tested empirically. This article addresses this issue by examining survey data on citizens' attitudes towards Arab police officers in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]