Ruth Amir – författare

The current surge of displaced and trafficked children, child soldiers, and child refugees rekindles the virtually dead letter of the Genocide Convention prohibition on transferring children of one group to another. This book focuses on the gap between genocide as a legal term and genocidal forcible child transfer as a catastrophic experience that disrupts a group’s continuity. It probes the Genocide Convention’s boundaries and draws attention to the diverse, yet highly similar, patterns of forcible child transfers cases such as colonial genocide in the US, Canada, and Australia, Jewish-Yemeni immigrants in Israel, children of Republican parents during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, and Operation Peter Pan in Cuba. The analysis highlights the consequences of the under-inclusive protection granted only to four groups. Ruth Amir argues effectively for the need to add an Amending Protocol to the Genocide Convention to protect from forcible transfer to children of any identifiable group of persons perpetrated with the intent to destroy the group as such. This proposed provision together with Communications and Rapid Inquiry Procedures will highlight the gravity of forcible child transfers and contribute to the prevention and punishment of genocide.

With the Holocaust resonating as the "thick background," historical redress processes in Israel render a particularly challenging case. The simultaneous concern the Jewish community has with past, present and future redress campaigns, as both victim and perpetrator, is unique. Who is Afraid of Historical Redress analyzes three cases of historical redress in Israel: the Yemeni children affair, the tinea capitis irradiations and the claims for the return of native land of the two Christian Palestinian villages of Iqrit and Bir''em. All three cases were redressed under the juridical edifice of legal thought and action. The outcomes suggest that these processes were insufficient for achieving closure by the victims, atonement by those responsible and reconciliation among social groups.

The Crisis of Israel’s Democracy, 1948 - 2025: Origins, Developments, and Consequences focuses on Israeli democracy, its deep historical origins, development over seven decades, long-term consequences, and possible resolutions. While most commentaries on Israel’s crisis focus on the proposals for judicial reform by the Netanyahu government, this study focuses on what it identifies as the fundamental problems of the Israeli regime—its ethnonational (rather than liberal-democratic) form, its lack of a written constitution undermines the country’s deeply divided society, the greatly dysfunctional relations between the secular majority and the sizeable Orthodox minority, and above all the seemingly permanent occupation of the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank. Peleg and Amir offer a broad perspective on these causes, covering the historical failures of the country’s founders, an analysis of Israel’s constitutional order and regime type, commentary on sociopolitical cleavages and the dominant social psychology of Israelis, and analysis of the charismatic populism of longtime Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The volume concludes with analyzing future scenarios and possible solutions for Israel’s democratic crisis. The Crisis of Israel’s Democracy offers the most comprehensive analysis of Israel’s democratic backsliding to date, comparing it to similar worldwide processes.

The Crisis of Israel''s Democracy, 1948 - 2025: Origins, Developments, and Consequences focuses on Israeli democracy, its deep historical origins, development over seven decades, long-term consequences, and possible resolutions. While most commentaries on Israel''s crisis focus on the proposals for judicial reform by the Netanyahu government, this study focuses on what it identifies as the fundamental problems of the Israeli regime-its ethnonational (rather than liberal-democratic) form, its lack of a written constitution undermines the country''s deeply divided society, the greatly dysfunctional relations between the secular majority and the sizeable Orthodox minority, and above all the seemingly permanent occupation of the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank. Peleg and Amir offer a broad perspective on these causes, covering the historical failures of the country''s founders, an analysis of Israel''s constitutional order and regime type, commentary on sociopolitical cleavages and the dominant social psychology of Israelis, and analysis of the charismatic populism of longtime Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The volume concludes with analyzing future scenarios and possible solutions for Israel''s democratic crisis. The Crisis of Israel''s Democracy offers the most comprehensive analysis of Israel''s democratic backsliding to date, comparing it to similar worldwide processes.

With the Holocaust resonating as the "thick background," historical redress processes in Israel render a particularly challenging case. The simultaneous concern the Jewish community has with past, present and future redress campaigns, as both victim and perpetrator, is unique. Who is Afraid of Historical Redress analyzes three cases of historical redress in Israel: the Yemeni children affair, the tinea capitis irradiations and the claims for the return of native land of the two Christian Palestinian villages of Iqrit and Bir'em. All three cases were redressed under the juridical edifice of legal thought and action. The outcomes suggest that these processes were insufficient for achieving closure by the victims, atonement by those responsible and reconciliation among social groups.