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Civil Disobedience: The Israeli Experience

Civil Disobedience: The Israeli Experience
ISBN
9781557789167
Weight
1.30 lbs
Cover
Paper

Pages
304

Size
6x9

Date Available
2015/02/26


Index , Notes , Bibliography
        
Price:
$24.95 (24.95)
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"Civil Disobedience is a serious and stimulating technical work that will surely find its audience in law schools and universities."—Morton Merowitz, The Jewish Book Council

THE WAVES OF SOCIAL PROTEST in Israel and around the world have led to a heated public debate on questions of obeying the law. Chemi Ben-Noon’s inspiring book describes the actions of individuals and organizations in Israel that have broken the law for ideological reasons or engaged in civil disobedience. It characterizes the methods of protest, and deals particularly with civil disobedience, an act of breaking the law for political reasons aimed ata change inpublic policy. The book characterizes the responsible citizen in a democratic state as loyal to the state and the regime, and the purpose of his or her illegal action is actually to preserve the legal system and democratic regime. That responsible citizen is opposed by those who prefer to represent civil disobedience as a threat to the regime. However, this approach could lead to serious damage to the state, leaving two dangerous alternatives: passivity and apathy, or rebellion and revolution.

The book’s important contribution to the legal and public debate is in seeing civil disobedience as an interpretative instrument that stretches and clarifies the boundaries of democracy. Civil disobedience is not ideological criminality, and does not lead to anarchy. What leads to chaos is precisely the blind application of the law and blind obedience to it, since there are many more injustices resulting from blind obedience to the law than from refusing to obey it. Furthermore, history shows that after the waves of civil disobedience have calmed down, the society becomes more just and egalitarian. Therefore, a strong democratic state can withstand protests on the boundary of the law, and sometimes even those that break it, while the law enforcement agencies turn a blind eye. The author wishes the protest, of either type, to be conducted without bloodshed, but consistently, determinedly, and forcefully, so that the democratic state returns to its legal owners—the people.

Questions about civil disobedience and the responsibilities of citizens in democratic societies continue to provoke passionate debate. Ben Noon's book places one of the most urgent political topics of the 21st century into much needed context. Readers everywhere will benefit from this far-reaching work.— Patrick Hayden, Professor of Political Theory and International Relations, University of St Andrews

Gandhi and Martin Luther King emphasized the value of civil disobedience in responding to the harmful policies of states and of institutions. Civil Disobedience by Chemi ben Noon provides an unequalled body of experience that teachers can relate to current problems in a large number of current arenas.—Morton A. Kaplan distinguished service professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago

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