Can Freedom of Expression Survive Social Trauma: The Israeli Experience

Abstract

This article aims to examine whether legal protection of political speech can survive social trauma. The United States is struggling with immense trauma in the wake of the horrible events of September 11, 2001. It is, however, too early to draw conclusions about the impact of the reaction to those events upon civil liberties in the United States. I will instead focus on two traumatic events in Israel's recent history. The first is the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 following a rally in support of the peace process initiated by the 1993 "Oslo Agreement." The second event occurred nearly two years earlier on February 25, 1994, when 29 Muslim worshippers praying in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron were massacred.

Keywords: political speech, U.S. 9/11, civil liberties, Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, Oslo Agreement