Dr. Ilan Saban

Dr. Ilan Saban, Faculty of Law, University of Haifa

I view myself as a researcher-participant – a somewhat paradoxical term used to describe an individual who is engaged in deciphering elements of reality with detached sobriety and, at the same time, seeks to change this reality in accordance with a value-system to which he or she is already committed – in my case, liberalism and humanism.

On a concrete level, for almost three decades I have been researching and teaching about law’s role in the divisions that characterize Israeli society, particularly the national divide, and about the state of human rights in Israel. At the same time, I have strived to help rectify the injustices I observe in life in Israel.

My academic writing deals with the legal status of Israel’s Palestinian-Arab minority; the status of the Arabic language in Israel in comparative perspective; democracy and risk-taking; and the triangular relationship between the state, the country’s Palestinian-Arab minority, and the portion of the Palestinian People that are subject to Israeli occupation.

I also teach courses on public law and law in multicultural dilemmas in Israel, serve as the academic supervisor of the Clinic for the Rights of the Palestinian-Arab Minority, and have been serving as editor of the faculty journal Law and Government in Israel [Mishpat Umimshal] for a number of years. I also periodically assist human rights organizations on a voluntary basis.

Articles

• Ilan Saban “Further Down the Slope: Conditioning Decisions about Territorial Withdrawal from the West Bank, Jerusalem or the Golan Heights upon a ‘Special Majority’” Mishpat U’Mimshal (expected 2022) (Hebrew).
• Ilan Saban “Down the Slope: Proposals for ‘Special Majority’ in Territorial Downsizing Decisions“, (Hebrew), in Constitutionalism, Constitution Making and Sovereignty: A Theoretical and Comparative View (editors: Amal Jamal, Nava Sonnenschein, Ameer Fakhoury) (2020).
• Smadar Ben-Natan, Ilan Saban, Hadar Mednick, Kela Sappir, Tomer Barazani-Shaikevitch, “Too Great a Burden to Bear: Appointing Special Advocates to Challenge Secret Evidence“, Hukkim (expected 2022) (Hebrew).
• Ilan Saban, Gilat Wizel-Saban and Netanel Metzger, “Art, Law and Racism: Following the Film ‘Crash’”, Alei Mishpat (2022) (Hebrew).
• Ilan Saban “The Political Counter-Reaction to the ‘Constitutional Revolution.’” In The Public Sphere 13: 13-37 (2018) (Hebrew).
• Barak Medina and Ilan Saban, “On A People, Its Rifts, and Aspirations for Unification: The Ruling on the Law to Pardon Those Who Broke Laws in the Context of Opposition to the Disengagement Plan.” In Law, Minority, and National Conflict, edited by Raef Zreik and Ilan Saban (“Law, Society, and Culture” Series). Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University, 375-388 (2017) (Hebrew).
• Theorizing and Tracing the Legal Dimensions of A Control Framework: Law and the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israel’s First Three Decades (1948-1978), 25(1) EMORY INT’L L. REV 299-378 (2011)
• Citizenship and its Erosion: Transfer of Populated Territory and Oath of Allegiance in the Prism of Israeli Constitutional Law , LAW AND ETHICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS (2010)
• After the Storm? The Israeli Supreme Court and the Arab-Palestinian Minority in the Aftermath of October 2000, ISRAEL AFFAIRS 14(4): 623-639 (2008)
• Appropriate Representation of Minorities: Canada’s Two Types Structure and the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israel , PENN STATE INT’L L. Rev. 24: 563-594 (2006)
• Minority Rights in Deeply Divided Societies: A Framework for Analysis and the Case of the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israel NYU J. of International Law & Politics, 36: 885-1003 (2004)
• The Status of Arabic in Israel: Reflections on the Power of Law to Produce Social Change Ilan Saban and Muhammad Amara, ISRAEL L. Rev. 36(2): 5-39 (with Muhammad Amara) (2004)
• Offensiveness Analyzed: Lessons for Comparative Analysis of Free Speech Doctrines The J. of INT’L & COMP. LAW at CHICAGO-KENT 2: 62-83 (2002)
• Allocation of Speech Resources and Influence on Culture in a Deeply-Divided Society going through Transition: a Municipal Theater in a growingly Ultra-Orthodox City [Hebrew], Iynei Mishpat 33: 473-504 (2010)
• Transfer of Sovereignty over Populated Territory and Conditioning of the Right to Vote upon an Oath of Allegiance: Moral Considerations and Constitutional Hurdles [Hebrew], Hapraklit 51: 105-138 (2011)
• On Human Rights and Risk-Taking Democracy, Ethnic Profiling, and the Requirements of the Limitation Clause (Following the SC Decision re the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Act) , Barak Medina and Ilan Saban [Hebrew],Mishpatim 39: 47-113 (2009)
• Law and the Arab-Palestinian Minority in the First Three Decades of the State: The Control Framework, Mechkarey Mishpat 24: 565-637 [Hebrew] (2008)
• “To widen the Space”? Barak Medina and Ilan Saban, On the Right of Member of Knesset to Support an Objection to the Occupation [Hebrew] ,Mishpatim 37:219-251 (2007)
• “The Muddy Lure of the Bi-National Option” Proceedings of a Roundtable: Multiculturalism and the Challenges of Differentiated Citizenship in Israel, held in The Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel-Aviv University [Hebrew] (2006)
• State or Family? The Citizenship and Entry to Israel Act (Temporary Order) 2003 with Guy Davidov, Jonatan Yovel and Amnon Reichman, Mishpat U’mimshal 8: 643-699 [Hebrew] (2005)
• On Two Types of Appropriate Representation Theoretical Framework, the Canadian Case and Initial Comparison with Israel Ilan Saban and Scot Streiner, Labor, Society and Law 11, pp.247-273 [Hebrew] (2005)
• The Arab-Palestinian Minority and the Supreme Court: A Portrayal (and Prognosis) not in Black and White Ilan Saban, Mishpat U’Mimshal 8: 23-47 [Hebrew] (2005)
• In the Aftermath of Barbarism? Emergency Powers in the ‘Morning After’, in M. Benvenisti (ed.), The Morning After – No Utopia, Carmel and The Truman Institute, Hebrew University pp. 63-94 [Hebrew] (2002)
• The Status of Arabic in Israel: Reflections on the Power of Law to Produce Social Change Ilan Saban and Muhammad Amara, Medina v’Hevra 4: 885-910 [Hebrew] (2002)
• The Minority Rights of the Palestinian-Arabs In Israel: What Is, What Isn’t and What Is Taboo Ilan Saban, Iyunei Mishpat 26: 241-319 [Hebrew] (2002)
• Up to the Limit of the Zionist Paradigm in Ozacky-Lazar et al (eds.), Seven Roads: Theoretical Options for the Status of the Arabs in Israel, the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, Givat Haviva, pp. 79-122 [Hebrew] (1999)
• The impact of the Supreme Court on the Status of the Arabs in Israel Ilan Saban, Mishpat U’Mimshal 3: 541-569 [Hebrew] (1996)
• Justice Elon: Law and World-View, Mishpat Umimshal, 153-158 (January 1994) [Hebrew] (1994)

• LL.D, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000
• LL.M, American University, Washington D.C., 1989
• B.A. (Humanities), 1985
• LL.B. Tel Aviv University, 1985

Specialization

• Human Rights/ Minority Rights
• Law & Sociaty
• Comparative Constitutional Law

Clinical Activities

• 1992-2001, Academic Supervisor, Legal Aid Clinics (in civil maters)
• 2006-2010, 2012-present, Academic Supervisor, Clinic for the Rights of the Arab-Palestinian Minority