Risk avoidance and missed opportunities in mental health reform: the case of Israel

Passage of the National Health Insurance Law (NHI) [National Health Insurance Law (NHI) (1994). Israel Law Code, 1469, 156 (Hebrew).] provided a window of opportunity for mental health reform in Israel. The reform called for transfer, within a period of 3 years, of responsibility for psychiatric services formerly provided mostly by the Ministry of Health, to Israel's four major healthcare providers. Planners of mental health reform in Israel saw in the NHI Law an opportunity to bring about far-reaching structural changes in mental health policy and service provision, shifting the locus of care from psychiatric hospitals to the community. This paper reports results of a case study assessing factors that hindered or promoted the planned reform. The theoretical and conceptual framework of the study was derived from public policy theories and in particular on those related to public agenda and agenda setting processes. The study was also informed by organizational and interorganizational theories and exchange theory. Data was gathered from documents and interviews of key informants. Sources of data included official reports, proceedings of Knesset's Labor and Social Affairs (LSA) Committee, Ministry of Health documents, healthcare providers' reports, budget documents, newspaper analysis, and about 60 interviews with persons who played important roles in the process of the negotiations regarding the reform efforts. Analysis identified the major stakeholders and their concerns, distinguishing between the key stakeholders involved directly in the negotiations and secondary or additional stakeholders outside the main circle, some of whom were very involved and influential in the process. The study identified the major issues and the problems that emerged during the process of negotiations. Analysis of the failure of the attempt to implement the reform reveals a combination of obstacles emanating from the process of negotiation, on the one hand, and from the larger political, economic and social context, on the other. Findings show that conflict of interests and risk avoidance of the major stakeholders were major obstacles to reaching agreement on a formula for implementation. The major risks were related to the inability to predict future demand for ambulatory services, uncertainty regarding future costs, and disagreements regarding the reliability and validity of data. Contextual factors that undermined the chances for successful implementation of the reform included lack of a strong political commitment and a coalition supporting the reform, a financial crisis in the health system resulting from early stages of implementation of the National Health Insurance Law, and social turmoil created by the Rabin government's attempts to implement the Oslo agreements. This turmoil ultimately culminated in the assassination of the Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, creating a climate far from conducive to generating public interest in mental health reform and facilitating the planned change. As a result the mental health system remained virtually unchanged.     

The right to be forgotten: The Israeli version

The right to be forgotten and erase, originally introduced in the well-known case of Google Spain, has caused considerable legal debates on both theoretical and procedural issues. The Israeli Supreme Court has also just recently considered the issue when it was asked to enforce the right to be forgotten of an Israeli advocate, Jonathan Miller, and delist harmful information which appeared in a Google search, and was in truth related to a different adv. Jonathan Miller. The plaintiff relied on the Israeli Prohibition of Defamation Law. Liability was denied on the basis that the information was indeed true, and thus- justified. We suggest in this article that the court should have imposed liability in negligence, an open ended general tort that mainly applies when particular torts fail to supply a reasonable and just solution in new factual situations due to change in social, economic and technological circumstances.     

Book reviews

Robert O. Freedman, Soviet Policy Toward the Middle East Since 1970. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. ix+198 pp. $16.50 or $5.95 (paperback).

R. D. McLaurin, The Middle East in Soviet Policy. Toronto and London: D. C. Heath, 1975. xiv+206 pp. £6.75.

Roger E. Kanet (ed.), The Soviet Union and the Developing Nations. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1974. 293 pp. $12.50.

Robert R. King and Robert W. Dean (eds.), East European Perspectives on European Security and Cooperation. New York: Praeger, and London: Pall Mall, 1974. xxi+254 pp. £7.25.

Louis J. Mensonides and James A. Kuhlman (eds.), The Future of Inter‐Bloc Relations in Europe. New York: Praeger, and London: Pall Mall, 1974. xiii+217 pp. £7.25.

J. F. N. Bradley, Civil War in Russia 1917–1920. London: Batsford, 1975. 197 pp. £6.50.

Canfield F. Smith, Vladivostok under Red and White Rule. Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Russian Far East 1920–1922. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1975. xv+304 pp. $11.00. £6.60.

Maury Lisann, Broadcasting to the Soviet Union: International Politics and Radio. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. ix‐j‐199 pp. $16.50.

David E. Powell, Antireligious Propaganda in the Soviet Union. Cambridge, Mass, and London: The MIT Press, 1975. xi+206 pp. £13.75.

David A. Dyker, The Soviet Economy. Granada Publishing—Crosby Lockwood Staples, 1976. 173 pp. £4.95.

Zbigniew M. Fallenbuchl (ed.), Economic Development in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Volume I: Reforms, Technology, and Income Distribution. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. 360 pp. £14.45.

V. Bajaja, Theoretische Grundlagen und praktische Entwicklung landwirtschaft‐licher Betriebsgrössen in der Tschechoslowakei. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1975. 325 pp.

Richard Farkas, Yugoslav Economic Development and Political Change. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. x+133 pp. £5.95.

Trond Gilberg, Modernization in Romania since World War II. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York and London: Praeger, 1975. xiii+261 pp. £9.65.

David Lewis Jones, Books in English on the Soviet Union, 1917–73: A Bibliography. (Garland Reference Library of Social Science, Vol. 3.) New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1975. xiv+331 pp. $30.00.     

The liability of website owners for defamation in Israel: A challenge yet to be solved?

From the end of the twentieth century to the present we have witnessed the effects of technology on the way we consume and distribute information. The print media, which in many ways was the natural product of the printing revolution, has given way to the electronic media with websites providing the new “town squares” in which the public discourse is held on political, economic and social issues among others. The Israeli legal system, like the legal systems in other countries, faces a variety of challenges and complex ethical and legal issues when required to regulate (often retrospectively) the manner and processes through which the discourse will be conducted in the virtual “town hall”. In essence, this article focuses on one of the many questions occupying the Israeli legal system and that is whether website owners should be liable in defamation for speech published by third parties on the Internet (through blogs, tweets on Twitter, posts on Facebook,¹ uploaded video clips on YouTube and the like) when no connection exists between the third party and the site owner apart from the fact that the third party has used the website as a platform to publish the offensive speech. The issue of the liability of the website owner has ramifications for the injured party's capacity to institute an action for defamation against the website owner, as often only the latter will be in a position to compensate the injured party (financially) for the offensive speech. The Israeli legal system, which in many ways furnishes a unique and interesting framework for examining the question posed above, as we explain in the body of the article, presents a fascinating example of how the Israeli legislature and the courts have dealt and continue to deal with claims filed against website owners for damage to reputation as a result of speech published by third parties. The article offers a comprehensive review of the status of the right to freedom of speech, anonymity and the right to reputation in Israel, the considerations for and against the imposition of liability on website owners and the latest case law on these questions.     

Civilian uses of unmanned aerial vehicles and the threat to the right to privacy – An Israeli case study

In recent years we have witnessed a growing demand for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (“UAVs”) in civilian contexts. Government authorities (such as law enforcement agencies), corporations and private individuals have identified the advantages inherent in the use of UAVs. At the same time, corporations marketing and manufacturing UAVs for civilian purposes, and the industries that support these manufacturers, have identified the enormous economic potential which may be derived from the sale and maintenance of UAVs (and the cameras and other equipment assembled into them). Hence, in the coming years, we will undoubtedly witness a rapid expansion of the civilian use of UAVs.     

Afrovision: rehearsing diasporic Africanism in a Tel-Aviv nightclub

ABSTRACT

During the second half of the 1990s, an extended number of illegal African labor migrants arrived at Israel. Whereas associational life among them was based almost exclusively on their national and tribal social clubs, the Afrovision nightclub was a unique grassroots initiative that crossed these boundaries. Based on studies of festive rituals, and more specifically of the role of music and dance in processes of identity formation among migrants' communities, I show how and why Afrovision enabled African immigrants in Israel to come together and experience a sense of diasporic Africanism as a sort of shared identity beyond the salient sub-divisions within their community. Although this experience was partly a reaction to, or implementation of, common perceptions in Israeli society that view African people as of one fiber, the practical significance of the pan-Africanist option offered by Afrovision in the everyday lives of foreign residents far exceeded purely symbolic aspects.