Kohelet Policy Forum

Kohelet supports the right of the Jewish people to national sovereignty over its homeland. [7] In furtherance of that principle, the forum had promoted the Basic Law proposal: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.[8]

The forum worked on policy papers which underpin the attempted 2023 judicial reform in Israel, which involves giving the government control over judicial appointments, limiting judicial review of laws and government decisions, an "override clause" which is intended to allow the Knesset to overrule supreme court decisions with a majority of 61 out of 120 votes, and limiting the authority of the government and ministerial legal advisors.[9][10] After the proposals sparked the 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests, Koppel suggested that the override clause should be dropped, but supported the other controversial proposals.[11]

The KPF filed friend of the court briefs in a number of appeals.[12]

A dedicated unit within KPF, the Kohelet Economic Forum is headed by former senior Treasury official Michael Sarel. It has a staff of economists and has published dozens of detailed policy papers on economic policies in Israel.

The Forum supports a libertarian approach to economic policy, and promotes free-market principles in Israel, including deregulation, reducing the scope of government and eliminating impediments to free trade like tariffs, quotas and licensing requirements. [13]

Sarel came out strongly against the 2023 Judicial reform in Israel, and in a personal position paper which he clarified does not reflect the Forum's position, said that it can cause damage to the separation of powers and even threaten free elections, and warned of severe economic consequences.[14]

The KPF founded the Shiloh Policy Forum, a settlement organisation, and pays the salaries of three of its staff. In February 2023, Kohelet research fellow Avital Ben-Shelomo became director general of the Education Ministry of Israel. Both founders of Next Generation – Parents for Choice in Education are KPF researchers. Several other NGOs, including the Coalition for Autonomy in Education, Choosing Educations, Tacharut – the Movement for Freedom of Employment (which works against the Histadrut), Our Interest – Your Lobby in the Knesset, Hamerchav Shelanu ("Our Space"), are also part of the KPF network, although the links are not widely publicised. The KPF trained a group of anti-LGBTQ groups. The Civil Society Forum is connected to KPF. The Israeli Immigration Policy Center has worked alongside KPF.[15]

According to its own account, KPF is a non-governmental organization which relies only on private donations and does not accept public funds from any government, domestic or foreign.[16]

The largest donations have been made anonymously, and amount to several million dollars sent through an American nonprofit organization called American Friends of Kohelet Policy Forum.[17] An investigative article published at Haaretz said that the principal donors to the Forum are Jewish American billionaires Jeff Yass and Arthur Dantchik.[18][19] This is disputed by acquaintances of Yass who state that he has never been a donor to Kohelet.[20] The Forum's legislative research, policy papers, and other research based products[21] are offered to Israeli decision makers for free.

• Official website