Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya

The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya
Flickr/George Bernstein

The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) is a private (non-profit) college located in Herzliya, Israel. It has strong connections with the military and intelligence in Israel, particularly through:

• Hosting the annual Herzliya Conference which has taken place every year since 2001.
• Providing a base for the Israeli propaganda operations Stand With Us and HelpUsWin.org.
• Hosting the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, held on twelve occasions between 1997 and 2012 and hosted by the IDC based International Institute for Counter-Terrorism

History

IDC was founded in 1994 by Professor Uriel Reichman, a law professor formerly of Tel Aviv University who in 1990 had set up the Ramot Mishpat Law School - the first private college of its kind in Israel. In addition to Reichman, another figure who was important in the establishment of the college was Yoram Wind of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsyvania in the United States. Staff from the University of Pennsyvania provided visiting professors for IDC's business school in its first few years, and also provided 12 of the 26 academics who made up IDC's International Advisory Board in 2001.

IDC was established in a disused military camp in the town of Herzliya six miles north of Tel Aviv. Herzliya, which is named after the seminal Zionist intellectual Theodor Herzl, is home to Israel's largest high tech industrial park which housed companies such as Compaq, Motorola, National Semiconductors, and Sun Microsystems. A welcome message from Reichman which appeared on IDC's website in March 2001 read:

The summer of 1994 marked the opening of a unique academic institution in Israel. A group of professors, assembled in a vacated military camp in Herzliya, founded the first, non-profit, private university in Israel. The founders left tenured positions in leading Israeli and U.S. universities to embark on a challenging venture, intended to change the academic agenda of the country.

IDC was originally known as the The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Business Law and Technology. Its School of Law opened in 1994, and its Business School in October 1995.

Connections with Israeli military and intelligence

IDC gives special preference to military personnel wishing to study at the centre. In 1999 the Jerusalem Post wrote:

Some 15 percent of the spots in each class are set aside for graduates of elite army units whose matriculation exams may not be spectacular but who have shown significant leadership potential. Such applicants are invited for personal interviews, and former Mossad head Shabtai Shavit screens their personal military files to identify the most promising candidates.

Similarly, in March 2001 the Radzyner School of Law stated on the IDC website:

The School of Law carefully selects students from a large pool of applicants. Scholastic ability is the main factor in this process, yet special credit is given to leadership qualities manifested by an outstanding military record in the Israel Defense Forces' elite units, and to candidates who have made an outstanding contribution to society.

IDC founder Uriel Reichman told the Jerusalem Post in 2007: "a central mission of ours is the strengthening and development of Israel's security forces".

Propaganda

The "Stand With Us" situation room at IDC during operation 'Cast Lead'. The poster in the background depicts children in Gaza as potential terrorists. According to UNICEF some 431 children were killed and 1,872 wounded during the Israeli assault.

IDC has been involved in propaganda operations (or 'hasbara' as it is known in Israel) in support of Israeli attacks on Palestinians. Particularly notable in this regard are the Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy, which operates within the framework of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, and the Ambassadors Club founded in the framework of the Raphael Recanati International School.

The "Stand With Us" situation room at IDC during operation 'Cast Lead'.

The US pro-Israeli advocacy group Stand With Us has provided support for a number of propaganda operations at IDC. In addition to sponsoring and running the Ambassadors Club bi-monthly seminars, it has supported and sponsored the student initiated group, “Bursting the Bubble,” set up to publicise Qassam rockets fired into Israel. It also created a Situation Room (held in the Yellow-Room/Aquarium) which monitored media coverage during the Israeli assault on Gaza during December 2006 and January 2007.

Finally, it sponsors 20 students every year under the Stand With Us Fellowship Programme (which also sponsors 20 students from every Israeli university).

Funding

Ron Lauder - one of IDC's early billionaire donors

IDC is entirely privately funded and has called itself 'a non-profit and self-sufficient organization, following the American model of an elite private University.' It has an operational budget, which pays for teaching and administration etc, and a development budget which pays for buildings and facilities. In its first five years IDC raised $25 million in donations for its development budget. Multimillion dollar gifts were received from Ron Lauder, Harry Radzyner and the late Ted Arison, all of whom were rewarded with schools at the IDC named in their honor. The funding section of IDC's website commented in March 2001 that 'We are fortunate to have received enormous financial support which enabled us to convert the ruins of an evacuated army base into a flourishing rural campus.'

More recently a 2007 article in the Jerusalem Report stated that tuition fees cover about 85 percent of operational budget, with the rest coming from donations. The fees are significantly higher than Israel’s public universities. According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, IDC charges $9,000 annually for tuition, compared with $2,000 at most public universities. The development budget, according to that 2009 article is around $12-million.

Israeli funds

According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education 70 per cent of IDC's development budget comes from Israelis. Substantial donations from extremly wealthy Israelis have funded the college's expansion, and the buildings these tycoons have funded have been named after them or members of their family.

The first major donor the college received was from Harry Radzyner, who according to IDC promotional material was 'one of the first to answer Professor Reichman's call to set up IDC Herzliya.' A donation from Radzyner funded the renovation of an abandoned army base' which became the Radzyner School of Law 'was the first step towards opening the first school year at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.'

Funds for the Raphael Recanati International School were provided by the Recanati family, who control the IDB Holding Corporation, one of the largest business enterprises operating in the private sector of the Israeli economy. The school is named after Raphael Recanati a Greek born Israeli shipping magnate who is described by IDC's protional material as having been 'an enthusiastic Zionist'. According to that account he founded the shipping corporation OSG-Overseas Shipping Group after being 'asked by David Ben-Gurion to set up a shipping company to serve the new state.'

Another shipping magnate, Samuel Ofer, provided funds for the Sammy Ofer School of Communications. Ofer founded what is today Ofer Holdings Group, one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

Foreign funds

IDC has set up a network of foreign fundraising groups. The most important of these is the American organisation American Friends of the IDC. According to accounts filed with the IRS, the American Friends of the IDC received a total of $28,999,497 between 1998 and 2006 in 'gifts, grants and contributions'. The size of these donations increased substantially during that period, from $989,333 in 1999 to $10,296,706 in 2006. US foundations known to have donated to American Friends of the IDC include the Chais Family Foundation, The Klarman Family Foundation, the Russell Berrie Foundation, the Somekh Family Foundation and The Zilkha Foundation.

The are also smaller 'Friends' groups located in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong. The UK Friends of IDC was set up in 2002 by the solicitor and businessman Gordon Hausmann. It is a registered charity but as of July 2009 had filed no information with the Charity Commission.

People

Board of directors

Oudi Recanati, Chairman | Shari Arison | Israel Borovitz | Amir Barnea | Eitan Wertheimer | Ronald S. Lauder | Rachel Levitan | Eli Landau | Moshe Meni | Idan Ofer | Shlomo Piotrkovsky | Dov Pekelman | Harry L. Radzyner | Uriel Reichman | Zalman Shoval | Itschak Shrem

Management

Uriel Reichman - President | Rafi Melnick - IDC Herzliya Provost | Amir Licht - Dean, Radzyner School of Law | Elazar Berkovitch - Dean, Arison School of Business | Gadi Taubenfeld - Dean, Efi Arazi School of Computer Science | Alex Mintz - Dean, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy | Noam Lemelshtrich-Latar - Dean, Sammy Ofer School of Communications | Mario Mikulincer - Dean, New School of Psychology | Eric Zimmerman - Academic Secretary and Director of the Resarch Authority | Yitzhak Oron - Dean, Student Affairs | Jonathan Davis - Vice President for External Relations & Head, Raphael Recanati International School | Roni Lichtenstein - Vice President for Finance | Ahuva Oren-Pines - Vice President for Administration | Ayelet Ben Ezer - Vice President for Student Affairs | Doron Karni - Dept. of Media, Marketing and Events

Notable faculty

Prof. Uzi Arad (Former Director of Intelligence at the Mossad; Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu) | Prof. Aharon Barak (Former President of the Israeli Supreme Court) | Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami(Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Security)| Dr. Isaac Berzin (Founder of GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, named to Time 100 Most Influential List) | Dr. Keren Eyal (Researcher on Sex & Socialization subjects, currently lecturing Propaganda lessons) | Dr. Boaz Ganor (Executive Director of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism [ICT]) | Dr. Oded Oran (Former Ambassador to both Jordan and the European Union) | Amb. Avi Primor (Former ambassador to Germany, Belgium and the European Union) | Prof. Amnon Rubinstein (Former Minister of Communications, Education) | Prof. Shimon Schocken | Prof. Gadi Taubenfeld

Schools and research institutes

IDC consists of six schools dedication to law, business, computer science, government diplomacy & Strategy, communications, and psychology. It also has an international school for foreign students. Each of the schools with the exception of the New School of Psychology are named after wealthy individuals who provided the funding. The seven schools and associated research institutes are:

• Radzyner School of Law

• Arison School of Business

Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Center for Capital Markets and Risk Management

• Efi Arazi School of Computer Science

Media Innovation Lab run in partnership with the Sammy Ofer School of Communications

• Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy

Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS), which organizes the "Herzliya Conference" every year

International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) runs the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism which was held for the eighth time on 8-11 September 2008.

Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) which houses the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements and the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal

Trilateral Center for European Studies

Project for New Governance in Israel

Institute for Eurasian Studies

Program in Applied Decision Analysis (PADA)

Institute for Renewable Energy Policy

• Sammy Ofer School of Communications

Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy

Research Center for Internet Psychology (CIP)

Advanced Virtuality Lab (AVL)

• The New School of Psychology

• Raphael Recanati International School (RRIS) - As of 2008, 850 students from 56 countries are studying full-degree programs in English. The Interdisciplinary Center is currently the only Israeli institute in which one can complete a B.A. and an M.A. studied solely in English.

Ambassadors Club (also associated with the Asper Institute)

Moves to abolish protection of civilians in international law

“I expect that the proposals will be opposed by those who see this superficially as an attempt by the United States and Israel to gain legitimacy for their actions.” – Boaz Ganor

During the course of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Israel came under intense international criticism for inflicting substantial civilian casualties and inflicting widespread damage on civilian infrastructure. Its actions were criticised as ‘disproportionate’ and therefore a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

During the conflict IDC's Boaz Ganor had dinner in Chicago with the Dean of Syracuse University Mitchel Wallerstein. The two men agreed that, as Ganor put it the Geneva Conventions needed ‘fine-tuning’ for ‘the asymmetric battlefield’, ‘especially in light of the current threats to [Israel and the US].’ Ganor is quoted as saying, ‘We talked about the frustration we had over how the world was relating to the war, mainly the claim that Israel wasn't responding with “proportionality.”’

According to the Jerusalem Post the meeting between Ganor and Wallerstein ‘led to a series of international video conferences, in which primary avenues for research were identified.’ On 9-10 July 2007 the Interdisciplinary Center hosted a two day ‘workshop’ entitled ‘New Battlefields, Old Laws, From the Hague Conventions to Asymmetric Warfare’. The participants suggested expanding the categories of persons under the Geneva Conventions from just combatants and non-combatants to four new categories which would include ‘illegitimate non-state entities’ who would not be afforded the protection of the Conventions. A second conference, also entitled ‘New Battlefields, Old Laws’ was held in the United States on 8 October 2007, and hosted by Syracuse University's Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

The latter conference was criticised by the Catholic weekly the National Catholic Reporter, which said the conference ‘amounts to is a public diplomacy exercise to conceal war crimes.’ After noting the complete lack of evidence that Hezbollah used ‘human shields’, as well as the widespread damage to civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, the author of the piece Howard Friel concluded that:

A conference organized by U.S. and Israeli academics would do better to focus on the major violations of the most basic rules of international law by their own governments, for which they are ultimately responsible as citizens, rather than propose ill-advised modifications to international law in order to sanction civilian casualties by the two ‘defending states.’

Contact

• Website: Interdisciplinary Center

External resources

• Uri Yacobi Keller Academic Boycott of Israel and the Complicity of Israeli Academic Institutions in Occupation of Palestinian Territories Economy of the Occupation Socioeconomic Bulletin No. 23-24 October 2009 Published by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) http://www.alternativenews.org/: Jerusalem, Beit Sahour, Palestine.
• Israel’s Herzliya Center Sneaks Into Lebanon, Al Akhbar, 30 May 2012.
• Ali Abunimah, Israel student union sets up “war room” to sell Gaza massacre on Facebook, Electronic intifada, 14 July 2014.