Naomi Chazan is a former Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker, former Meretz MK and a leading human rights activist. She served as president of the New Israel Fund from 2008-2012. She is Professor Emerita of Political Science and African Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and currently serves as Dean of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and as Director of the Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem.
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.