Very few people know that behind the controversial overhaul of Israel’s judicial system stands a right-wing religious think tank called The Kohelet Forum. “The Kohelet Policy Forum strives to secure Israel’s future as the nation-state of the Jewish people, strengthen representative democracy, and expand individual liberty and the principles of free enterprise in Israel,” reads the official website. The forum bears the biblical name for the Book of Ecclesiastes – Kohelet. The first words of King Solomon in this book are: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” In colloquial Hebrew these words are translated as “everything is meaningless.”

The Kohelet Forum is a research institute that dictates laws and lobbies politicians. About 130 people are employed in this religious forum. They work on dozens of large projects and hundreds of small projects. These “preachers” devised the “Barkat Plan,” which aims to increase the Jewish population in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. In November 2020, current Economy Minister...