Navon began his career as consultant for Arttic (a consultancy specialized in R&D funding), helping Israeli companies obtain funding from the European Commission and join European consortia. Between 2003 and 2005, he served as CEO of BNIC, an NGO that trained Israel's business leaders in public diplomacy.[6] Between 2005 and 2010, he was a partner with the Navon-Levy Group, a consultancy that promoted Israeli agricultural projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2011 and 2016, he served as head of the Political Science and Communication Department at the Jerusalem Haredi College (affiliated with Bar-Ilan University).[7] Since January 2023, he serves as CEO of ELNET's Israel office.[8]
Academic positions
Navon has been lecturing at Tel-Aviv University's School of Political Science, Government and International Relations and at the Abba Eban Graduate Program for Diplomacy Studies since 2002.[9] In addition, he taught between 2012 and 2022 at Reichman University's Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy.[10] He teaches and has taught classes on Israel's foreign policy, on foreign policy decision-making, on the history of diplomacy, on European diplomacy, on globalization, and on the global politics of oil and energy.[11]
Between 2013 and 2023 he was a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum (a public policy think tank)[12] and in 2017 he joined the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) as a research fellow.[13] In his 2006 policy paper for the Herzliya Conference, Navon described Israel's public diplomacy as "soft powerlessness" and warned about international de-legitimization campaigns.[14] In his January 2017 policy paper for the Kohelet Policy Forum (co-authored with Abraham Diskin), Navon recommended the adoption of open lists and political alliances in Israel's voting system.[15]
Media and public speaking
Emmanuel Navon addresses the CIISS
Emmanuel Navon is engaged since 2012 by i24News as a senior analyst for international affairs.[16]
In March 2011, a lecture Navon delivered at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) was disrupted by pro-Palestinian students, and Navon had to be escorted by security guards.[57] In November 2012, RTBF journalist Eddy Caekelberghs cut short a live interview after Navon accused him of contributing to Hamas' propaganda.[58] In 2019, Navon was invited by the Haute école pédagogique (HEP) du canton de Vaud to present his approach to the Palestinian refugee problem, after an outcry caused by HEP's original plan to only invite speakers identified with the Palestinian narrative.[59] In July 2020, Navon clashed on Turkish TV channel ANews with a journalist who had claimed that the West Bank was stolen by Israel. "That land was not stolen, as opposed to the land your country stole from Cyprus and from Syria" Navon replied.[60]
Ideas and controversies
International Relations
Navon is critical of international relations theory and describes the "great debates" as a sham.[61] His dismissive attitude toward IR theory has been rebuked by international relations scholars Duncan Bell and Brian C. Schmidt.[62][63] Duncan Bell's rebuke of Navon's critical approach to IR theory is often quoted in academic literature.[64][65][66][67][68][69]
Navon is a defender of free-markets and of globalization.[70] He advocates the use of Israel's technological edge to contribute to energy independence,[71] a position for which he was criticized by Prof. Yehezkel Dror.[72] A supporter of the preservation of NATO and of the EU, Navon is suspicious of Russia and had opposed Brexit.[73] Navon approves of Israel's "divide and rule" policy towards the European Union (i.e. developing special ties with the Visegrád Group so as to block unanimous votes by the Council of the European Union on Israel and the Middle East), yet he also warns that "Israel should not overplay that card" because "for all its failings, a unified European market aligned with the U.S. is more in Israel's interest than a divided continent ruled by pro-Russian mercantilists."[74]
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Navon describes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as "Catch 22" situation.[75] He thinks that the preservation of Israel's Jewish and democratic character requires territorial changes but does not believe that an agreement can be reached with the Palestinians. He also dismisses unilateral territorial withdrawals (such as the 2005 Gaza disengagement) as too risky.[76] Navon claims that the two-state solution "keeps working in theory and failing in practice."[77] Navon is of the opinion that Israeli settlements are not illegal, that the Palestinians' claim for a "right of return" to Israel is groundless in international law and incompatible with a two-state solution, and that only Israel has guaranteed religious freedoms and protected the holy sites of the three Abrahamic religions in Jerusalem.[78]
In November 2005, Navon rebuked Israel's "New Historians."[79] In April 2010, he criticized the JCall initiative for overlooking the responsibility of the Palestinian leadership in the deadlock of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.[80] In October 2016, Navon responded to Hagai El-Ad's call for Security Council action against Israel's presence in the West Bank.[81] In 2020, Navon expressed his support for the Trump peace plan and for the extension of Israeli sovereignty to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Navon rejects the claim that partial Israeli annexations beyond the "green line" are incompatible with international law and with a two-state solution.[82]
Nationalism and Democracy
Navon has argued that the Jews are a religion and the Jewish people form a nation. For this reason, the Jewish people are entitled to national self-determination.[83] He writes that Zionism is a national liberation movement and the legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state equals that of all nation-states.[84] Navon writes that nationalism in general, and Jewish nationalism (Zionism) in particular, are compatible with democracy and civic equality. Navon supported the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People but stated that the principle of civic equality should be explicitly enshrined in Israel's quasi-constitutional basic law.[85][86]
Navon is critical of Israel's judicial activism and of Aharon Barak's self-proclaimed "constitutional revolution." In his book The Victory of Zionism: Reclaiming the Narrative about Israel's Domestic, Regional, and International Challenges, Navon claims that Israel's constitutional order and separation of powers were overhauled in the 1990s by five dramatic changes introduced unilaterally by the High Court of Justice under Barak's leadership: 1. Proclaiming that everything is "justiciable" and therefore that no public issue is immune from the court's review; 2. Ending the "standing" (or locus standi) requirement, thus allowing anyone to petition the court; 3. Declaring that the court is entitled to strike down legislation deemed inconsistent with Israel's "basic laws;" 4. Overruling government decision for being "unreasonable" in the court's opinion; 5. Turning the legal advice of the Attorney General into binding decisions by which the government must abide.[90]
Navon suggests legislating a Basic Law that would regulate, re-balance, and formalize Israel's separation of powers and the court's ability to strike down legislation and government decisions. While he does not oppose judicial review, Navon believes that its modus operandi in Israel has been shaped in a radical and unilateral manner and must be redrawn via a Basic Law supported by a large majority.[91]
Navon also suggests implementing two reforms in Israel's electoral system to increase accountability and predictability: 1. Open lists; 2. Political alliances. According to Navon, open lists produce more accountability than first-past-the-post (FPTP) elections; he also claims that FPTP is not suited to Israel's heterogenous society and would not gather enough support in the Knesset anyway. Navon also suggests formalizing political alliances via legislation to improve the correlation between the vote for a party and the choice of a prime minister.[92]
Politics
In November 2012, Navon ran for Knesset on the Likud ticket[93] but he did not gather enough votes in the party's primary elections.[94]
Navon's maternal grandfather was an officer in the French army and a secret agent in the French resistance, whose life was saved by a German officer.[100]
^Bell, Duncan S. A. (2003-01-01). "Political Theory and the Functions of Intellectual History: A Response to Emmanuel Navon". Review of International Studies. 29 (1): 151–160. doi:10.1017/s026021050300010x. JSTOR20097840. S2CID145148376.
