Prof. Gerald Steinberg
- President, NGO Monitor
Prof. Gerald Steinberg is President of NGO Monitor and the Chairman of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University, where he is the founder of the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation. His research interests include Middle East diplomacy and security, the politics of human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Israeli politics and arms control. He was also a consultant to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism ICCA, and is a member of the academic advisory board of the Israel Law Review. Steinberg works with a number of international organizations (NATO, UN University, OSCE, SIPRI) and is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. His op-ed columns also appear in the Wall St. Journal (Europe); Financial Times, National Review Online, International Herald Tribune, and other publications, and he is a frequent commentator on CBC, NPR, the BBC, and others. Recent academic publications include "Europe's Failed Middle East Policies"; "Soft Powers Play Hardball: NGOs Wage War against Israel ", and "The UN, the ICJ and the Separation Barrier: War by Other Means" (Israel Law Review). He is also completing research on human rights and politics during the 2006 Lebanon war, funded by the prestigious Israel Science Foundation.
Isaac Herzog
- Minister of Welfare and Social Services.
Isaac Herzog completed his army service with the rank of major (res.). He is an attorney by profession. Herzog served as Secretary of the Economic-Social Council (1988-1990), as Government Secretary (1999-2001), and as Chairman of the Anti-Drug Authority (2000-2003). Elected to the 16th Knesset in 2003, he has served as a member of the Knesset Finance, Internal Affairs and Environment, and Anti-Drug Abuse Committees, as well as Israel Labor Party Parliamentary Group Whip. He has chaired the Lobby for the War Against Drugs in Israel, the Lobby for Tourism in Israel, the Lobby for Youth in Israel, and the Municipal Lobby, and is a member of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus and the Environmental Lobby. He is also Chairman of the Israel-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Union. Isaac Herzog served as Minister of Housing and Construction from January to November 2005 when Labor resigned from the government. After serving as Minister of Tourism from May 2006 until March 2007, he was appointed Minister of Welfare and Social Services, Minister of the Diaspora, Society, and the Fight Against Antisemitism, where he served until March 2009. Isaac Herzog was reappointed Minister of Welfare and Social Services in March 2009.
Prof. Irwin Cotler
- Member of Parliament, Canada.
Prof. Cotler is a Law Professor, Constitutional and Comparative Law Scholar, International Human Rights Lawyer, Counsel to prisoners of conscience, NGO Head, Public Intellectual, Community Leader and Peace Activist, Member of the Canadian Parliament since 1999, and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Currently serving as Liberal Special Counsel for Human Rights and International Justice, Professor Cotler is a distinguished academic and a prominent human rights lawyer, whose dedication to humanitarian causes has earned him the Order of Canada among many other awards – which include nine honorary doctorates. He is the chair of the international steering committee of the ICCA. Finally Prof. Cotler has also launched an international petition endorsed by leading jurists, survivors and genocide scholars seeking to hold Ahmadinejad's Iran to account for state-sanctioned incitement to genocide.
Fiamma Nirenstein
- Member of Parliament, Italy.
In April 2008 Fiamma Nirenstein was elected Member of the Italian Parliament where she now serves as the Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies. Until her election, she was a columnist and correspondent from Israel for "Il Giornale", a daily Italian newspaper, where she still contributes as an analyst. Since the start of her career in 1977, Ms. Nirenstein has been a columnist and correspondent for many major newspapers and magazines such as Panorama; l'Espresso; and Epoca. She regularly contributes to the 'New York Sun', 'Commentray Magazine' and has written for 'Moment magazine.' She has authored nine books, the latest being 'Israel is us' which came out in 2007, and has now been translated into English. Ms. Nirenstein has been awarded 16 journalistic and literary awards. In '93 and '94, Ms. Nirenstein directed the Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv. She teaches Middle East History at Luiss University in Rome, and is a member of the board of the Italian Foundation Magna Carta and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and of the Hudson Institute. In September this year, Ms. Nirenstein promoted the contitution of an Inquiry on Antisemitism in Italy to be led by the Foreign Affairs and Contitutional Affairs Committees of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
John Mann
- Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
John Mann was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2001. He first sat on the Treasury Committee before being appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary of the Minister for Sport. Mr. Mann is currently a member of the Treasury Select Committee. Since his time in student politics John Mann has been vocal in his condemnation of all forms of racism and intolerance and has worked tirelessly in attempting to combat it. In 2005 he was appointed as the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism and represented the All-Party Group at the OSCE Conference on Antisemitism and Other Forms of Intolerance in Spain in June 2005. In November of that year he commissioned an inquiry into the state of antisemitism in the UK. The inquiry published a report of its findings and received an official government response. Mr. Mann was formerly a company director and business man. He also has a strong Trade Union background working as the National Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Officer at the Trade Union Congress and as the Head of Research and Education at Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU). He served as the Union General Election Coordinator for the 1997 General Election.
Anne Bayefsky
- Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust; Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute.
Anne Bayefsky is a human rights scholar and activist. Holding a B.A., M.A. and LL.B. from the University of Toronto and an M.Litt. from Oxford University, today she serves as professor at York University's Department of Political Science (Toronto); a barrister and solicitor, Ontario Bar; and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute where her areas of expertise include international human rights law, equality rights, and constitutional human rights law. Bayefsky is also the Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust. She has authored and Edited 11 books on international human rights and is a frequent contributor to radio, television and print media in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. Bayefsky is a member of Canadian government and non-governmental delegations to United Nations bodies and world conferences since 1984, and is a recipient of Canada's highest honor in human rights research. She received the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research and the Lady Davis Fellowship to Hebrew University.