Nation State and Multiculturalism- Prof. Yitzhak Benbaji

The course will address three questions: first, might a nation-state be just, even if the nation to which the state "belongs" is an ethno-cultural nation rather than a civic nation? Second, should the constitution of a liberal state protect minority rights, by accommodating the language and the culture of the ethno-cultural minorities living within it? In the third part of the course we will address the ethics of secession: under which circumstances, is it permissible for a group to secede from an existing state, in order to establish new state? After canvassing the different answers to these question, we will examine, through these different answers, the justice of Zionism, the Jewishness of state of Israel, and the standing of the Palestinian minority in it.