Israel Prize

The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset (Israel's legislature) chairperson, and the Supreme Court president. The prize was set up in 1953 at the initiative of the Minister of Education Ben-Zion Dinor, who himself went on to win the prize in 1958 and 1973.

Awarding the prize

The prize is awarded in the following four areas, with the precise subfields changing from year to year in a cycle of 4 to 7 years, except for the last area, which is awarded annually:

the humanities, social sciences, and Jewish studies
the natural and exact sciences
culture, arts, communication and sports
lifetime achievement and exceptional contribution to the nation (since 1972)

The recipients of the prize are Israeli citizens or organizations who have displayed excellence in their field(s), or have contributed strongly to Israeli culture. The winners are selected by committees of judges, who pass on their recommendations to the Education Minister.

Prize winners are elected by ad-hoc committees, appointed by the minister of education for each category each year. Decisions of the committee must be unanimous.

As of 2004, the prize has been awarded 551 times. Prominent winners include Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Aharon Appelfeld, Abba Eban, Leah Goldberg, Israel Aumann, Michael O. Rabin and Saharon Shelah. Though the prize is generally awarded to Israeli citizens only, in exceptional cases it can be awarded to non-Israelis who have held Israeli residency for many years. Zubin Mehta won the Israel Prize in 1991. Mehta is originally from India, and is Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

The prize money was 50,000 NIS as of 2006.

Controversy

The decision to award the prize to specific individuals has sometimes led to impassioned political debate. In 1993, the strong reaction of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin against the nomination of Yeshayahu Leibowitz led Leibowitz to decline the prize. In 2004, the Education and Culture Minister, Limor Livnat, twice sent the decision to award the prize to sculptor Yigal Tumarkin back to the prize committee. Cases in which the decision was brought before the Supreme Court of Israel included the prizes given to publicist Shmuel Shnitzer and politician Shulamit Aloni

On occasion, the committee has been criticized for failing to award the prize to a specific individual. For example, many have expressed criticism (or regret) that the poet Natan Yonatan never received the prize.

Another criticism of the prize is that the large majority of winners have been male and Jewish. Non-Jewish winners so far include Zubin Mehta, actor Makram Khouri, Druze leader Amin Tarif, writer Emile Habibi and theologian Marcel-Jacques Dubois. On the other hand, awarding the prize to controversial figures such as Habibi resulted in Yuval Ne'eman relinquishing his own prize.

In other cases, the recipients were reluctant to retrieve the prize. These include Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and performer Uri Zohar. In 2003, artist Moshe Gershoni informed the press that he will not shake the hands of the Prime Minister and Education Minister, and in return his prize was annulled.