Alon Harel

Alon Harel (; born 1957) is a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he holds the Phillip P. Mizock & Estelle Mizock Chair in Administrative and Criminal Law. He was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Balliol College, Oxford (where he earned a D.Phil. in legal philosophy with a dissertation supervised by Joseph Raz). He has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Chicago.

Harel writes on political philosophy, jurisprudence, criminal law, constitutional law, and law and economics. His articles often undertake philosophical and legal issues of contemporary political relevance. In a recent article (co-authored with Yuval Eylon), Harel defends judicial review on the grounds of a "right to a hearing", which, as a participatory right, does not conflict with the right to equal democratic participation.

A leading advocate of Israeli human rights in Israel, Harel has served on the board of directors of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and submitted a Brief on Behalf of Conscientious Objectors to the Israeli Supreme Court. He often publishes op-ed pieces in Israeli newspapers. A member of Academia for Equality, an organization working to promote democratization, equality and access to higher education for all communities living in Israel.

Harel is the founder and editor of the journal Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies, together with David Enoch.

In 2015, Harel drew criticism for degrading a right-wing student on his Facebook page, tagging her in a post and suggesting that she "return to first grade civics lessons."

In 2024, Harel wrote a Facebook post in which he claimed that settler and former deputy director of the right-wing legal aid group Honenu, Uri Kirshenbaum, was participating in a competition as to who will adopt Nazi ideology sooner. after Kirshenbaum had written an article in which he claimed that the IDF's policy of killing many civilians in Gaza should be used in the West Bank.Efn| "Almost indiscriminately in Gaza for a certain period, the IDF bombed buildings and towers, with the complete understanding that masses of children and mothers would be killed," Kirshenbaum wrote. "The required strategy for defense has led Israel to very severely mow down 'innocents' in Gaza because there is no other way to defeat and eradicate Hamas. It's intentional, it's strategic, it's true. Let no one pretend otherwise. Now let someone explain to me why what is true in Gaza is not true in Jenin and Tulkarm, Hebron and Nablus."

Books

Selected publications . . . . .