On January 4, 2023, the newly elected government led by longtime Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled its “judicial reform”: a plan to legislate four constitutional amendments that would effectively dismantle the existing checks on the power of the executive.
Despite having a solid majority in parliament, just one of these amendments passed into law — and was quickly struck down by the Supreme Court. The four amendments were introduced as the reform’s “first phase;” a second phase was never announced.
At the core of this achievement was a small, ad-hoc group of concerned former public servants and activists. Under the group's leadership, initial anti-government protests quickly metastasized into the largest protest movement in Israel’s history. The small leadership group became the Protest Headquarters — a well-oiled protest machine with a full-time staff and thousands of volunteers from 200 organizations. At its peak, the movement had 400,000 people marching in the streets of a country with a population of 10 million.
What were the keys to the Protest Headquarters’ success? In this panel, we ask this of three key members of the Protest Headquarters. We will discuss the mechanisms that enabled its growth, the challenges and lessons learned from the movement, and the future prospects for Israeli democracy, with attention to dilemmas as Israelis return to the polls in late 2026.
More About the Speakers:
Yossi Kucik previously held several senior positions in the Israeli public sector, including Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Commissioner of Wages at the Ministry of Finance, and Director-General of the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, among other key roles. Following his public service career, Kucik transitioned into the private sector. He currently serves as Chairman of Direct Insurance Group, one of Israel’s leading financial groups. In addition, he owns two consulting firms: one specializing in Media strategy and the other focused on compensation and wage consulting. Kucik is also extensively involved in public and social initiatives. He serves as Chairman of Beit Yigal Allon and is a member of the Presidium of the Israel Democracy Institute, among several other public leadership roles. In January 2023, Kucik, together with Orni Petruschka, Dan Halutz, and Yehuda Eder, established the headquarters of the protest movement opposing the Netanyahu government’s proposed judicial overhaul, which they viewed as a threat to Israeli democratic institutions. Joined by additional public figures and activists, the headquarters played a pivotal role in the movement, bringing millions of Israelis to the streets in protest and successfully halting significant parts of the proposed legislation affecting Israel’s democratic framework. Kucik holds an MBA from the Hebrew University, is married to Nirit, a father of three, and a grandfather of four.
Orni Petruschka works to make Israel an open, liberal, and democratic society for all its citizens. In recent years, Orni has been a social entrepreneur. He co-founded the Resistance Headquarters against the current Israeli government; initiated several activities to promote philanthropy, especially for supporting liberal-democracy causes; and was involved in activities for advancing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition, Orni co-chairs the Abraham Initiatives, an NGO which promotes equality and inclusion for Israel’s Arab citizens, and serves as Chairman of the Board of Molad — the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy. Previously, Orni served as a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, studied electrical engineering at the Technion and at Cornell University, and had a career as a technology entrepreneur, having started and managed two successful telecom equipment companies that were successfully acquired, one of which was considered a landmark transaction for Israeli high tech. Orni lives in Ramat Gan; he is married and a father of 3 daughters.
Adv. Dina Zilber, former Deputy Attorney General of Israel, is regarded as one of the country’s leading jurists. During her eight-year tenure as Deputy Attorney General (2012–2020), Adv. Zilber was responsible for providing ongoing legal counsel to the government and its various ministries on a wide range of complex, sensitive, and highly consequential matters, and for shaping the Attorney General’s positions across many areas within her responsibility. Prior to this appointment, Adv. Zilber served for 16 years as a senior attorney in the High Court of Justice Department at the State Attorney’s Office, where she represented the State before the Israeli Supreme Court in more than 1,600 petitions concerning major public importance. Adv. Zilber has authored two books: Bureaucracy as Politics (2006) and In the Name of the Law: The Attorney General and the Affairs that Shook the State (2012). She also initiated and edited an additional volume titled Roots in Law, published in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary — a panoramic collection surveying the development of Israeli legal practice from the founding of the state to the present day, written by legal professionals from across all generations and departments of the Ministry of Justice. Adv. Zilber has received numerous public honors and awards, including the “Women at the Forefront” Award in the Government and Politics category (2017); the Leon Charney Award of Recognition from the Deborah Forum – Women in Foreign Policy and National Security (2018); the Transparency Shield Award from Transparency International Israel (2019); the Gorny Award for Public Sector Jurists (2020); and the Knight of Quality Government Award in the Executive Branch category (2020). Adv. Zilber holds an LL.M. with honors from Tel Aviv University. Over the years, she has taught undergraduate and graduate law students at various academic institutions. She lectures extensively in public and professional forums, and regularly publishes both legal scholarship and opinion articles in the press. Since the onset of Israel's judicial overhaul, she has also served as a key member of the Protest Headquarters Advisory Board.
About the Series
Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance is a public panel series that brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School in collaboration with the Cornell Center on Global Democracy; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Event Details
This event is online only, and registration is required. A recording will be made available after the event’s conclusion. The information collected in the registration form is for internal use only and will not be shared externally.
