Abstract
Currently, public and cultural diplomacy - means of governmental communication with foreign publics - are expected to stand up to democratic standards more than before, democratic character being even seen as one of the key traits of the so-called "new public diplomacy" (Hocking 2005). Israeli public and cultural diplomacy have been from the very beginning in between the rock and a hard place: their maneuvering space and autonomy has been affected by societal divisions, protracted conflict, and external hostilities, but, at the same time, they have been a subject of great expectations (Cummings 2016).
While some authors claim that Israeli cultural diplomacy is indeed democratic (Medzini 2012), others claim otherwise, naming the security focus of Israeli foreign policy as the main impediment for a truly dialogical public and cultural diplomacy (Toledano and McKie 2013). The paper evaluates different general claims to the democratic character of cultural diplomacy, including its representativeness, decentralization, and the values it proclaims, and examines Israeli cultural diplomacy in this light.
The paper builds on a PhD thesis dealing with Israeli foreign cultural representation.