Ph.D. Research Profile - Ronnie Olesker
Judging by the many hats Ronnie Olesker has worn in her already impressive academic and professional career, it is clear that she does not fit into any one box.
Olesker grew up in a politically aware household in a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel. Her intellectual ability and curiosity about the world around her was recognized by her government, who recruited her into the intelligence arm of the Israeli Defense Forces at the age of 18.
As an intelligence analyst she was able to gain hands-on experience with the formation of national security policy and assessments. This experience proved to be an asset to her current research in security studies and human rights law.
After her stint in the military, she earned an LL.B from The College of Management Law School in Israel.
“I had always wanted to be a lawyer, and in the military I also discovered that I was good at writing policy memos,” said Olesker.
After graduation she spent almost two years working in the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office, where she specialized in prosecuting child abuse cases. Although she had much success, she was frustrated by her inability to affect the system itself. Olesker loved the theory, but did not always see a connection between the theory and practice.
“At the end of the day I didn’t feel as though I was helping to affect or develop the law,” said Olesker. “I didn’t want to become part of the system. I wanted to change the system.”
Although she had always wanted to be a criminal attorney, a third-year law school course in international law planted substantial seeds of interest in the field.
It was also during the time she was taking what she refers to as the “most interesting, thought provoking course I’d taken up to that point,” that she first crossed paths with Professor Orna Ben-Naftali, who also earned her PhD at Fletcher. Professor Ben-Naftali helped to convince Olesker that she had great potential as a legal scholar.
“I found international law amazing because there was so much leeway as a lawyer,” said Olesker.
She enjoys the study of international law because it is based heavily on practice and consent, and is not codified in the same way domestic legal systems are. It also involves ambiguities that give practitioners an opportunity to help shape its formation.
“Some people see the flexibility as the weakness of international law. I see that as its strength,” said Olesker.
Thus, Olesker left the District Attorney’s office and began her MALD in 2001.
“When I came to Fletcher, it seemed like a natural fit because of the environment,” said Olesker. “Ultimately the student body made the difference for me because I found them really amazing. It was really tailored for people who wanted to work in an international arena.”
Olesker interned with the United Nations in the Department of Management as a legal advisor in the summer between her first and second year. Although she found the work of codifying cases for the International Administrative Tribunal regarding disputes involving UN employees interesting, she ultimately found the organization much too bureaucratic.
“I always ask myself whether I’m in a position to make a difference,” Olesker said. “If the answer is no, then this is not where I want to find myself.”
Her MALD thesis addressed the rights and legal status of the Arab minorities within the boundaries of Israel. She realized that she was just scratching the surface of the questions she wanted to ask, and this motivated her to apply for the PhD program.
Her PhD dissertation is titled: “The Value of Security vs. The Security of Values: The Relationship Between the Rights of the Minority and the Security of the Majority in Israel.”
A central theme of Olesker’s dissertation addresses the impact that external conflicts can have on the internal legal systems of countries. She uses the case of the Arab population living within Israel to examine this issue. For example, she shows that there was a sharp rise in discrimination against the Arab minority in Israel after the second uprising or Al-Aqsa Intifada between 2001 and 2005. She measured this rise by examining the introduction of new legislation and court decisions in Israel during this time period. She found that Arab defendants in criminal cases were twice as likely to be convicted of crimes as their Jewish counterparts. They were also more likely to receive harsher sentences.
She also links two separate bodies of literature (human rights and security) and posits that they are not mutually exclusive. Olesker believes that infringing on the rights of an ethnic minority can have dire consequences on national security.
“Treating minorities as a threat can be a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Olesker said. “This ambiguous state often pushes Arab-Israeli citizens towards the radical Palestinians.”
She also believes that Israel is co-opting its legal system into its national security policy.
“Empirically you can see that when there is a level of decrease in violence between Israelis and Palestinians, there is an increase in the rights that Arab-Israelis receive,” said Olesker.
“To look at them separately is a mistake, because you won’t fully understand the phenomenon.”
Studying at Fletcher for the last five years and lecturing at Tufts for the last two has ultimately allowed Olesker to discover her true passion – teaching. Her goal is to build a new generation of objective thinkers that looks at the world with a new perspective.