Jerusalem, February 11, 2008 - Prof. Zeev Sternhell of the Hebrew University's department of politics will be awarded the 2008 Israel Prize in political science.

The judges, who included Professors Shlomo Avineri, Ella Balfer and Avraham Brichta, described Sternhell as "one of the leading scholars in the field of political thought in Israel and the world." His research, which has been translated into many languages have led to a significant change in the scientific community in the concept of ideological movements in general and radical movements in particular.

Prof. Sternhell was born in 1935 in Galicia. After World War II broke out, he was smuggled to Lvov by an uncle who was allowed to work outside the Przemysl ghetto.

After the war he left Poland for France, where he lived with an aunt. As a boy who experienced Nazism and Stalinism and also got to know religious fanaticism in its Catholic-Polish version, he suddenly discovered freedom, human rights, freedom of speech and secularism.

In 1951 he immigrated to Israel, and was sent to the Magdiel agricultural institution. He served as a commander in the Golani Unit. In October 1957, he began studying political science and history, while simultaneously working as a librarian.

 "The Hebrew University, then the only university in Israel, was the center of intense intellectual activity, and being part of that was a real experience," he relates. "I was lucky to have had great teachers, but saw that the role of an intellectual was not only to understand the world, but to change it." In this respect, everyone was a student of Marx, but also liberals who believed in the importance of the scientific and public discourse."

Completing his B.A. in 1960, he started studying in the department of political science that was still in its early stages. Completing his M.A. in 1964, he went on to study his doctorate at the Institute of Political Science in Paris.

In the 1970's, Prof. Sternhell began contributing to the Haaretz newspaper, which he continues until today. He says, "In actively participating in public life, I give expression to the personal responsibility that we have to the future of society and the future of Zionism. I always thought that the greatest service to society that a man can do whose profession is research, writing and studying, is to say what he thinks with no reservation or fear.

The Israel Prize was announced by the Minister of Education Prof. Yuli Tamir and will be awarded on Independence Day.