"It’s bold to suggest that Israel was ever a democracy to start with. It is highly problematic that an article on the erosion of Israel’s “democracy” fails to include how the Palestinians under Israeli control are largely excluded from said democracy."
May 3, 2023
Re: “At 75, the greatest threats to Israeli democracy are from within”
It’s bold to suggest that Israel was ever a democracy to start with. It is highly problematic that an article on the erosion of Israel’s “democracy” fails to include how the Palestinians under Israeli control are largely excluded from said democracy. Of the 6.8 million Palestinians under Israeli rule, only a small minority of them (1.6 million) hold Israeli citizenship and have the right to vote in national elections (albeit with a second-class status and significant restrictions). The remaining 5.2 million Palestinians under Israeli military occupation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, have no right to vote for the government that rules over their lives. In fact, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN experts, and Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups like B’Tselem, have argued that is Israel is not a democracy, but should properly be defined as a regime of apartheid. Any discussion of Israel’s “democracy” must come with a qualification that it is not extended to everyone under Israeli rule.
Ghida Mawlawi
514-573-4880