Democracy
or Apartheid?
"Israeli Arabs" are citizens and can vote, but are a subordinated
and marginalized minority.
The 1950 Israeli Law of Return grants rights of automatic
citizenship to Jews anywhere in the world, while those rights are
denied to the 750,000 Palestinian refugees and their decendants who
fled or were driven from what became Israel in 1948.
When Palestinian citizens of Israel demand that their state become
the state of all its citizens, a democratic and secular state, they
are denounced for imperiling the Jewish nature of the state.
Israel's Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty establishes it as a
"Jewish democracy," although 20 percent of the population is
non-Jewish. Israel defines itself not as the state of all its
actual citizens (who include 1.2 million non-Jews) but as the state
of the Jewish people, including Jews throughout the world.
93% of Israel's land is the property not of the Israeli people, but
of Jewish people everywhere. As non-Jews, Palestinian citizens of
Israel are barred from buying, leasing or living on state land, and
land owned by the Jewish National Fund.
Many Palestinian villages are unrecognized by the government, do
not appear on maps, and thus receive no running water, electricity,
or access roads. Scores of communities have been founded for Jews,
but none for Palestinians, causing severe residential
overcrowding.
A 2006 survey revealed that two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse
to live in a building with an Arab, nearly half would not allow a
Palestinian in their home, and 40% want the government to
"encourage" emigration of Palestinian citizens.
The Israel Beitenu Party and its constituency advocate drawing
Israel's borders to exclude 500,000 of its Palestinian
citizens.
Israel's Supreme Court legitimizes the political assassination of
Palestinian activists, confiscation of Palestinian land, demolition
of Palestinian homes and the use of Palestinians as human
shields.
More than 50 percent of Palestinians children are living in poverty
and more than 44 percent of Palestinians families are poor. The 20
towns in Israel with the highest unemployment rate are Arab
towns.
"Apartheid"
refers to any institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and
domination by one racial group over another.
Support of a
"Jewish state" means the support of legislation and practices that
discriminate against the Palestinian citizens of Israel:
Limits on Palestinian growth
Unequal funding for Palestinian towns
Limits on land leased to Palestinians
Unrecognized Palestinian villages denied basic services
Destruction of unrecognized Palestinian villages
Unequal application of the law to Jews and non-Jews
Right of return for Jews only
No constitutional protection for minorities
Unequal funding for Palestinian education
Restricted access to good jobs for Palestinians
Confiscation of Palestinian land for Jewish use
Poisoning, uprooting of Bedouin Israeli citizens' crops
Plans to "Judaize" the Palestinian areas of the Galilee
Discrimination in public places
Israeli anthem and Israeli flag discriminate
House demolitions
Denial of family unification for Arabs
Failure to protect Palestinian citizens during wartime
Unequal compensation for Palestinian citizens for war damages
Discrimination at airports and train stations
Government leaders talk openly of expelling Arabs from Israel
Palestinian history and Israel's borders removed from
textbooks
