Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Israel is a democracy for Jews-only
"Democracy" my foot!
Half a democracy
By Gideon Levy Haaretz. Jan. 26,2003
What sort of democracy is this, if exactly half the state's residents don't benefit from it? Indeed,
can the term "democratic" be applied to a state in which many of the residents live under a
military regime or are deprived of civil rights? Can there be democracy without equality, with
a lengthy occupation and with foreign workers who have no rights? And what about the
racism? The storm that was engendered by the leak of a document to the press by an
attorney in the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, Liora Glatt-Berkovich, and by the
police interrogation, under caution to boot, of Ha'aretz correspondent Baruch Kra
\was perfectly justified. More and more cracks are becoming apparent in the
democratic regime.
Kra's interrogation was an ominous portent, the all-out assault on attorney Glatt-Berkovich
is terrifying, and the conduct of the attorney-general, Elyakim Rubinstein, is disgraceful.
We must not lightly let these phenomena pass by. We must not forget that the entire
structure is wobbly. Once Israel became an occupying state, it ceased to be a democracy.
There is no such thing: Israel's claims about its democratic character are empty boasts.
Just as there is no such thing as a partial pregnancy, there is no such thing as a partial
democracy, either.
No democracy exists only as far as a particular territorial line within the country, and no
democracy is reserved exclusively for a particular religion or nationality. In a truly
democratic regime, everyone enjoys his freedoms and rights in equal measure. That
is not the case in Israel. More than 10 million people live between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan River, in the state and in its occupied territories. The separation
between the occupied areas and the state is anachronistic: Israel has existed for
far more years with the occupation than without it, and the territories are an integral
part of it, with all this entails. Some 3.5 million Palestinians have been living under
a brutal, rigorous military occupation for well over three decades. Surely no one will
try to claim that they are free. Another 300,000 to 400,000 foreign workers live among
us and are also without basic rights. They, too, are not part of a democracy.
Nor can anyone serious maintain that the 1.3 million Arabs who live in Israel are equal
citizens. With the exception of the right to vote and the right to stand for office, which
was almost taken from some of their representatives this month, there is hardly a
sphere in which they can be said to be citizens of a democracy. They are discriminated
against in every realm of life, and they are excluded from the democratic public discourse.
One of their newspapers was recently shut down for two years by the interior minister
and a mass movement of the Arab population is under threat of being outlawed.
"Democracy" doesn't seem to be the appropriate word here, either.
Even some of the new immigrants do not share in Israeli democracy. A soldier in the
Israel Defense Forces named Michael Gorkin cannot become an Israeli citizen only
because he is not a Jew. The father of an immigrant from Ethiopia named Yisraeli
Isham could not attend his daughter's wedding because the Interior Ministry cast
doubt on his Jewishness. A regime that treats its people in this way cannot be
called democratic.
What's left? Democracy exists only for the state's (proven) Jewish residents. That
is, for about 5.3 million people, half of the 10.6 million people who live here. They
are the only intended beneficiaries of the rule of law, freedom of expression, civic
freedoms, equality before the law and a fair and just legal system. Cracks have
appeared in this democracy of late. The rule of law has been breached, the
corruption scandals and the way they have been treated are raising serious
questions, the government is trying to intimidate the press, social justice is a
lost cause and equality, too, is far from being a fact.
We have to fight with all our might to get rid of all these ills, but, above all, the
lying impression that we are democratic must be quashed. It is impossible to
be both occupiers and democrats; there is no such thing as enlightened
exploiters and racists. Those are unresolvable contradictions, flagrant
oxymorons. Even if propriety is restored and the attorney-general no longer
betrays his trust, the Supreme Court becomes a beacon of justice, the
Knesset enacts only just laws and the government rules according to the
law, the conditions for democracy will not yet exist in Israel.
On the day after tomorrow, when tanks guard the voters in Yitzhar and other
West Bank settlements, when curfew protects the election process in the
Jewish settlement in Hebron, when thousands of soldiers will defend the
roads on which the polling stations will be transported and when foreign
workers with no rights will sweep our streets, we should remember that
this is half a democracy, no more.
By Gideon Levy Haaretz. Jan. 26,2003
What sort of democracy is this, if exactly half the state's residents don't benefit from it? Indeed,
can the term "democratic" be applied to a state in which many of the residents live under a
military regime or are deprived of civil rights? Can there be democracy without equality, with
a lengthy occupation and with foreign workers who have no rights? And what about the
racism? The storm that was engendered by the leak of a document to the press by an
attorney in the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, Liora Glatt-Berkovich, and by the
police interrogation, under caution to boot, of Ha'aretz correspondent Baruch Kra
\was perfectly justified. More and more cracks are becoming apparent in the
democratic regime.
Kra's interrogation was an ominous portent, the all-out assault on attorney Glatt-Berkovich
is terrifying, and the conduct of the attorney-general, Elyakim Rubinstein, is disgraceful.
We must not lightly let these phenomena pass by. We must not forget that the entire
structure is wobbly. Once Israel became an occupying state, it ceased to be a democracy.
There is no such thing: Israel's claims about its democratic character are empty boasts.
Just as there is no such thing as a partial pregnancy, there is no such thing as a partial
democracy, either.
No democracy exists only as far as a particular territorial line within the country, and no
democracy is reserved exclusively for a particular religion or nationality. In a truly
democratic regime, everyone enjoys his freedoms and rights in equal measure. That
is not the case in Israel. More than 10 million people live between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan River, in the state and in its occupied territories. The separation
between the occupied areas and the state is anachronistic: Israel has existed for
far more years with the occupation than without it, and the territories are an integral
part of it, with all this entails. Some 3.5 million Palestinians have been living under
a brutal, rigorous military occupation for well over three decades. Surely no one will
try to claim that they are free. Another 300,000 to 400,000 foreign workers live among
us and are also without basic rights. They, too, are not part of a democracy.
Nor can anyone serious maintain that the 1.3 million Arabs who live in Israel are equal
citizens. With the exception of the right to vote and the right to stand for office, which
was almost taken from some of their representatives this month, there is hardly a
sphere in which they can be said to be citizens of a democracy. They are discriminated
against in every realm of life, and they are excluded from the democratic public discourse.
One of their newspapers was recently shut down for two years by the interior minister
and a mass movement of the Arab population is under threat of being outlawed.
"Democracy" doesn't seem to be the appropriate word here, either.
Even some of the new immigrants do not share in Israeli democracy. A soldier in the
Israel Defense Forces named Michael Gorkin cannot become an Israeli citizen only
because he is not a Jew. The father of an immigrant from Ethiopia named Yisraeli
Isham could not attend his daughter's wedding because the Interior Ministry cast
doubt on his Jewishness. A regime that treats its people in this way cannot be
called democratic.
What's left? Democracy exists only for the state's (proven) Jewish residents. That
is, for about 5.3 million people, half of the 10.6 million people who live here. They
are the only intended beneficiaries of the rule of law, freedom of expression, civic
freedoms, equality before the law and a fair and just legal system. Cracks have
appeared in this democracy of late. The rule of law has been breached, the
corruption scandals and the way they have been treated are raising serious
questions, the government is trying to intimidate the press, social justice is a
lost cause and equality, too, is far from being a fact.
We have to fight with all our might to get rid of all these ills, but, above all, the
lying impression that we are democratic must be quashed. It is impossible to
be both occupiers and democrats; there is no such thing as enlightened
exploiters and racists. Those are unresolvable contradictions, flagrant
oxymorons. Even if propriety is restored and the attorney-general no longer
betrays his trust, the Supreme Court becomes a beacon of justice, the
Knesset enacts only just laws and the government rules according to the
law, the conditions for democracy will not yet exist in Israel.
On the day after tomorrow, when tanks guard the voters in Yitzhar and other
West Bank settlements, when curfew protects the election process in the
Jewish settlement in Hebron, when thousands of soldiers will defend the
roads on which the polling stations will be transported and when foreign
workers with no rights will sweep our streets, we should remember that
this is half a democracy, no more.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$75.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
lying impression that we are democratic must be quashed. It is impossible to
be both occupiers and democrats; there is no such thing as enlightened
exploiters and racists. Those are unresolvable contradictions, flagrant
oxymorons."
These words really ring true which is exactly why Indymedia has the MORAL OBLIGATION not to allow Zionists to infiltrate Indymedia no matter how much money they offer to Indymedia!!!!!!
Indymedia must rise above the selfish greed and monetary motives that enables Zionist propaganda to dominate and manipulate the corporate mainstream media! PLEASE! NO MORE ZIONIST LIES FROM POSTERS WITH THE NAMES OF SAEEL, ENDER, AND OTHERS INCLUDING "ONE OF THE EDITORS"!
THE TRUTH MUST PREVAIL AT INDYMEDIA!!!!!!!!!! FREEDOM FROM ZIONISM AND ALL RACISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Israel has lost its soul, it is up to it's arse in blood and ethnic cleansing (transfer).
America has lost it's soul by being a client of Y'srael.
Cockroaches, cockroaches everywhere.
The anti humans are running the world.
Israelis often force Palestinian children to pose at gunpoint for Israeli propaganda pics showing children with guns etc.
Below a story tells of how this was done to a Palestinian-American without a peep out of the US embassy.
Romal al-Sweiti for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida
27 December 2002
Occupation soldiers in Nablus City yesterday committed a racist crime against a child, who carries US nationality, forcing him to sit on the floor and to tie a headband carrying the insignia of 'Al-Aqsa Brigades' in order to take pictures of him.
The mother of the 14-year old child , named Ahmad Abdel Haq, from the Al-Jabal Al-Shamali area in Nablus said that occupation soldiers raided their home after blowing up the front door when her son was alone . The soldiers then started destroying the house and all their belongings before discovering the Ahmad.
They then started beating him up brutally, despite his pleas and attempts to explain to them that he has an American passport with the number '701372809' and that he was born in California, USA.
She said that one of the occupation captains forced her son to sit down and placed behind him a Palestinian flag and two M-16 machineguns as well as a number of hand grenades and a gun on the table in front of him and then gave him a piece of paper and another M-16 machinegun and forced him to read a suicide bomber's will.
After this was finished, he was forced to act as if he was praying on the floor. The mother said that the soldiers placed their machineguns to her son's head threatening to kill him if he told any media channels what happened to him, and then they threw him on the stairs, which resulted in head injuries.
The mother added that all this was photographed with a still camera. She said that she informed the American consulate of the incident which she described as "racist", and expressed fear that these photographs may be used against her son or against the Palestinian people in general.
Folowing the attack Ahmad has been suffering from a state of hysteria and will need psychiatric treatment.
http://www.ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=761
Well, I can't speak for all of the others that you label as racist, but as for me, I've just gotten bored with your shrieky trolling, Multinym.
Surprise us. Say something reasonable.
@%<
@%<
I believe everyone has an inherent right to their own homeland.
That is why I suggest Israelis be handed twenty two percent of hysterical Palestine, leaving the Palestinians with seventy eight percent of their ancestral Homeland..
Congratulations. You are the first desperate forger who not only managed to spell my name right but _also_ include the Shostakovich smiley I sign my posts with. That posts being forged in my name come at the same time _I'm_ being accused of diversionary tactics -- well, well, well.
@%<
I hope the editors here don't delete my post, yet again, while leaving the idiotic anti-zionist stuff.
Zionism is about a safe home for Jews, not about hurting others. Zionism isn't a bad thing. Stop singeling Israel out for not being perfect, and stop scapegoating people.
Unfortuately, during the illeagal Zionist occupation this once Lovely paradise was trashed to make room for a stripmall with an offensive odor.
Your comments "reeks of a bad smell" and other such things indicate that you have an agenda beyond mere fairness. And you're too much of a coward to admit it, even on a computer. Oh well.
And it isn't working. Zionism has failed at its primary mission. Far from a haven for Jews, it has created the only place on earth where Jews are still routinely murdered solely for being Jews.
with Islam. It's ironic that the more facist Islam becomes and the more same Muslims bring to their own religion, the more obsessed Muslims become with Zionism and Judism. How pathetically cowardly,
It's telling that we have no group called "Muslims for Juctice" protesting against Muslim atrocities in Nigeria, Kashmir, Russia, Sudan, Europe, NOrth America, Tunisia, Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Kuwait, Iran. it's just a bit too overwhelming for you to tackle isn't it?
So you single Israel out for "stolen land" but you don't also point out all the arab countries that stole the land that Jews lived on there?
What are you talking about? Palestinians kicked every Jew out of Palestinian land. While almost 20% of Israeli citizens are Muslim.
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine and almost every arab country destroyed their Jewish communities and kicked most of their Jews out over the last 50 years. Yet out of 6 million Israelis, almost 20% of Israeli citizens are Muslim.
Yet, you single Israel out for not being a better democracy than it is, yet you intentionally ignore what most arab nations did to their jews. It's ok with you that almost every Jew suffered even if they had nothing to do with Israel or anything?
Try being balanced. Probably hard, I guess, when you are fueled by obsessive-compulsive, dishonest and unhealthy hatred of zionists/Israel, eh?
Today, the Zionists raise olive Trees To plant Mkdonalds at every filthy intersection while single handedly crushing the historical landscape of the Middleast.
Check out this article by Ran HaCohen for an interesting response to this piece of propaganda Israel's supporters always site:
http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h-col.html
excerpt:
"The State of Israel produces a lot of propaganda which is refuted by the slightest critical analysis. The analogy drawn between the Palestinian refugees of 1948 and the Jews from Arab countries is an especially repulsive example of this."
Also see this article:
http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h123002.html
several small onshore discoveries and major offshore gas discoveries
Oil exploration in Israel has gone through a series of evolutionary steps since the drilling of the the first well in 1947 and the completion of the first discovery in 1955. Despite the common conception that there is no oil or gas in Israel, there have been successes with each stage. Over the past fifty-four years, approximately 410 wells have been drilled in Israel. Of these, about 100 were development and step out wells. The exploratory wells ranged in depth from about 1500 feet to the deepest well of over 21,000 feet, with the vast majority being the shallow wells drilled on surface geology to relatively shallow depths. The results of this drilling activity over the years are listed below, the more important of which are shown on the map to the right (click map for larger scale).
Numerous non-commercial oil and gas shows in many of the wells drilled.
Small commercial production of oil in Heletz, Kokhav, Ashdod and Zuk Tamrur
Small commercial production of gas in Zohar, Kidod, Kanaim, Sadot, Ashdod, Shiqma, Notera, and Hula Valley (Mazal)
World class major offshore gas discoveries at Noa, Or, Ashqelon (Mari-B) and Nir.
INITIAL EXPLORATION EFFORTS-
THE HOLYLAND HAS BEEN UNDER A
PERPETUAL ZIONIST SIEGE...
How Appaling?
I'm sorry, I came into this chat relatively late so I'm a bit confused. You must be talking about what Muslims are doing to holy sites. It's well known that the Palestinian Authority is trying to destroy historical proof of Jewish existence in the Holy Land. And they're starting by digging under the temple mount.
by Ender • Saturday February 01, 2003 at 02:27 PM
israel has no oil. It is a net importer of to the tune of 2 Billio dollars a year. There are many searches for oil but no significant findings.
http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/books/kanov/chap2.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/israel.html
add your comments
KEEP ALL ZIONISTS AWAY FROM THE MID EAST UNTIL THEY START BEHAVING LIKE HUMANS,
by to Ender : • Saturday February 01, 2003 at 03:35 PM
The fact that they are even searching for oil means that they are actively Drilling the Sacred grounds of the Holyland.
How Appaling?
add your comments
So what ?
by Ender • Saturday February 01, 2003 at 04:20 PM
I have totaly lost your point
We must address the inititial injustice of the creation of Israel when racist, white European countries in the UN gave away Arab land to racist, white, Eastern European Jews, when it wasn't the UN's land to give away in the first place.
We must condition any and all US aid to Israel based on dismantling the Zionist government that is there now, and replacing it with a true democratic government including a constitution that guarantees completely equal rights for all regardless of religion, ethnicity, race or sex, and that includes for all the 5 million Palestinian refugees who must be allowed to return to their ancestral homeland of Palestine-Israel, which is their right according to UN Resolutions, International Law and world opinion.
Any and all US aid to Israel must also be conditional with regards to all UN Resolutions and International Law.
No Zionist policies must be allowed to affect US foreign policy: ie. the Zionist push within our government to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel must be abandaoned. Jerusalem must always be an international, multi-cultural city. No Zionist-inspired anti-boycott laws against Israel should be admissable in US law. NO special breaks for Israel, as engineered by Zionist politicians shoud be admissable: No special tax-free donations for Israel, no special dual citizenship priviledges for Americans who decide to be Israeli too (ie, the original law should stand that any American citizen who votes in a foreign election, serves in a foreign government, fights in a foreign military must automatically have his or her American citizenship revoked.)
Even if and when Israel is transformed into a true democracy, foreign aid should not be so disproportionately given to Israel-Palestine. This is another aspect of Zionism in our US government that must be disallowed and outlawed.
Spread the word.
The numbers I've seen of Arab Jews who left is around 290,000 not the 600,000 to 700,000 that Zionists incessantly claim. ( http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h-col.html )
Arab Jews left for several reasons.
1) Israeli propaganda promising them a wealthy life in Israel.
2) When the propaganda failed, Israel used Mossad bombings in Arab Jewish neighborhoods along with deals with Arab dictators to make life for Jews harder in those countries. (I can provide documentation if you like.)
3) Actual resentment from Christian and Muslim Arabs for what happened to Palestinians by Israel.
In addition, Arab Jews are still in many Arabic countries like Lebanon. In fact in Lebanon, the Jewish community their refused to go to Israel saying that Lebanon was their home:
"Despite considerable effort, representatives of the World Zionist Organization were unable to convince the Jews of West Beirut to immigrate to Israel. 'Why should we leave,' they asked? 'Here are our houses and our friends.' " (Yediot Ahronot 7-19-82)
-Noam Chomsky
The Fateful Triangle
I do not think there is any comparison between Arab Jews who emigrated from Arab countries to Israel and Israel's brutal ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Palestine is not Israel. The state of Palestine should be established on ALL the lands Israel occupied in the defensive 67 war.
All Palestinians who choose to do so should be able to exercise their right fro self-determination in Palestine (not in Israel)
Palestine, if they so choose, can become a democratic country or it can become a country based on Muslim Sharia law (as proposed in the draft Palestinian constitution)
Palestinian cannot impose their laws on Israelis.
Once there will a state called Palestine the pressure to turn Israel into the 2nd Palestinian state hopefully will be reduced.
All people who belong to the Jewish nation (the Hebrews) should be able to exercise their right for self-determination in the country called Israel - This is the essence of Zionism, a secular movement that brought to the establishment of the state of Israel.
The Hebrews and non-Hebrews citizens of Israel are from many ethnicities: Some are refugees from (Nazi era) Europe, some are Africans from Ethiopia, some are from Asia , some are refugees from Arab countries, some are fro the former soviet union and many of them are not Jewish at all but they have become citizens of Israel.
"Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty
over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] on the Gaza
Strip ..."
--excerpt from the Palestinian National Charter, as it was formulated in
1964 by the inaugural convention of the Palestinian National Council in
Cairo (where the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded)
It points to a fundamental fallacy in the authenticity of the Palestinian
claims for national self-determination. As can be seen, they explicitly
eschew any claims of sovereignty in the territories of Judea and Samaria
(the "West Bank") and the Gaza Strip, which they openly concede to the
jurisdiction of the Jordanians and the Egyptians respectively.
Self-determination for ethnic groups is racism. Self-determination for Jews is not one whit different than Self-determination for Aryans. The principle is exactly the same.