Some people present the Israeli political system as a democracy. And the only one in the Middle East.
Given the fact no other country in the world maintains the biggest open-air prison in the world (the Israeli-occupied territories) believing in Israel’s democratic principles suddenly disappears.
Torture in Israeli prisons is systemic, there is limited freedom of speech, political prisoners, and authorities deny asylum-seekers access to a fair or prompt refugee status determination process. Conscientious objectors to military service were imprisoned.
Now let’s quote HRW: “Israel’s twelve-year closure of Gaza, exacerbated by Egyptian restrictions on its border with Gaza, limits access to educational, economic and other opportunities, medical care, clean water and electricity for the nearly 2 million Palestinians who live there. Eighty percent of Gaza’s population depend on humanitarian aid.”
Israel is also described as a flawed democracy by The Economist (yes, the majority of countries lie at this scale or below).
And now the most important thing. Israel is committing war crimes after war crimes. The Palestinians get killed for nothing, and Israel is conducting deadly raids.
While the internal processes may be democratic Israel as a whole is far from being a democratic country.
Leave a Reply