Comment by fsckboy

This is objectively false.

Israel is objectively an apartheid state [1][2], no different to apartheid South Africa. South Africa was also a "democracy" (for white people). You cannot be both a democracy and an apartheid state, by definition.

There are ~2M Palestinians in Gaza and ~3M in the West Bank, both areas that Israel lays claim to and are within its borders. These 5M people do not have the rights of the Jewish citizens of Israel. Even for the few who are Israeli Arabs, they don't have the same rights as Jewish Israeli citizens (eg [3]). Most settlements prohibit Israeli Arabs from living their under 2018 segregation laws [4].

Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history will immediately recognize Israel for what it is. Jim Crowe laws, sundown towns and so on.

And this segregation permeates every aspect of daily life. Checkpoints, residency permit segregation, Palestinians falling under military rather than civil jurisdiction, many Palestinians being held indefinitely without charge, water restrictions, building roads to divide up the West Bank and separate Palestinian communities, destroying Palestinian food sources, randomly bulldozing Palestinian homes, never premitting construction, settler terrorism, honestly the list goes on and on.

And in 11 months, ~75,000 tons of munitions have been dropped on an open air prison, also one of the most densely packed and most populous refugee camps in the world.

Democracy? I think not.

[1]: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-...

[2]: https://www.vox.com/23924319/israel-palestine-apartheid-mean...

[3]: https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/03/30/israel-new-laws-marginal...

[4]: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/31/17623978/israel-jewish-n...

Their current government is basically run by extremists, with government ministers openly calling for a second Nakba https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231009-israel-mk-calls-f....

Calling for a second Nakba, in my opinion, is no different to the chants of "death to isreal" coming from the other side.

I would say they are about as democratic as the former south african apartheid government. Democratic yes, but only one group of people gets to vote.

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