Elections Don't Make Israel a Democracy
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (OECD Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development / Flickr)
New elections were nearly called in November 2017 after Defense Minister
Avigdor Lieberman resigned in protest of Israel not going to war with Gaza
and right-wing leader Naftali Bennett threatened to pull his party from the
coalition if he was not given the defense portfolio. However, Netanyahu
outfoxed Bennett by claiming that it was too dangerous a time to go to
elections and retained the defense portfolio for himself (Netanyahu is now
Israel's prime minister, defense minister, and foreign minister), utilizing
a slim 51 percent ruling majority.
Until last week it looked like the coalition would hold together with its
small majority. But following the Knesset's inability to reach agreement on
a bill dealing with military conscription of the ultra-orthodox, and, much
more importantly, leaked information that the ministry of justice was
recommending Netanyahu's indictment on charges of bribery, on Monday
Netanyahu announced, "It's too difficult [to pass laws], we need elections."
With that, the Israeli national election is scheduled to take place on April
9.
Much of the already up and running election coverage is focused on the
coming indictment of Netanyahu. Will he be able to stave off the attorney
general until April? If he is reelected, will he try to get his coalition
partners to pass a measure forbidding the prosecution of a sitting prime
minister?
Other election issues under discussion are the certain increase we will see
in pandering to settlers. Netanyahu has already begun that.
Absent entirely from the election conversation is the Palestinian population
living under Israeli control without voting rights.
Twenty percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinian. They can vote in all
Israeli elections and have representation in Knesset. However, these Israeli
Palestinians represent only about one-third of the Palestinians living under
Israeli rule and military occupation.
Though the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are the official governments of
the West Bank and Gaza, respectively, Israel is really in charge. Israel
controls the borders, the currency, and the central bank. It collects taxes
on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), maintains the right to carry
out military operations on Palestinian land, and controls the amount of
freedom, or lack thereof, that Palestinians are granted.
Last year, Israel approved only 54 percent of the permits that residents of
Gaza applied for to travel outside of Gaza for vital medical treatment.
Reasons for denying people in Gaza necessary medical treatment are often
absurd, such as denying travel because a relative at one time moved from
Gaza to the West Bank without Israeli permission. Besides the right of
travel, Israel regulates the fuel and building materials available to
Gazans, and has at times even controlled the amount of food imports
according to the number of calories Gazans should consume.
Israel controls not only the exterior borders of the West Bank but what goes
on inside as well. While the Palestinian Authority manages such things as
utilities and infrastructure, for much of the West Bank, Israel is the
ultimate authority. Israeli settler regional councils control 40 percent of
West Bank land. Even in areas like Ramallah, supposedly under complete
Palestinian Authority control, Israel reserves the right to enter the city
at any time, to close streets and shops, burst into homes, and make
warrantless arrests.
While the PA does maintain a judicial and penal system, one that itself is
incredibly repressive, Palestinians are also subject to Israel's military
court system and such laws as Military Order 101, which bans peaceful
protest. Though they are prosecuted in Israeli military courts and serve
time in Israeli military prisons, Palestinians have no say over who is
appointed to run the Israeli military, let alone the military courts.
Jerusalem was captured by Israel in 1967 and formally, and illegally,
annexed in 1980. Common sense might follow that Israel would have then
absorbed the East Jerusalem Palestinians, now numbering around 370,000, and
made them Israeli citizens.
Rather than holding citizenship, however, Jerusalem Palestinians hold the
status of permanent residents, allowing them to vote in municipal, but not
national, elections. While this may at first seem a move in the right
direction, a closer look reveals careful manipulation of demographics to
ensure an at least a 70 percent Jewish majority at all times. Through such
policies as exorbitant taxation, requiring constant proof of residency, and
denial of family unification, since 1967 Israel has managed to revoke the
residency of 14,595 Palestinian Jerusalemites. Still nervous about the
demographics Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset-a body East Jerusalem
Palestinians have no representation in-are currently working on annexation
of three large settlement blocks surrounding Jerusalem to bring 140,000
Jewish Israelis setters into the municipality, while displacing the current
Palestinian population.
Israel has no intention of ending its military occupation. 2019 will mark 52
years of occupation, including 12 years of siege of Gaza, and 26 years since
the signing of the Oslo Accords that were supposed to create a Palestinian
state. 600,000 Israeli citizens now live in the approximately 200 illegal
Israeli settlements that cover the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Even since the announcement of new elections, 2,200 more settlement units
have been advanced. While the two-state solution continues to be debated,
the one apartheid state without voting rights for all, is barreling ahead.
A look at who is and isn't allowed to vote in Israel/Palestine reveals
Israel's motivations:
Number of Jewish Israelis living in Israel proper, and East Jerusalem, and
West Bank settlements:
6.589 million (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics)
Number of Palestinian citizens of Israel (Palestinians who can vote in
national elections):
1.5 million (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and Jerusalem
Municipality)
Number of Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza who cannot
vote in Israeli national elections:
4.88 million (Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics)
As we continue to watch the indictment and campaigning dramas of Israel's
2019 elections and we continue to hear the absurd label of Israel as a
democratic state, let's not forget that the right to vote is only granted to
60 percent of the total population and only one third of Palestinians who
live under Israeli rule.
This article was produced by Local Peace Economy, a project of the
Independent Media Institute.
Ariel Gold / Independent Media Institute