Volume CXXXIII, Number 5 October 10, 2003 f

Judge a democracy by its courts, not by its soldiers
YARON EISENBERG
CONTRIBUTOR

I should thank Mr. Barndollar for providing a typical example of a deeply troubling and increasingly accepted trend in discourse about the Middle East, namely, the vilification of Israel and its democratically-elected leader. Among the various inflammatory remarks that appeared in last week's issue of the Orient, cavalier assertions such as, "Israel is an apartheid state, just as surely as South Africa ever was," and comments implying that Israel is not a democratic state, are egregious. These statements are particularly cynical in light of the fact that Israel is the only state in the Middle East where an Arab citizen's rights to due process, to vote, and to speak freely, are protected.

Israel is not gender, faith, or race biased when it comes to citizenship. Every citizen in Israel has a right to vote, whether they be Arab or Jew, Muslim or Christian, man or woman. There are approximately 1,000,000 Muslims who are citizens, along with roughly 130,000 Christians and 100,000 Druze out of a total population of 6.3 million.

Mr. Barndollar readily offers Baruch Kimmerling's analogy between Herrenvolk , the "Nazi term for master race," and Israel. His failure is that he does not recognize the inaccuracy of such an analogy. Israeli citizens are composed of a variety of races and peoples, from Ethiopian to Russian, and a multitude of faiths from Druze to Muslim. Therefore, using the Nazi term Herrenvolk is inaccurate, not to mention appalling.

Members of Israeli parliament, the Knesset, are elected into office by free and transparent elections. There is a wide range of representation in the Knesset-out of 120 seats, 18 are held by women and eight by Arab representatives. Salah Tarif, the first non-Jewish minister in the Israeli government, was appointed in 2001 under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The vitality of Israel's democracy rivals that of any on the globe. Freedom of press, speech, and self-expression are benchmarks of a democratic culture. The Israeli press is diverse and notoriously inquisitive, waiting to pounce on a scandal or to expose government activities, often vocalizing harsh criticisms. The major papers in Israel are private and represent a wide array of viewpoints. Every citizen has a right to own or lease government property. There is also freedom of religion.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz offers this guideline to assess the quality of a democracy: "One does not judge a democracy by the way its soldiers, young men and women under tremendous provocation, immediately react. One judges a democracy by the way its courts react in the dispassionate cool of judicial chambers. And the Israeli Supreme Court and other courts have reacted magnificently. For the first time in Mideast history, there is an independent judiciary willing to listen to grievances of Arabs. That judiciary is called the Israeli Supreme Court."

The claim that Israel is denying citizenship to an occupied population in Gaza and the West Bank disregards the circumstances that brought these territories under Israeli control and ignores the express wishes of the Palestinian leadership. Israel acquired the territories in the '67 War. Israel did stage a pre-emptive strike, thus beginning the military engagement of the Six Days War. However, it did not want or seek this conflict.

Once it gained the territories, Israel's leaders immediately looked for a peace treaty and a resolution to the tension that existed with its Arab neighbors. One method would have involved the return of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Egypt, respectively. However, the Arab leaders, meeting in August '67 in Khartoum, proclaimed that there would be no peace treaty with Israel. Several years later, Jordan and Egypt relinquished their claims to the territories. The territories have become contested and disputed, but never legally annexed. That is why the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not citizens of Israel; the territory they live in has not legally become a part of Israel proper, nor do the Palestinians want to become citizens of Israel.

Furthermore, the Palestinian population has its own national movement whose leadership continually calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Despite all of this, Israel still pursued the Oslo Accords in the nineties, which culminated in unprecedented Palestinian autonomy.

The analogy between apartheid South Africa and Israel is historically, socially, and politically false, not to mention morally reprehensible. The Arab minority within Israel has equal rights under the law. Contrary to South Africa, where there was conflict over a racist policy, the Palestinian leadership within the territories ultimately seeks to destroy Israel. Although Israel has limited certain Palestinian activities in the disputed territories, these policies are rooted in real security concerns stemming from Palestinian terrorist groups residing amongst a civilian population, in addition to hostile tensions with its Arab neighbors, not from racial considerations.

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