Saturday, May 17, 2003

Survey: Israel Racist, Undemocratic
'More than half the Jewish population of Israel - 53 percent - is opposed to full equal rights for Israeli Arabs... The general conclusion of the survey, which is dubbed the "Israeli Democracy Survey" and will be conducted every year, is that Israel is basically a democracy in form more than in substance, and that it has yet to internalize fully the concept of democracy... Israel is also one of the only four countries of the 32 listed in the study, in which most of the public believes that "strong leaders can do more for the country than debates or legislation."'

The best comparison is to Apartheid South Africa. A racial majority is being repressed by force and systematically denied its human rights. Nevertheless it is popular in the US to call Israel a 'democracy.'

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