Quiz Yourself on 'Israeli Democracy' Post Your Comment (8 comments)

eMail to a friend Return to Zionist FAQ למאמר בעברית

Posted on April 22, 2002

Is it Israeli Democracy or "Jewish Democracy", you be the judge. Are you aware that:

• Prior to the 1948 war, Palestinian Christians and Muslims were a two-third majority of the population of Palestine, who owned and operated 93% of Palestine's lands?
  
  
• Prior to the 1948 war, most Israeli Jews were persecuted and dispossessed European Jews who made a one-third minority of the population?
  
• Prior to the 1948 war, only on third of the Jews in Palestine were legal citizens of the country?
  
  
• For Israel to become a "Jewish majority" it opted to expel and dispossess the two-third Palestinian majority?
  
  
• 80% of the Palestinian people were dispossessed from their homes, farms, and businesses and have been kept out for the past 54 years?
  
  
• 95% of Israel's lands (which is mostly owned by Palestinian refugees) is open for development to Jews only?
  
  
• Only one of the 45 Zionist Jews who sign the Israeli "declaration of independence" on May 14th, 1948 was born in Palestine. The other 44 were mostly Jewish refugees who escaped their anti-Semitic Europe countries, such as Tsarist Russia, Germany, and Poland.
  
  
• Israeli-Palestinian citizens live almost in segregated communities (or ghettos) because development is strictly limited outside their villages? Ironically, the word "ghetto" was invented to describe the living conditions of Eastern European Jews in Tsarist Russia!
  
  
• For just being "Jewish" you gain an automatic citizenship in Israel? Plus tens of thousands of dollars in subsidies too.
  
  
• Palestinian Muslims or Christians refugees, who were born in the country and later expelled, cannot gain Israeli citizenship? Of course, unless they convert to Judaism first!
  
  
• Pretending to be Jewish in Israel is punishable by law with up to one year's imprisonment? On the other hand, if you pretend to be a Muslim or Christian the law does you no harm!
  
  
• When the Palestine problem was created by Britain in 1917, more than 92% of the population of Palestine were Arabs and there were at that time no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine? That Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Palestinians at that time lived in peace with each other?
  
  
• Palestinians in the early 20th century owned 97.5% of the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together) owned only 2.5% of the land?
  
  
• Close to 4 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians are being subjected to Israeli laws that are different than the laws governing the 4.5 million Israeli Jews? Is this a "democratically" elected apartheid, or not, that is the question?
  
  
• In the occupied West Bank there are "Jewish Roads" and "Non-Jewish Roads"?
  
  
• Israel issues national identify cards where the religion of the card holder is clearly shown in bold type?
  
  
• Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza drive vehicles with license plates that have different coloring than the cars driven by Israeli settlers?
  
  
• Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza hold ID cards that are of different colors than the cards held by Israeli settlers?
  
  
• The only form of Judaism recognized by the "Jewish state" is Orthodox Judaism, so most US Jews could not get married in Israel. Furthermore, the only conversion to Judaism recognized is Orthodox, so most US converts aren't Jewish enough.
  
  
• Just prior to the 1948 war, Jews owned under 7% of Palestine's land, and to increase their share after the war, they passed the "Absentees' Law" which dispossessed the Palestinian majority land owners who later became "absent". What is even more tragic was the passage of an oxymoron law, called "Present Absentees' Law," which dispossessed the Palestinian-Israeli citizens who became internal refugees in Israel. It is worth noting that the internal Jewish refugees were not dispossessed as a result of this racist law.
  
  
• The U.S. funneled into the Israeli economy over 130 billion dollars, which is almost twice the amount devoted to rebuilding Western Europe after WW II!
  
  
• Israeli democracy is a facade for "Jewish Democracy?"
  
  
• Israel has nuclear weapons, and it was close to dropping one on Cairo in 1973?
  
  
• Israeli soldiers use human shields in battle to minimize their casualties?
  
  
• Israel killed over 20,000 Lebanese and Muslims (90% of whom are civilians) with American made and paid for weapons?
  

The concept of "transferring" European Jews to Palestine and "transferring" the Palestinian people out is central to Zionism. Ben-Gurion, the 1st Israeli Prime Minister, eloquently articulated this essential Zionist pillar, he stated in 1944:

"Zionism is a TRANSFER of the Jews. Regarding the TRANSFER of the [Palestinian] Arabs this is much easier than any other TRANSFER. There are Arab states in the vicinity . . . . and it is clear that if the [Palestinian] Arabs are removed [to these states] this will improve their condition and not the contrary." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 159) Note the usage of the word "transfer" to signify the uprooting of the indigenous population to make room for Jewish refugees. Now a days this is a war crime called Ethnic Cleansing.

Based on our correspondence with many Zionists and their sympathizers in the West, we find the majority of them WISH to continue to live in the illusion that Palestine was empty and it was waiting for its "people to redeem it." But deep inside, they all suspect the Zionist narrative to be a farce. However, their memories of the Holocaust abstract them from reality and that makes them heartless. The Palestinian people has been underwriting their "Never Again" slogan with their homes, blood, and future since the establishment of the "Jewish state". For the average person this slogan may not sound harsh; after all European Jews suffered European anti-Semitism for centuries. On the other hand, to us, the Palestinian people, this slogan implies Never Again regardless of the price; Never Again period. Similarly, Holocaust memories (and the guilt associated with it) are the primary reasons why Western countries (who continue to parade the "Jewish state as the only democracy in the Middle East") turn a blind eye to Israeli war crimes and apartheid. In a nutshell, the Palestinian people are the messiah to whoever caused the Holocaust, turned a blind eye to it, or feel guilty for its victims.

If by accident we have missed facts that differentiate Israel from other democracies, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Related Links

• Israeli racism explained by Joseph Massad
• Washington Report: Detailed accounting of U.S. aid to Israel
• Half a democracy By Ha'aretz Daily
• Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US, over a trillion dollars! By the Christian Science Monitor
• Zionist FAQ: Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East
• Documentary Videos: Palestinians as human shields for Israeli occupation
• Leaving the Zionist Ghetto: A Conversation with the former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg
• 'Human shield' dies as Hamas man is killed by troops By Ha'aretz Daily
• Video: Demolishing Palestinian houses in occupied 'Anata. The kind of terror which you will never see in Western media!
• Targeting the university By Joseph Massad
• 'Anti-Semitism' as a political weapon By Lasse Wilhelmson
• Movie: Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land.
• Videos: Blood and Religion: Unmasking the Zionist and Democratic State By Jonathan Cook
• Documentary Videos: Responding to Zionist Propaganda
• Music Video: Who's the Terrorist? You're the terrorist? by Damm.
• The Untermensch Syndrome: Israel's Moral Decay
• Apartheid in the Holy Land By the Nobel Prize laureate Desmond Tutu
• Never against! European collusion in Israel's slow genocide
• Ha'aretz: Let's hope Obama won't be a 'friend of Israel' by By Gideon Levy
• Ha'aretz: Democracy for Jews only
• Interview with Abraham Burg: Leaving the Zionist ghetto
• Zionist Quotes: Apartheid & Racist
• Zionism, Antisemitism, and the People of Palestine By Noel Ignatiev
• Zionist FAQ: Palestinians in 1948 left their homes based on the orders of their leaders at the time
• Palestinians don't have the right to defend themselves, they've the right to die silently!
• Abusing 'Anti-Semitism' Ran HaCohen
• Ha'aretz: Twilight Zone / Non-Jews need not apply
• Zionist Quotes: LOOTING, Plunder, & Destruction
• Zionist Quotes: Palestinians Do Exist, or Don't, That's The Question?
  
• The American policy towards new road map: approving the ethnic cleansing in Palestine
• Do the right thing - By Dalia Karpel

What is new?

-PalestineRemembered.com and its Nakba Oral History Project were featured on al-Jazeera Satellite TV.
-Nakba Oral History Video Podcast: Over 450 Oral History interviews (including 1,600 hours of recording) can be viewed now online.
-Gaza Jail Break
-Arabic version now available - النسخة العربية للموقع الان متوفرة
-Videos:Documenting the destroyed villages in video: Tracing all that remains since Nakba.
-Videos: Responding to Zionist Propaganda
-Satellite View & Google Earth: Over 6,000 placemarks identifying all destroyed towns, W. Bank & Gaza Strip Towns, & refugee camps.
-Interview:The ethnic cleansing of Palestine: George Galloway interviews Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe.
-For Palestinians, memory matters. It provides a blueprint for their future By George Bisharat.
-Zionist FAQ now available in Hebrew שאלות שציונים שואלים, עכשיו בעברית
-Video: The Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer report on the influence of the Israel Lobby on U.S. Foreign Policy
-The Nakba - an event that did not occur (although it had to occur) By Eitan Bronstein
-The Palestinian-Israeli conflict for beginners

Home | Mission Statement | Zionist FAQ | Maps | Refugees 101 | Zionism 101
Zionist Quotes | R.O.R. 101 | Pictures | Towns Listing | Ethnic Cleansing 101 | Search
Chronology | Site Tour | Profile | Guest Book | What's New? | FAQ | Links | Looting 101 | Contact
Oral History | DONATE