Israel is a democracy

Israel is a democratic state.

Response #1
Israel is not a modern liberal democracy like the United States, Britain, or France. In a modern Democracy, the state is a state of its citizens - Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, so your place in Israeli society is determined by your "Jewishness." Evidence of this was seen in the treatment of the Palestinians in Israel-proper from 1949-1966, where they lived under military rule, had their properties confiscated and given to Jews, and had them forcibly moved around the country to disperse their populations (see Charles Smith's "Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict"). The JNF says that land can only be sold/leased to Jews, and the ILF systematically''' discriminates against Arabs in land distribution. '''It would be like if the American government would say that only Whites could buy or lease land. It's absurd. Furthermore, in Israel, a Jew is not allowed to marry a Muslim, Christian, or any other non-Jew. Members of each religious group can only marry co-religionists. They don't like inter-mixing. It's like the inter-racial marriage restrictions that were in place when there was still segregation in the South. Also, unlike modern Liberal democracies, Israel has religious courts do marriage/divorce/family matters, and does not have the state handling such matters. Since they have religious courts handling such things, they usually discriminate against women (as religions are often practiced in very patriarchal manners). And this does not even get to the occupation - how can you be a democracy if you are ruling over a subject/captive population in the millions which has no rights? Israel gives all Jews everywhere the "right" to citizenship which denying it to non-Jews (it would be like if the US would call itself a White state and give citizenship to all Whites everywhere and deny it to non-Whites); it under-funds Palestinian neighborhoods as a matter of policy to force them to move out and make the land more Jewish (it would be like if the US would under-fund non-White neighborhoods to force Blacks and Hispanics to leave America to make it more White); it coops up West Bankers into Bantustans and has Jew-only settlements/colonies on confiscated Palestinian land to "Judaize" the land (it would be like if the US set up White-only colonies in non-White concentrated areas to establish a "White presence" on the land); they haven't allowed the establishment of any new Palestinian towns since 1948 while they constantly build Jewish towns; they don't allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to live in 93% of the country; they have ID cards which specify your ethnicity/religion; it has the millet system where it has officially "recognized" communities showing that Israel is NOT a state of it's citizens - your place in Israel is decided by your religion/ethnicity; it attempts to control the populations of minorities via lowering birthrates to maintain Jewish dominance; it periodically bans Arab parties (like Balad in 2009) and arrests Arab parliament members; it arrests Palestinians for criticizing Israel, tortures them, and holds them without trial for years; it has been under a "state of emergency" since 1948; it's police force usually does not protect Palestinians like they do to Jews; Jews in Israel get paid 60% more even with the same qualifications; politicians openly talk of ethnically cleansing the land; it confiscated the properties of Palestinians in Israel and gave it to Jews.

A fuller list of discriminatory measures against Arabs in Israel is given here:

http://adalah.org/Public/files/English/Legal_Advocacy/Discriminatory_Laws/Discriminatory-Laws-in-Israel-October-2012-Update.pdf

More details about land discrimination can be found here:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-s-discriminatory-land-policies/14579

http://972mag.com/resource-israels-persistent-policy-of-land-discrimination/89121/

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israeli-high-court-upholds-racist-admission-committees-law?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=3c89a82f39-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-3c89a82f39-299171653

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/israel-and-the-g-word/

Response #2
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