Israel Bans Arab Parties
Haaretz (via Matt Yglesias) reports that the Israeli Central Elections Committee has banned Arab parties from the upcoming parliamentary elections.
I have to admit my jaw dropped a bit when I saw this one coming over the ticker. I'll leave the debate about whether this action is consistent with Israeli law and stated political values alone for a moment, along with the debate about whether or not the decision is racist. Actually, on second thought, no I won't. It flagrantly violates the notion of Israel as a democracy that extends political rights - however imperfectly - to all its citizens, and it is racist.
Look, I get that the Committee is supposed to safeguard Israeli political order by making sure that blatantly racist or truly anti-Israeli parties don't get an institutional voice. This grates against my very permissive, very American views on free speech, but such restrictions aren't unknown in modern democracies, and given Israel's history and circumstances, along with the fact that very few parties have actually been banned in the past, I'm willing to see the process as more or less compatible with democratic values. Indeed, in the past the Committee has kept far right Jewish parties out of elections because of - wait for it - racism.
To issue a blanket ban on the existing Arab Knesset bloc, though, stinks of institutional disenfranchisement. In effect, it tells Israeli Arabs that they're free to vote, but there won't be anyone on the ballot that represents their views or interests. I understand concerns about Arab politicians' taking less-than-supportive stances with regard to the latest war. I understand concerns about Arab politicians traveling to less-than-friendly countries. The fact is, though, that roughly 20% of the Israeli population is Arab. One of Israel's redeeming qualities - one of the things that prevents all the comparisons with South Africa from sticking - is that this segment of the population has citizenship rights. They're not complete, and there are outstanding issues with Israel's Arab population that sorely need to be addressed, but at the end of the day they're citizens with representation in a democracy, and can use that representation to peacefully and legally improve their lot.
Today's decision represents a giant step away from that ideal.
4 comments:
Unusually enough (and boy do I mean unusual), Al-Jazeera gives a more fair opinion:
Two Arab political parties have been disqualified...after they were accused of not recognising the country's right to exist.
However, when I saw the Haaretz article, my jaw dropped too.
The Haaretz article mentions that as well. It doesn't cite any evidence for such claims, though, and I haven't been able to find any (though, admittedly, I can't read Hebrew).
A more up-to-date article (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054867.html) also mentions that even the Committee thinks its ban won't be upheld by the Supreme Court, which make me think that this was just populist grandstanding. That almost makes it worse, though, because it means that mainstream Israeli parties are engaging in what amounts to ethnic-bashing divide-and-conquer populism. Not Israel's finest hour.
I agree. If the apotheosis of competent government is a democracy, then Israel is indeed falling short of this ideal.
Unusually enough (and boy do I mean unusual), Al-Jazeera gives a more fair opinion:
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