Alon Mizrahi // Israel is not a democracy as long as the occupation exists | 972 Magazine

7.11.17

Israel is not a democracy as long as the occupation exists | 972 Magazine: The 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration is another reason for celebration, as well as an excuse for endless talk intended to put us in a national trance — the kind that nullifies our personal existence and turns the individual into a single drop in a giant wave. We suffered, we went to war, we had our prophets, we built, we traveled, we have a hi-tech sector, we must live together. The neutral observer may wonder: does Israel even exist, or is it all in our imagination?

It is clear why the Right is interested in maintaining this reality. In Israel, as everywhere, the Right tends toward religiosity and nationalism. But why should the Israeli Left play ball? Or, if to be more concrete: why does the Left continue to talk about the central conflict in Israel as if it is one between “Jewish and democratic” without challenging the mystical elements of Judaism, without mentioning the fact that there is no such thing as a democracy that keeps five million people under military law.