Israel : a democracy in full?

Abstract EN

This paper challenges the widely-held argument that Israel is a liberal democracy.

Central to this criticism against Israel’s democracy is the key incongruity between the egalitarian, universalistic- democratic claim and its strict Zionist/ Jewish feature.

Zionism rather than citizenship (and therein lies the crux of the matter) is the basic tenet of Israeli democracy.

Seen in this way, Israel’s democracy is confined to its Jewish citizens rather than to all of its citizens, thus creating an ethnic democracy that is devoid of a necessary yet absent liberal component.

The Evolution of Israel’s ethnic democracy has been informed by the experience of the founding fathers of Zionism and the Jewish Yishuv (the Jewish Community in Mandatory Palestine) who came from Eastern Europe.

The Yishuv transitioned into democracy without experiencing liberalism as was the case in Western Europe.

Equally important, the presence of a sizable Arab minority, widely seen as a latent threat to the state, aggravated the situation.

Under the circumstances, Israeli leaders, committed to democracy as they seemed to be, resorted to this kind of ethnic Jewish democracy.

The study concludes by posting that this model of democracy will be maintained into the foreseeable future despite the systematic and persistent calls from the Arab minority to have a state for all of its citizens.