While world media quickly reacted to Bibi’s deliberately inflammatory campaign statement that Israel belongs only to the Jewish people, a far more sinister step related to the election campaign took place last week — without much attention outside Israel.
That step — the outright banning of one of the 2 main Palestinian-Israeli “Lists” (a List is a party, or a group of parties running together) — has both proven that Bibi was merely stating a fact of life in Israel, and that he’s far from alone in this view. In fact, his main contenders in the upcoming election literally shot themselves in the foot by supporting the ban, just in order to demonstrate that when push comes to shove, they stand with Bibi on this line in the sand: Arab citizens can perhaps be tolerated, but only if they behave, i.e., when they don’t demand a partnership stake in the country’s future.
More, below the salmon-hued info box.
Since 1967, Israel has controlled the lives of the Palestinian people living in East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza, without giving them citizenship; the vast majority have been forced to live as stateless, rightless subjects under military rule.
Even now, as Occupation-tolerant advocates often deny and discount this basic reality (or are shamefully ignorant of it), Israel controls the freedom of movement of these territories' residents, in particular their ability to go abroad and return; controls their residency status; their airspace, currency, water supply, fuel supply, most of their electricity, and their ability to import and export products. All the while, deeply exploiting their day labor and natural resources — and further controlling their social and intimate lives via a secret police that extorts an extensive network of collaborators. THIS IS A VERY PARTIAL LIST.
This Occupation regime has continued unabated for nearly 52 out of the Israeli parliament’s 70 years of existence, covering the last 14 out of Israel's 20 general elections. Apart from a couple of elections in the 1980s-90s, no major Israeli party has campaigned on ending it.
As long as this continues, the Israeli elections cannot be considered really democratic. That said, one should never give up hope, and elections might open the door to the Law of Unintended Consequences, in a good way.
Besides, it’s one of the world's most entertaining electoral circuses. So I'm writing this series.