B’Tselem in position paper ahead of Israeli elections: Not a “Vibrant Democracy”. This is Apartheid.

“About 15 million people live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians. However, not all these people will be permitted to vote in Israel’s general elections next week, which will determine the government and our lives in the coming years. About half of them – all the Palestinians who live in this area, whether citizens, permanent residents or subjects – are either fully or partially excluded from this decision-making process.

One regime governs the entire area and the fate of everyone in it. A regime that operates according to a single organizing principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. Under this regime, Jewish citizens have the monopoly on political power. Only they have a true seat at the table where their fate, and the fate of Palestinians, is determined.

This is not a ‘vibrant democracy’. This is apartheid.”

In a new position paper issued today (Friday, 28 Oct. 2022), B’Tselem shows what elections look like in an apartheid regime. While all Jews who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea can fulfill their right to vote, even if they live in West Bank settlements (about 10% of the Jewish population), all Palestinians who live in the same area – whether citizens, residents or subjects – are fully or partially excluded from the electoral process:

• The 5.5 million Palestinian subjects who live in the Occupied Territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) are not allowed to vote or run for Knesset – the Israeli parliament – and have no representation in the political institutions that dictate their lives.
   
• About 1.7 Palestinian citizens can vote and run for parliament, but this right can only be exercised partially, to a lesser degree than Jewish citizens, and is restricted by law. For the first time, B’Tselem is challenging Israel’s basic law on running for parliament, which bars any candidate if their actions or goals explicitly or implicitly include “negation of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” The Central Elections Committee – a body comprised of representatives of various political parties – has repeatedly relied on this clause to disqualify Palestinian candidates and lists, arguing that their civil struggle for full equality violates the clause as it denies Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Therefore, Palestinian citizens who choose to participate in the electoral process have no choice but to enter the political playing field with their hands tied.