Class 2: Occupied Palestine
Systemic Discrimination and Ethnocracy
A cornerstone of Israeli propaganda is the claim of equal treatment for all its citizens. However, this narrative obscures the reality that Israel differentiates between citizenship and nationality based on ethnicity. An "Arab" Israeli citizen and a Jewish Israeli citizen, while both technically citizens, experience starkly different rights and privileges determined by their "nationality."
This discrimination is enshrined in law, as evidenced by the database of discriminatory laws compiled by Adalah. Laws like the Law of Return and Absentees’ Property Law exemplify the systemic racism in the Israeli legal system. Efforts to establish a non-ethnic Israeli nationality have been repeatedly rejected by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it would undermine the Jewish character of the state.
Socioeconomic Disparities
The ethnocratic nature of Israel is further highlighted by the socioeconomic disparities faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel. Almost half live below the poverty line, with lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, less access to education and resources, and significantly less municipal and government funding. Reports by Adalah and the Adva Center elucidate these inequalities in detail.
Moreover, most land within the Green Line is inaccessible to Palestinian citizens of Israel. A significant portion of this land is controlled by the Jewish National Fund, which allocates land exclusively to Jewish individuals, a policy that is directly supported by the state. This arrangement is a clear instance of overt discrimination against Arab citizens in land allocation and use.
Segregated and Hierarchical Society
The pervasive and systematic nature of discrimination in Israel, both de jure and de facto, paints a picture of a deeply segregated and hierarchical society. This reality is often obfuscated by citing superficial markers of equality, but the fundamental inequality and ethnocratic hierarchy are unmistakable. This structure is not an accidental feature but a deliberate design of Israeli society, reinforcing its colonial and ethnocratic nature and contradicting any claims of equality among its citizens.