TW: This piece was written by a Palestinian Israeli member of the Knesset. He frames the challenges Israel faces as a nation when it is trying to retain its Jewish identity without destroying its democratic and pluralistic character. It is unclear to me how they will do so. The demographics are challenging. But I am damn sure expanding their settlements into the West Bank is not the way to go.
From NYT:
"...We face discrimination in all fields of life. Arab citizens are 20 percent of the population, but only 6 percent of the employees in the public sector. Not one Arab employee is working in the central bank of Israel. Imagine if there was not one African-American citizen employed in the central bank of the United States.
Israel is simultaneously running three systems of government. The first is full democracy toward its Jewish citizens — ethnocracy. The second is racial discrimination toward the Palestinian minority — creeping Jim Crowism. And the third is occupation of the Palestinian territories with one set of laws for Palestinians and another for Jewish settlers — apartheid.
A few weeks ago, Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu Party led the charge in the Israeli Knesset to ban my party — the Arab Movement for Renewal — from participating in the elections. Netanyahu’s Likud also supported the action. The Supreme Court overturned the maneuvers of the politicians. But their attempt to ban our participation should expose Israel’s democracy to the world as fraudulent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07iht-edtibi.html?_r=1&sq=ahmad%20tibi&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1240762118-1r1e9kMLTLrtjf9tShO4lQ
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