Are we watching a democracy die?

The following article is concerning, and deserves a stand alone post to enable due consideration: 

“As _____ war drags on, Israeli democracy weakens further”   https://theconversation.com/as-_____-war-drags-on-israeli-democracy-weakens-further-234339   “a leading democracy index demoted Israel’s classification from a “liberal democracy” to an “electoral democracy.”   ...   Democracy is associated with three key elements: leadership, institutions and citizens’ values. When they appear to be deteriorating, a democracy is said to be backsliding.   Historians and social scientists have found that a country’s democracy tends to get weaker during a prolonged war.   ...   Even before the war began, a growing share of Jewish citizens of Israel believed they should have more rights than non-Jewish citizens   ...   In the first month of the war, for example, there were 18,000 calls for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased” or “destroyed” in Hebrew posts on the social media   ...   A February 2024 poll found that two-thirds of Jewish Israelis oppose humanitarian aid to Gaza, while 42% say Israel shouldn’t follow international humanitarian laws or abide by the international laws of war.”   The author’s concluding remarks about the main risks to democracy are particularly significant      

Are we seeing a decline or even the death of democracy in that nation?

The protests against change before the war were encouraging, and I still maintain that one day Israel will realise and regret what it has done during this war, so my opinion is a temporary (albeit severe) decline will occur, but not the permanent death of democracy - and I note that similar effects occurred in allied nations during World Wars One (when the British royal family changed their name, and a dog breed was re-named - because of the widely spread and intense hate of Germany/Germans [also reflected in the Versailles Treaty which is often considered a cause - or excuse - for the next World War] ) and Two (which included internments of US citizens - a move now widely accepted as wrong but supported at that time because of the encouraged by propaganda, widely spread and intense hate of several nations), but democracy recovered afterwards. 

The recovery, however, may take longer in Israel. 

 

PS - I have just seen another petition calling for safety, self-determination and empowerment for Jewish communities in Australia. Those rights also exist EQUALLY - neither lesser nor greater - for Palestinian communities in Australia. 

PPS - Israel coming to terms with what it has done will likely require the collection and presentation of testimony and other evidence from Palestinians 

PPPS - this is also a sign of hope

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/