Israel's Own AI Bot GOES ROGUE & Attacks Israel!
http://youtu.be/ienRbr2D6N4

WhiteMouse,

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East?

Many Israeli historians have labelled Israel as
an apartheid state or a settler-colonial state.
In short, whatever description these critical scholars
offered "democracy" was not among them.

In short, Israel can't be depicted as a democracy when
it subjects Pelstinians to military
control and rule, based on regulations that deny
the Palestinians any basic humanitarian and civil rights.

And yes, I agree - that is "disgusting".

I shall continue to research the middle-east conflict
and be concerned about the Zionist policies in Israel.

I think that we all should support Israel's right
to exist but we should not support changing a nation
from being a compassionate nation into a
disruptive, uncaring, and inhumane one.

That would be a tragedy and it would make the
tragedy of the Palestinians as much the tragedy of
the Jews.

Hi WhiteMouse and Foxy

I think it is important to distinguish between Israel proper and the occupied territories. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank is oppressive and discriminatory and can be compared to apartheid. But within Israel itself all citizens have the same legal rights, and non-Jewish citizens can vote and sit in Parliament. That is utterly unlike the institutionalised legal discrimination based on race in South African apartheid. I don’t deny there is discrimination against non-Jews, as there is discrimination against minorities in many democratic countries (including ours). But it is not apartheid.

The most widely-quoted organisations that measure political rights and civil liberties globally are Freedom House, the EIU the and University of Würzburg. All three class Israel as a democracy, though the EIU calls is a “flawed democracy” (along with the USA, Italy and Belgium).

http://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking
http://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

This is Freedom House’s summary:

“Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a multiparty system and independent institutions that guarantee political rights and civil liberties for most of the population. Although the judiciary is comparatively active in protecting minority rights, the political leadership and many in society have discriminated against Arab and other ethnic or religious minority populations, resulting in systemic disparities in areas including infrastructure, criminal justice, education, and economic opportunity. Israel's score and status do not reflect conditions in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, which are both rated Not Free … “

http://freedomhouse.org/country/israel

Rhian,

Amnesty International writes:

"Our report reveals the true extent of Israel's
apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East
Jerusalem, and the rest of the
West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an
inferior racial group and are systematically deprived of their
rights ".

"We found that Israel's cruel policies of segregation,
dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its
control clearly amount to apartheid. The international
community has an obligation to act".

(Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary-General).

Hi Foxy

I was once a great admirer of, and regular donor to, AI. But it lost its vision and principles many years ago. This article by in the UK’s Observer by Nick Cohen highlights the point at which it lost its soul. I remember reading it at the time because it crystalised some of my own concerns about where AI was heading:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/11/nick-cohen-is-amnesty-fit-fight

This analysis from a left-ish US Jewish journal provides a thoughtful critique of the AI report:
http://sapirjournal.org/zionism/2022/05/amnesty-internationals-israel-problem-and-mine/

A group of EU parliamentarians from 14 different countries has written a letter demanding that the EU stop funding UNWRA. This is after an Israeli-British hostage, recently released, confirmed that she'd been held in an UNWRA facility during her year+ of captivity.

Basically, it is now dawning on these people that UNWRA is in fact Hamas. Of course, Australia will continue to fund UNWRA because we don't want to piss off all those Mohammadian voters in marginal seats.