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Israel had its first general election since 2022 on Tuesday. Israel is an experiment in ethnonationalism, but it is also an experiment in proportional representation. Every conceivable minority group or special interest has their own political party. There is a party for Russian immigrants, a party for Ashkenazi Haredim, and a separate party for Mizrahi Haredim. Arabs of course vote for entirely separate parties from Jews (by custom, not law).
Israel is the most right-wing democracy in the world. In Israel, you can vote for the racist party (Likud), the extremely racist party (Religious Zionism), or the racism über alles party (Otzma Yehudit, literally "Jewish Power"). You can even vote for the pro-racism but anti-Netanyahu party (Together), or the pretending-not-to-be-racist party (Yashar). If you feel like sticking it to the man, there is at least one viable actually-not-racist party (The Democrats). Some would argue the Arab parties (Joint List and Ra'am) are non-racist, but others would say that they are just as racist but in the opposite direction.
The Knesset has 120 seats, so 61 seats are needed for a majority to form a government. Most of the results are in, and it's looking like deadlock.
Estimated seats by bloc
Netanyahu Bloc - 53
"Change" Bloc - 48
Arab Bloc - 19
In European legislatures, is is customary to have a cordon sanitaire against parties perceived as far-right. In Israel, there is a cordon sanitaire against the Arab parties. The Netanyahu bloc has lost its majority, but there is no clear opposition bloc large enough to form a government. Israeli Arab turnout was through the roof.* Bedouin nomads rode into town on camels to vote. The conventional wisdom seems to be that forming a coalition with any of the Arab parties post-October 7th is political suicide. If no one can form a majority, there could be another election as soon as next year.
*Netanyahu is accusing the Arabs of voter fraud. I have no idea if this means anything.
I'm really curious how you are defining the word "racist." Mainly because in most circles (but not necessarily on this discussion board) the word is a major pejorative, one of the worst things a person can be accused of. And because it's also one of those social justice words like "apartheid" and "genocide" with strategically flexible definitions depending on who/whom.
"We should be free to discriminate against Israeli citizens that are not Jews"
Would you be able to identify 2 policies supported by the Yashar party which would discriminate against non-Jewish Israeli citizens?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_absentee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_and_Entry_into_Israel_Law
As a threshold issue, I looked at the articles you cited and saw no mention of the Yashar party. Moreover, I don't see how denying citizenship to a non-citizen discriminates against citizens, Jewish or non-Jewish.
Maybe summarize the policies in your own words?
Well, Yashar is sufficiently progressive to suggest Israeli Arabs can serve in the IDF, so they get a point for that.
But they have never even suggested that either discriminatory policy I linked to should be overturned.
Seems to me you are goalpost-moving here.
The policy you point to does not appear to discriminate against non-Jewish Israeli citizens; at a minimum you have not explained how it does. Nor have you shown any evidence that Yashar supports either policy.
I suspect that in this context, accusations of "racism" are fundamentally no different from accusations of "apartheid" and "genocide." In the sense that there is no way to define these words broadly enough to cover Israel (or leading parties in Israel); narrowly enough so that they don't cover lots of other situations which are not normally and widely condemned as "racist"; and not in a way that is obviously gerrymandered so as to apply only to Israel.
For example, lots of countries discriminate in terms of offering citizenship: Japan, Ireland, Poland, just to name a few.
Don't be obtuse. Most Israeli citizens can marry a foreigner and live with their spouse in Israel. Some are not allowed to. Most Israeli citizens can live in any village. Some are not allowed to. In both cases these "some" are Israeli Arabs.
You are free to ask them yourself. Both policies are explicitly opposed only by the Arab parties.
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