The Mythology of Israeli Democracy

“Supporting the U.S.-Israeli relationship is quickly becoming a minority view among congressional Democrats, a shockingly seismic shift in a brief period of time. You have Socialists running on an anti-American platform: ‘yes’ to Hamas and ‘no’ to supporting one of our closest democratic allies.” – Representative Josh Gottheimer, Dem/NJ, The New York Times, July 16, 2026 There are numerous myths espoused by Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel that deny the violent displacement of Palestinians from Israel in 1948 as well as support for the belief that the June 1967 six-day war was preemptive. The worst of the mythologies deal with whether Palestinians left their homeland “voluntarily” in 1967—there was nothing voluntary about it. The myth heard most often, however, is cited by members of Congress—the contention that Israel is a democracy—indeed, the “only democracy in the Middle East.” Israel was not a true democracy from the outset in 1948, since more than one-fifth of Israel’s citizens were subject to military rule based on Britain’s mandatory emergency regulations. These regulations denied Palestinians basic human and civil rights. Palestinians were subject to the rule of local Israeli military governors who were in a position to destroy their lives and their livelihood. Some of this pressure was alleviated in the late 1950s, only to worsen in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967. Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza never received equal treatment from any Israeli government. Israeli settlers in the West Bank who commit crimes are tried in Israeli courts, if they are tried at all, while Palestinians are tried in Israeli military courts. Currently, there are seven million Jews living in Israel and Palestine, and an equal number of Palestinians in the same space. The apartheid governments of Israel make it certain that there will not be equal rights, let alone true democracy, for both Jews and Palestinians. Israel is a democracy for its Jewish citizens, but Israeli control over the occupied Palestinian territories is subject to the realities of a prolonged and punishing Israeli occupation. The nakba—the catastrophe—began in 1948 with the forced displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians in Israel’s war for independence. Some of these Palestinians were forced into ghettoes inside Israel, but most were sent outside the country to Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon, losing their homes in the process. Many of the Palestinians remain in the same refugee camps that were established nearly 80 years ago. Meanwhile, there are increased incidents of military terror and even military massacres, with Israeli Defense Forces rarely facing punishment for the crimes they commit. The mainstream media in the United States pays little attention to these crimes. In judging any democracy, two of the most important tests are the government’s willingness to protect the interests of its minorities and to maintain an independent judiciary. The Netanyahu government is supporting a genocidal war against the Palestinians; the Trump administration is currently waging its own campaign against the interests of women and people of color. Its immigration policy is outright racist. Meanwhile, both Trump and Netanyahu are working to weaponize their attorneys general and to weaken the essential democratic element of judicial oversight. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has warned of the dangers of treating mythologies as truths, and this is particularly dispositive when judging the case for support of Israel. The Israeli contention that Palestine was an empty land before 1948, for example, is particularly mythological. Palestinian Arabs are in fact descendants of the indigenous people of Palestine, who lived under the vast Arab-Islamic empire that dominated the region beginning in the seventh century. Very small indigenous Jewish communities remained as integral parts of the Palestinian community. As Pappe has concluded: “Palestine was colonized, not ‘redeemed,’ and its people were dispossessed in1948, rather than leaving voluntarily.” The mainstream media ignores the fact that colonized people have the right to struggle for their liberation, even with the use of an army, although a resort to terrorism such as Hamas carried out in October 2023 is never justified. International law recognizes the right of an occupied population to resist a foreign military occupation, including through use of arms against military targets. The fact that over 100 Democratic congressman voted last week against extending military aid to Israel is an indicator that some of the mythology regarding Israel is getting shopworn.