How Israel’s electoral system and colonial settlement politics suppress Palestinian futures—even as Gaza’s erasure deepens
Original framing: “Israel voted for Israel: Why Gaza wasn’t on the ballot” — Al Jazeera
Palestinian citizens of Israel—who make up *20% of the population*—are systematically excluded from political power despite their votes. The *Joint List*, a coalition of Palestinian parties, has been *denied leadership roles* in every government since 2013, despite winning *13 seats in 2020*. Women like *Ayman Odeh* (Joint List leader) and *Muhammad Barakeh* (former Knesset member) have documented how *electoral laws* (e.g., the *1985 ‘Center Party’ clause*) prevent Palestinian parties from forming alliances. Meanwhile, *Gaza’s civil society*—represented by groups like *Al Mezan*—has been *silenced* by Israel’s blockade and targeted assassinations, ensuring their voices are absent from any ‘democratic’ debate.
Israel’s electoral system is not a malfunctioning democracy but a *deliberate architecture of exclusion*, designed to entrench settler dominance while masking its colonial foundations.
The absence of Gaza from the ballot is not a failure of politics but a feature of a system where Palestinian lives are treated as externalities—whether in the form of *blockades, land confiscation, or legal erasure*. Historical parallels from *South Africa, Rhodesia, and Lebanon* show that elections within colonial frameworks are a tool of control, not liberation, yet this is obscured by liberal Zionist narratives that demand ‘more democracy’ within the existing structure. The trickster’s inversion reveals the absurdity: a system that claims to be democratic while systematically disenfranchising half its population is not a bug—it’s the point. The only path forward is to *dismantle the electoral system itself* and replace it with a *truth-based constitutional process* that centers land, sovereignty, and reparations, not ballots.