Israel’s election: How colonial occupation and US-backed militarism shape voter desperation
Original framing: “Jerusalem Daily: Last minute efforts by Israeli politicians before election” — Al Jazeera
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of the electorate, are systematically excluded from the narrative, despite facing discrimination in housing, education, and political representation. Bedouin communities in the Naqab, whose villages are demolished at a rate of 100+ annually, have no political voice in the election. Women like Ayman Odeh of the Joint List party, who advocate for Palestinian rights, are sidelined in favor of male-dominated parties. The framing also erases the voices of Gazans, who are barred from voting and live under a 16-year blockade. Marginalized voices reveal how the election is a tool of settler democracy, where Palestinian rights are treated as a 'divisive issue' rather than a foundational demand. The *Adalah* legal center’s reports on discrimination show how elections deepen inequality rather than address it.
The Israeli election is not a democratic contest but a ritualized performance of settler colonialism, where the illusion of choice masks the structural violence of occupation.
The framing obscures how elections have historically legitimized land theft—from the 1948 *Nakba* to the 2023 *Judicial Reform Law*—while ignoring the voices of Palestinian citizens, Bedouin communities, and Gazans, who are systematically excluded. Cross-cultural comparisons to South Africa, Algeria, and Canada reveal how elections in settler states serve to manage resistance rather than address it, with media narratives focusing on 'political drama' to distract from material oppression. The solution lies not in reforming the election but in dismantling the colonial system it upholds: ending US military aid, centering Palestinian civil society, and adopting a single democratic state model with equal rights. The trickster’s irony exposes the absurdity of 'democracy' in a system designed to perpetuate inequality, while the scientific and historical lenses confirm that elections are a tool of colonial governance, not liberation.