What Israel can learn from Canada
After a week in Canada, I return home full of respect for your bilingual and multicultural society. I only wish I could find a way to have something similar in the country in which I live — Israel.
Canadians know that Israel has many features of a democracy. The very fact that Arab-Palestinian citizens like me can vote and that I was elected to the Israeli parliament is evidence of that.
But Israel defines itself as a “Jewish and democratic state.” The emphasis is definitely on its Jewishness. Equality and full respect for its Palestinian minority are not important parts of the Israeli definition of democracy.
I am one of the country’s roughly 1.5 million Arab-Palestinian citizens. We are the remnant of the indigenous Palestinian people who survived the 1948 War and surrounding events, known by Palestinians as al-Nakba (the catastrophe). We make up about one-fifth of the country’s population today, but we have been excluded from the centres of powers in Israel.
My week in Ottawa showed me concretely that what Israel calls “democracy” is very different from what Canadians call “democracy.” During my visit to your Official Languages Commission, for example, I learned that Canada’s federal government must give services in both official languages. In Israel, by contrast, even though Arabic is an official language, and 20 per cent of the population speaks Arabic, we have no official languages act and no official languages commission. Almost everything is in Hebrew — from parking tickets to court trials.
When I visited your Parliament, I saw that translation allows your MPs to use the official language of their choice. What freedom that must give! In the Israeli Knesset, all debates and documents are exclusively in Hebrew, and no translation is provided. At the Canadian Supreme Court, I learned that Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees equality to all, and that the Supreme Court uses the charter to rectify “systemic discrimination.”
Systemic discrimination against Israel’s Palestinian citizens is widespread and too often condoned by the legal system. There is a law against discrimination in employment, of course, but enforcement is lax and can be easily circumvented. As a result, we are far under-represented in all the best jobs in Israel and in all public bodies and institutions. Our schools are poor and underfunded, and our average incomes are much less than those of Jewish Israelis.
At the University of Ottawa, I learned that under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is illegal to discriminate in renting or buying housing. Unfortunately, there is no similar protection in Israel. Many Israeli apartment owners openly prevent Palestinians from renting or buying. Some rabbis publicly call for excluding “Arabs” from Jewish communities.
As a civil rights lawyer, who has pled cases before Israel’s Supreme Court, I know how little protection we have against these widespread discriminatory activities. In some cases, discrimination is actively promoted by law. For example, many Israeli communities are permitted to have “admissions committees,” which decide who they will accept as residents. Under these laws, Palestinian citizens are routinely excluded.
I understand, of course, that Canada’s record toward its minorities is not spotless. From my conversations with Sen. Murray Sinclair, of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I understand that Canada still has a long way to go in overcoming historical injustices suffered by Canada’s indigenous population. Reconciliation is definitely needed.
At your museum of history, I learned that Canada has systematically obliterated the aboriginal names of many landmarks and given European names instead. Israel did the same thing to us, substituting the names that we had used for centuries with new Jewish names instead.
By the end of my visit, I came to have a deep admiration for Canada’s multiculturalism. Canada now has a legal framework protecting minority rights, and a culture that sees these protections as an integral part of your democracy. Canada has even officially recognized Quebec as a nation. And Canada seems to be taking first steps to reconcile with its indigenous minorities. Many Canadians may not think Canada is perfect, but viewed from the perspective of a Palestinian citizen of Israel, your record in recognizing and overcoming discrimination and inequality looks pretty good. It should definitely be exported.