There are 2M Palestinians living within the borders that Israel claims as it’s own. There are 8M Israelis (that figure includes Palestinian Israelis). Palestinians would need to hold roughly 1/5 of all gov’t positions in order for them to be anything other than a token minority. But they don’t. In fact, it’s not even close. The US, despite it’s 200+ year racist and patriarchal history, has better representation of non-white and non-male people in Congress–as a proportion of the population–than Israel does.
In the USA, there are 3 African-American senators out of 100. There have been only 3 African American governors in history.
There are 9 ethnic minority members of French parliament out of 577, despite making up about 15% of the population.
Ethnic minorities represent 10% of the UK Parliament, despite being 16% of the population.
In Israel, there are 10 seats in the Knesset representing Arab/Palestinian parties out of 120.
Underrepresentation of minorities is a widespread global problem that is not limited to Israel. Pretending that the the rest of the world is some kind of post-racial utopia, while only Israel experiences racial inequality is cynical at best.
Look at state legislators, mayors, etc. Yeah, the US is gerrymandered to shit, and SCOTUS is gutting the civil rights and voting rights acts. But at least at a state level, non-white people have better representation. In my state, Republicans are currently fighting a federal court order to redraw voting districts because they under-represented black populations, but that city has a black mayor, and a majority black city council. Yeah, the US has a problem with racism. But the US doesn’t send in the military to run Atlanta because they don’t want black and Latino people to have a say in the government.
What territories are you describing when you say “within the borders that Israel claims as it’s own.”
The West Bank, which is occupied territory. E.g., it’s not part of Israel under international law, but Israel claims it as its own.
Ty for clarifying, West Bank settlements are absolutely abhorrent, but I’ve seen too many people use the phrase claimed territory to refer to all of Israel. I appreciate the response and clarification
