Racism or Genuine Democracy?

By: Dr. Warda Sada

On citizenship, identity, and the line at which Israeli democracy is tested

Public discourse in Israel tends to frame the exclusion of Arab elected officials as a security, moral, or ideological stance. In reality, this is a far deeper question: Is democracy in Israel based on equal citizenship—or on a preferred ethnic identity?

The demand by some elected officials that only those who define themselves as “Zionist” may be partners in government imposes an identity-based condition on political partnership. Such a condition does not exist in genuine civic democracies. In a democracy, citizenship—not belief, religion, or national identity—is the basis for the right to vote and be elected, to influence, and to share in governing.

This raises a simple yet unsettling question:Can a Jew who is not a citizen of the state, living abroad, be a partner in governing Israel solely by virtue of being Jewish—while a Palestinian citizen of Israel, native to the land, who pays taxes, obeys the law, and sends their children to the education system, is considered “illegitimate” for political partnership?

And if we take this one step further:Would a Jew who relinquishes their Judaism, faith, or religious identity lose the right to be part of the government?If the answer is no—then the criterion is not Judaism, but ethnicity.If the answer is yes—then this is a state of belief, not a democratic state.

As a co-chair of the “All Its Citizens” Party, and as a Palestinian citizen of the State of Israel, I state clearly:Equality that does not allow full political representation is a false equality.

A democracy that does not enable the participation of a broad civic minority in governance is not a complete democracy.

The demand that Arab elected officials “recognize” the state while erasing their national and historical identity is not a civic demand—it is a demand for submission. It does not seek loyalty to the law, but loyalty to a single narrative. This is precisely the point at which democracy becomes a mechanism of exclusion.

The contradiction is especially stark when parties that are not Zionist and not even committed to full civic equality are nevertheless considered legitimate partners—as long as they are Jewish. This exposes the core issue: the problem is not ideological, but ethnic. Not what you think, but who you are.

The “All Its Citizens” Party offers a different path: a civic, egalitarian state that recognizes the multiplicity of identities within it and does not condition political rights on the renunciation of identity. A state that understands that stability, security, and peace are not the result of exclusion—but of genuine partnership.

The question is not whether there is a place for Arab citizens in the government.The real question is this:Does Israel choose to be a democracy for all its citizens—or a state that defines democracy for only some of them?