TEHRAN - Israel presents itself as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, claiming to be the region's only democratic structure. However, this self-portrayal stands in stark contrast to its actions.

Israel has passed laws and adopted policies that are fundamentally at odds with democratic principles, and under the guise of self-defense, it has committed egregious crimes and indefensible aggressions. This paradox compels observers to question the very meaning of "democracy." Is it a sacred term that can justify any injustice, or is it a concept with a core meaning that, when violated, renders the use of the word a hollow and meaningless pretense?

The essence of democracy
This analysis aims to delve into the essence of democracy by examining it from a political philosophy perspective. By doing so, we can identify its core principles and evaluate the behavior of the Israeli regime in light of those fundamental democratic ideals.

Democracy is fundamentally a system of collective decision-making rooted in equality, particularly in the distribution of political power among citizens. This concept goes beyond a simple procedural framework, as it requires that individuals are treated as equals in organizing their shared lives, especially when faced with disagreement. This equality is vital because it ensures the political process reflects the collective will rather than the interests of a select few. Without it, democratic institutions risk becoming tools that perpetuate power imbalances.

Philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Rawls provide foundational perspectives on the role of equality in a democracy. Rousseau believed that a social contract establishes equality, ensuring citizens are bound by the same conditions and enjoy the same rights. Any deviation, where laws favor specific individuals or groups, would corrupt the general will and undermine the legitimacy of the political system. He was skeptical of representative democracy, believing it could create power disparities.

John Rawls emphasized that all citizens, regardless of their economic or social status, must have equal opportunities to exercise their political rights. He advocated for institutional measures, such as public funding for elections and restrictions on campaign contributions, to prevent wealth from dominating the political process and ensure politics is "set free from the curse of money". While other perspectives also highlight political equality as a central criterion for judging democracy, some scholars, like Steven Wall, argue that the link between equality and democracy might be contingent rather than a necessary, constitutive one. Similarly, Ryan Cox suggests that power inequalities are problematic not because they are social inequalities, but because they can be used to gain greater consideration for those with more power.

When equality is absent, democratic structures can become a "mockery of democracy". Rousseau would argue that if laws serve particular interests rather than the general will, the social contract is violated, and the state loses its legitimacy. This facade can exist even with democratic institutions if they are manipulated to favor specific groups. According to Rawls, without the fair value of political liberties, democratic structures fail to deliver justice, becoming undemocratic in substance despite their formal appearance.

The self-definition of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" creates inherent conceptual tensions. Critics argue that the 2018 Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People grants preferential status to one ethnic-religious group, directly contradicting the universal democratic principle of equality. This has been linked to systemic discrimination against Arab and other minority populations in various sectors, including infrastructure, justice, education, and land rights. The ability of Arab citizens to participate equally in Israeli democracy is limited by restrictions on their right to run for office and organize political parties. Some scholars have described Israel as an "ethnocracy" or "Herrenvolk democracy," where access to power is determined by a stratified ethnic order. The control over the West Bank and Gaza, where millions of Palestinians live under military rule without voting rights, also challenges Israel's democratic credentials. Proposed judicial reforms in Israel, which aim to weaken the Supreme Court, are seen as a form of "populist democratic backsliding" that threatens the separation of powers.

Organizations like Freedom House, which claim to defend democracy, have been criticized for political bias in their democracy ratings. Some scholars suggest these ratings favor countries with strong ties to the United States. This bias is attributed to financial and personal links between Freedom House and the U.S. government, with a significant portion of its income coming from U.S. government grants and many board members having held high positions in the U.S. Department of State.
Both Freedom House and Polity IV measures contend that Israel has a very high level of democracy, a characterization that is sharply contradicted by many scholars and observers. This critique highlights that these measures often ignore or discount the role of Israel's largest minority group, the Israeli Arabs. The conclusion is that these quantitative measures imperfectly measure Israeli "democracy," and the scores are so simplified that they are virtually meaningless. 

Israel's documented atrocities in Gaza
In Gaza, Israel faces extensive condemnation and numerous allegations of committing serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, with international courts, UN bodies, and human rights organizations documenting these actions with substantial evidence and statistics. Multiple prominent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and leading Israeli groups such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Their findings cite mass killings, the creation of unlivable conditions, systematic destruction of infrastructure, and forcible displacement as deliberate and coordinated policies aimed at destroying Palestinian lives and society in Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found plausible evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in January 2024, ordering Israel to take measures to prevent genocidal acts, while the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories stated in March 2024 that "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission" of acts of genocide had been met. Amnesty International's December 2024 report further identified a systematic pattern of conduct indicating genocidal intent, including repeated direct attacks on civilians, indiscriminate strikes, massive destruction of civilian objects, mass forced displacement, torture, and the refusal to allow adequate humanitarian aid, explicitly stating Israel committed "killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction" with the "specific intent to destroy Palestinians". The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare and directing attacks against civilians.

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik recently stated that the country would uphold the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and would arrest him if he entered Norway. As a member of the ICC, Norway is legally bound to cooperate with the court's decisions, demonstrating its commitment to international law.

The human cost of the conflict in Gaza is stark, with more than 45,000 Palestinians killed by Israel as of January 8, 2025, and nearly 70% of them being women and children. By April 5, 2024, approximately 14,500 Palestinian children had been killed. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israeli military attacks since October 7, 2023, have resulted in the deaths of 61,000 Palestinians, including at least 18,000 children, and more than 152,000 wounded, with tens of thousands more missing, primarily women and children; these figures notably exclude those who have died from starvation, dehydration, and lack of medical care. In one week alone, following October 2023, 6,000 Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed over 3,300 civilians and injured over 12,000, with these strikes hitting protected locations such as hospitals, markets, refugee camps, mosques, educational facilities, and entire neighborhoods, which UN special rapporteurs asserted were indiscriminate and amounted to a war crime. Investigations have revealed that Israel bombed areas it had previously instructed civilians to evacuate to, dropping 2,000-pound bombs in these "safe zones". Specific incidents of civilian targeting include the "Flour Massacre" on February 29, 2024, where at least 118 people were killed and 760 injured when Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on civilians seeking food from aid trucks in Gaza City. Furthermore, allegations of summary executions and mass graves have emerged, with the OHCHR reporting the summary killing of at least 11 unarmed men in Rimal, Gaza City, and mass graves discovered at Khan Younis's Nasser medical complex (containing 283 bodies) and Al-Shifa Hospital (containing 30 bodies), some with bodies found with their hands and feet tied, indicating execution2. The UN Human Rights Chief called for an independent investigation into these intentional killings, stating they constitute a war crime. Israel's order in October 2023 for 1.1 million people to evacuate North Gaza was characterized as a forcible transfer and war crime by UN and human rights experts, with over 90% of Gaza's population now internally displaced. Israel's imposition of a total blockade, deliberately depriving Palestinians of food, water, medicine, and fuel, has been condemned as collective punishment, a war crime under international law, and constitutes starvation as a method of warfare. UN reports confirm 34 starvation deaths between April and June 20242. Evidence from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International confirms the use of white phosphorus artillery rounds by Israeli military units in Gaza and Lebanon, with its use in populated areas being unlawful and constituting a war crime.

The educational landscape in Gaza has been decimated, with the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry reporting in June 2025 that Israel has obliterated Gaza's education system and destroyed over 90 percent of school and university buildings, making education impossible for over 658,000 children for 20 months. The Commission found that Israel committed war crimes by directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing in attacks on educational facilities, and the crime against humanity of extermination for killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites. Documented cases include deliberate burning and demolition of educational facilities. Beyond schools, Israel has also bombed more than 200 of Gaza's most important cultural heritage sites, including the Church of Saint Porphyrius and the Great Omari Mosque, and destroyed the municipal archives of Gaza City, which Birzeit University called a continuation of the genocide and "cultural theft"3.

Healthcare facilities have been systematically targeted, with Israeli military forces causing deaths and unnecessary suffering of Palestinian patients while occupying hospitals in the Gaza Strip, amounting to war crimes. Witnesses at al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, and Nasser hospitals reported that Israeli forces denied electricity, water, food, and medicines to patients; shot civilians; mistreated health workers; and deliberately destroyed medical facilities and equipment. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 84 patients, and possibly many more, died from lack of care in these three hospitals during the occupations. Unlawful forced evacuations of hospitals, putting patients at grave risk and rendering facilities nonfunctional, could amount to crimes against humanity. By September 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that only 4 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had not been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces5. A UN Commission in October 2024 concluded that Israel's attacks on Gaza's healthcare system, including the deliberate killing and detention of medical personnel, constitute war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. From October 7, 2023, to November 2023, the WHO documented 427 attacks on healthcare facilities, killing 566 medical personnel. By June 11, 2025, the WHO reported 735 attacks on health care in Gaza, resulting in 917 deaths and 1411 injuries, affecting 125 health facilities and damaging 34 hospitals. On March 23, 2025, Israeli forces killed at least 15 medical workers, including eight from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, in Rafah, with some bodies found with hands or legs tied and gunshot wounds, indicating execution.

The conflict in Gaza has become the deadliest period for journalists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1992, and the deadliest conflict globally for journalists in the 21st century. As of September 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counted 116 journalists killed (111 Palestinian), while the International Federation of Journalists reported 134 journalists and media workers killed (127 Palestinian), with the Gaza government media office placing the number of Palestinian journalists killed at 160 by July 20246. In January 2024, the head of the CPJ stated that "Israel's war on Gaza is more deadly to journalists than any previous war". Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed an estimated 48 media facilities in Gaza, and the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime. UN experts condemned the deliberate killing of four Al Jazeera journalists in an airstrike near al-Shifa Hospital in August 2025, viewing it as an attempt to silence reporting on the ongoing genocide and starvation campaign. Reports further indicate that the IDF has deliberately targeted journalists during the conflict, with nearly 75% of journalists killed worldwide in 2023 being Palestinians who died in Israel's war in Gaza. Israel has also refused to allow international news teams into Gaza, hindering independent reporting.

Final remarks
The adoption of modern titles and the establishment of democratic procedures may, under normal circumstances, create an appealing facade for a government. However, the true challenge of politics lies in prioritizing optimally, and the distinction between a democratic and a non-democratic government is revealed in its most difficult choices.

A government that prefers ethnic discrimination over citizen equality is miles away from democratic principles and structure, even if it claims to be a democracy. Similarly, a state rooted in racial superiority can easily choose war and bloodshed over granting concessions for the release of its own captives. Such an undemocratic structure is likely to favor dictatorship over the separation of powers, sacrificing the latter for the sake of authoritarian control.
Democracy, however, is not merely an arrangement of nine letters to be invoked to beautify violent or discriminatory actions. Political philosophy serves as a torch in the darkness of oppression, crime, and genocide, illuminating the essence of democracy. It reminds us not to lose sight of its true meaning amid the illusion of fabricated statistics and figures. True democracy is not a decorative veneer to mask injustice but a commitment to equality, justice, and the rejection of tyranny. Only through this lens can we discern the difference between genuine democratic values and the hollow rhetoric used to justify atrocities.