Talk:Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2020 and 1 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AwaniKoe.

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Thoughts

I thought I'd kick off the talk page here! Off the top of my head we might want to include:

• Historical context:
  • end of the Ottoman Empire (the concepts of umta and millet),
  • nationalism
  • and USA/European involvement (oil, war promises, League of Nations mandates).
• Hashemite monarchy — perhaps something on the role of Middle Eastern social structures informing modes of governance.
• The effect of minority rule (e.g. Alawite-led government of Syria, Sunni-led goverment in Iraq.
• The forces of modernisation versus religion in Egypt and Iran.

Some food for thought? Gareth Hughes 22:56, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Definitely food for thought, and important for constructing this article. These are all good topics, and I hope we can go for a topical approach (as opposed to country by country) as much as possible. The importance of minorities (both in power and out) in particular is something that perhaps isn't talked about enough. I think we can make good progress filling out these important topics.--Pharos 00:51, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Clarification: do you mean "the Middle East", or "the Middle East and North Africa"? If the former, Morocco seems a dubious candidate to invoke. - Mustafaa 01:05, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I had meant to use a broad definition of Middle East, including North Africa, simply because the areas are connected culturally, politically etc. The linguistic distinction is not a major issue to me either way (I know its a little silly geographically to call North Africa part of the "Middle East"), but I think it's useful to treat them together.--Pharos 01:11, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Fair enough; but in that case, maybe we should move it to "Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa". - Mustafaa 01:21, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

That's OK with me, but I hope we wouldn't have to change the name again to include a little about Afghanistan.--Pharos 01:34, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I would have thought Afghanistan didn't belong here at all. Are you sure you don't mean "Democracy in the Muslim world"? - Mustafaa 01:39, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• I know, I know, regions of the world aren't exactly defined, and Afghanistan is further from the "Middle East" than North Africa, but noone can say whether Afghanistan is in Central Asia or South Asia either. I recognize that Afghanistan is really a very borderline case, but considering recent history it's probably something that should be talked about to some extent at least. Pakistan, for me, would definitely be going too far (no, I'm definitely not talking about "the Muslim world").--Pharos 01:50, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

FYI, there is an Islamic democracy article that might be useful to reference at appropriate places. - BanyanTree 04:40, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

OK one can't include Afganistan in the Middle East anymore than you can include California in the MidWest. If you Include North Africa You really should change the name to "Democracy in Countries Conquered int he first wave of Muslim Expansion which Still Have a Muslim Majority" The Most important section is or should be on Baathism which mat at the moment be not doing that well but reamains the great home for democracy. --81.138.194.190 18:09, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I take your point; I would be rather inclined to have separate articles on Democracy in the Maghreb and Democracy in Central Asia. - Mustafaa 20:38, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Here's are a few interesting articles on democracy in the Middle East and the Muslim world that we may find helpful:

Marina Ottoway, et al., "Democratic Mirage in the Middle East," Carnegie Endowment for Ethics and International Peace, Policy Brief 20, (October 20, 2002). Internet, available online at: http://www.ceip.org/files/publications/HTMLBriefs-WP/20_October_2002_Policy_Brief/20009536v01.html

Chris Zambelis, "The Strategic Implications of Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Middle East," Parameters, (Autumn 2005). Internet, available online at: http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/05autumn/zambelis.htm

Bias on the list

Looking at the rights of Bedouins (Bedouins denied same protections: bedouin protection denied ), Rights of Christians, clamp downs on dissent in reporting, rise in racism especially against refugees from Africa, and those refugees being imprisoned. I really have to question Israels rankings in all the categories.

Where were those figures from? How about an independent source please? 96.31.177.52 (talk) 09:34, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Expansion

Should this article expand on the governments in some of the important or notable countries, or just link to, say, Politics of Bahrain? | Mr. Darcy talk 15:12, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I had to change the way some footnotes were made as they would have conflicted with the format of wikipedia's guidelines.Any new footnotes added would not have been in correct numerical order. Sophielaursen 01:54, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

How can this article not talk about Sharia Law? Sixer Fixer (talk) 04:00, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

NPOV, citation, Wikification, and opening paragraph

I've made some edits and I think I've resolved most of NPOV statements either by removing them or attaching citations. So, I've tentatively removed the NPOV warning for the entire article. Incidentally, most of the citations were done when I got here, but I guess nobody felt comfortable enough to remove the warning? While there are still a few citation-neededs and a couple of related problems in the article, I felt it was pretty safe to get rid of that too. I made an effort to wikify the main body of the article. I think it was mostly successful although of course it could be improved.

THAT SAID I think the opening paragraph of this article is very poor. Perhaps the original author would like to take another whack at it or someone could come up with a better preamble. This one not written concisely at all. It's full of run-on sentences. It had some POV problems that might persist, though I took out the most glaring one. Other than that I think this article is getting closer.

Also, I would say that the article smacked of an American bias, which certainly is not in line with the guideline that articles should include all relevant cultural perspectives. I kept the US point of view in, properly cited, where necessary (especially in the current state section), but I think this is a main problem with the opening paragraph.

Egypt and Syria do not have regular competitive elections for presidency. Paragraph is not clear about that and gives a non-neutral and incomplete opinion. Please revise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Patrick.N.L (talk • contribs) 02:07, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Bias, Political agenda, suggest deletion or rename + re-working

The heading says it. If the title of the article was 'Government in the Middle East, that would be a good start. Otherwise the whole thrust of the article is promotion of a Non-NPOV! Fremte 23:02, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

An Anti-Israeli bias: Here appears in a refined version the myth, that the problems of the Middle East originate from Israel (alternatively sometimes the USA or Europe): "When asked about his thoughts regarding the current state of democracy in the region he said: “People's memories... not realizing that the reason for the current state of the Middle East was first, the Arab-Israeli conflict...". Is really the Arab-Israeli conflict the reason why the region is not and was never democratic? The relevance of this quotation is highly questionable and should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.64.96.101 (talk) 14:20, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Anti-Israel bias? The rankings if anything are pro-Israel biased, ignoring key problems with regards to minority rights in Israel and Israeli controlled territories. Especially when you look at the Bedouins, migrant Africans, and Palestinians. 96.31.177.52 (talk) 23:42, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Has US news been our major resource?

At the top of the article: As of 2009, American organization Freedom House recognizes Israel as the only fully-fledged, free electoral democracy of the Middle East.

Does this make sense? How about these [1], [2], [3]? --Email4mobile (talk) 13:52, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Worldwide view of this subject

There is a large amount of material in the present article that seems to come from a non-worldwide-POV, even a non-US-wide POV, since it excludes the academic work (POV) of famous dissidents like Noam Chomsky. A hint for people wishing to help balance the article would be to look through Deterring Democracy for some older XX-th century examples of the US' role of deliberately deterring democracy in the Middle East except when democracy was in its interests. It might make it more obvious that USA/France/UK (and now PRChina) - as States - have geostrategic interests in the area and that desires to support Middle East democracy from grassroots citizens' groups and rare dissenters among elites in those countries have to be distinguished from propaganda claims by governments/mainstream media.

Getting worldwide POVs would require a bit of work, but this Wikipedia is not the US.wikipedia.org. It's the English-language Wikipedia for knowledge about the World. So the work has to be done if this article is to be taken seriously.

Incidentally, the 2010–2011 popular overthrow of Ben Ali without a coup d'etat seems to have shocked Western commentators who promoted the racist belief that the populations of Arab countries somehow could not overthrow authoritarian leaders in the same grassroots way that happens almost everywhere else in the world, but instead they need to be bombed and invaded for their own good. Suddenly there's the discovery that maybe Tunisia does not "need" to be bombed and invaded! Something on this (not my comments) should go in the article.

With enough work done, this might potentially become a good article.

If editing starts becoming conflictual on this article, anyone should feel free to add {{Arab-Israeli Arbitration Enforcement}} at the top of this Talk page, since this editorial "sanctions regime" extends to all articles relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict "broadly construed". ("Sanctions" here do not mean preventing food and medicines from reaching Wikipedia editors.) See Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Palestine-Israel_articles#Discretionary_sanctions for details.

Disclaimer: i am not an admin. :) Boud (talk) 23:44, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

2010-2011 Middle East and North Africa Protests

2010-2011 Middle East and North Africa Protests

2010-2011_Middle_East_and_North_Africa_Protests

I have added this to the page, as the two are directly related. --Smart30 (talk) 13:01, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

I have tired to put somewhere where I thought it belonged -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 13:32, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Everything about Turkey is wrong

Hello

Everything about Turkey is wrong, like made about a Turkish government from a long time ago, or just made by people who ignore about Turkey or someone who just hates Turkey.

Turkey is acceding to the European Union and it has higher standards than many countries inside it so.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.184.208.56 (talk) 22:43, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

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North Africa is not the middle east

The whole idea about this article is based on the wrong foot, if we are going to talk about democracies in the middle east, then we should not include countries from regions like North Africa nor South Asia, it would have been better if there was a second article talking about Democracies in North Africa or should i say Democracy in Tunisia. Greetings. SERVITAS VITAE (talk) 13:07, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

So maybe instead of "Middle East", it should be "Middle East and North Africa"? There is, after all, the term MENA (Middle East and North Africa) with an attendant Wikipedia article. 73.97.151.151 (talk) 00:31, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

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Requested move 19 May 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved. King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 00:20, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

---

Democracy in the Middle East → Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa – This covers North Africa in addition to the Middle East. – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs), 21:33, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

• Support. Rreagan007 (talk) 04:01, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

---

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Scare Quotes

Is there any way to avoid the potentially ambiguous use of scare quotes in the introduction? The intro reads: Freedom House categorizes Israel and Tunisia as "Free"... Are Israel and Tunisia free, or are they "free"? Is this a direct quote, or an implication that they are not truly free? Duey (talk) 04:49, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Palestine section

The Palestine section seems to not be particularly accurate.Here are a few issues:

"Prior to the mass immigration of Israeli citizens to the region and the two-state solution"

Jews were not Israelis until 1948 but more importantly there has been no two state solution as of yet.

"there was no formal government or authority in the land known as Palestine. Society operated without a democracy, monarchy or dictatorship; merely a conglomerate of tribes, clans, villages and communities headed by a select few elders known as "Sheikhs" also transliterated Sheik, Sheyikh, Shaykh, Shayk, Cheikh, Shekh, Shaik and Shaikh"[34]

Haven't been able to follow up the source here but there under the Ottomans and the British there was most definitely structures of government in place.

"The two state solution drastically altered this and effectively displaced an overwhelming amount of Palestinians."

Again the two state solution has not happened and the Palestinian refugees does seem completely relevant here.

"As a result, the semi-political organization, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed. Yasser Arafat served as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to 2004 and is considered one of the most influential Palestinian leaders.[35]"

This is more or less correct but does not seem to be addressing overall the subject of democracy in the Palestinian territories.

Given all of this I would propose deleting the Palestine section and rewriting it about the structures of government in the West Bank and Gaza.

Adam Bernstein (talk) 18:56, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

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Freedom index vs Democracy index

I believe Freedom index is not relevant for this page since, the Title of this page is Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa and not Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa. Amitai Scott you reverted back to freedom index, can you explain why freedom index is more relevant than a democracy index for this page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by HudecEmil (talk • contribs) 09:44, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

But I agree with you that the table could look prettier, will update. HudecEmil (talk) 09:54, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree. Is the freedom index even related to democracy methodologically? I can't tell because the 'introduction' link is currently broken, but Freedom House is also not the most neutral research outlet - it has close US gov ties. Iskandar323 (talk) 11:38, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

The freedom index looks at both civil liberties and political rights (with some aspects of elections). While there is a contribution of democracy, and categorizes countries if they are "electoral democracies" or not, the index cannot be categorized as purely democracy index, only as mixed democracy and civil rights index. Currently, the methologically most sound democracy index is probably V-Dem Democracy indices. HudecEmil (talk) 12:13, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

I've since noticed that Freedom House is also both a research and advocacy organization, further diminishing their respectability as a reliable source for concrete metrics not colored by all sorts of explicit and implicit bias. The Democracy Index and V-Dem Democracy indices both seem like obviously better bets, and it is after all the former that appears in the intro. Iskandar323 (talk) 14:18, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

The first democracy in the middle east needs to be mentioned in the intro

How can this be in the intro: "Israel is the only democratic country in the region" When this article literally lists all the democracies in the region. Yes the others are flawed . Yes it mentions that Isreal is flawed too. But it's misinformation to say it's the "only" in the intro. It's a tiring talking point pro-war propagandists utter when they need to milk the sympathy of americans.

I propose to change the intro to say the Lebanon is the first democracy in the middle east. It is a historical fact: Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943 and established a parliamentary democratic republic. source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Lebanon/Lebanon-after-independence Isreal was established in 1949. No one disputes that Lebanon is the first democracy in the middle east and this really needs to be mentioned in the intro.

It can be followed by the existing line: "" According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, th... "" which happily mentions Isreal, and can stay because it's a fact, unlike the first line, which is propaganda.

Greeen (talk) 02:06, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

The sentence describes current situation/most recent reference-2023, rephrasing the sentence to make this more clear. Historical aspects is separate in section history. HudecEmil (talk) 15:14, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

It's the same democratic republic since 1943.

Parliamentary Elections has been held on time consistently since (except in the 80s during a war). No president has held more than 2 terms. Prime ministers change every couple of years.

It's not the job of a special interest study to determine if a it's a democracy or not. They can only index it, that's fine. But internationally, Lebanon is still recognized a democracy. Greeen (talk) 21:27, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

The Economist Democracy Index evaluates Lebanon low for example on functioning of government and political culture, see The Economist Democracy Index#Components. If you have a reference which describes Lebanon recently as democracy, please state reference here. If you request inserting 1943 into the history section, please specify verbatim the text to insert. HudecEmil (talk) 21:54, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

The index is beside point. They're using multiple factors (including religion) that could significantly lower the index. That's fine. Studies are allowed to come up with their own conclusions. But we're interested in history and facts on wikipedia.

My point is that Lebanon is TODAY recognized internationally as a democracy by all the countries in the UN. I provided a source that states it's currently a democracy at the very first line if you bothered to checked: "For many years Lebanon maintained its parliamentary democracy, " etc..

That's its official its classification. It's an undisputable fact.

And being the first democracy in the middle east is just such a tremendous milestone in the region that doesn't get a mention in this article about "democracy in the middle east".

So my request is still to mention in the intro that: Lebanon is the first democracy in the middle-east after gaining independence and establishing a parliamentary democratic republic in 1943. source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Lebanon/Lebanon-after-independence

Otherwise, we're just promoting propaganda. Greeen (talk) 22:38, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

added in article reference to first post-independence Lebanese election in 1947 and first pre-independence in 1922 HudecEmil (talk) 23:29, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. That's a good addition to the history.

But my request to have that line I provided in the intro still stands as it's very obvious that having "Isreal is the only democratic" by itself in the intro, is purposely spreading misinformation, even if it's presented part of a limited study. It's purposely misguiding the reader who does not know the whole context and takes the citing as a historical fact. An "Alternative fact" kinda misdirection. Also I couldn't help noticing that you're still avoiding the fact that Lebanon is a recognized democracy, as if it's so damaging to the idea that this article is trying to convey instead of the real truth.

I'd suggest to move the misguiding study mention out of the intro and into a section called studies, but it really matters not what you do it with it. As long as the line I mentioned gets rightfully in the intro to provide a fuller context. Greeen (talk) 02:31, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

Added in intro which countries currently de jure/self-describe as democracy. Added that Turkey self-described as republic in 1923. HudecEmil (talk) 16:49, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

I think my request to have the first democracy in the middle east mentioned at the top of the intro, is a reasonable request, extremely relevant to this article, and more importantly factually correct and unbiased. And I provided a source where it clearly states that it's still the case today.

Unlike the "only democracy" claim which is only deduced from a study (not even mentioned verbatim), and it has no citation (both against Wikipedia rules). The Economist only ranks democracies, and it's only a subjective opinion, which is in itself problematic (given Isreal long history of gross human right violations, assassinassions of journalists, apartheid, ongoing fascism, etc.. according to the Econimists own set of criteria, it should have been at the bottom of the list...) but again, we're not here to discuss the study's conclusions.

So, let's please not split hairs anymore by seeing how many ways we can tell lebanon is a democracy without stating that it is a democracy or else your house of cards collapses. Let's wait a bit, maybe someone else who's less biased can eventually complete my request. Thanks. Greeen (talk) 19:56, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

While we split hairs on my first request, maybe we can separate the 2nd part of it into its own request and get a better chance of it getting done.

In order to adhere to Wikipedia rules and guidelines, instead of the problematic:

"According to The Economist Group's Democracy Index, Israel was 2023 the only democratic country in the region, qualified as a "flawed democracy" (#30 worldwide)."

Which as I explained, is factually false, has no citation, is deduced from the study (not mentioned in the report) and phrased in a way to purposely misguide an unsuspected reader. Please change it to:

"Israel was the only state in the region ranked at "flawed democracy" level (#30 worldwide) by the The Economist Group in their 2023 Democracy Index study. "

It's important to clearly inform that it is "ranked" or "rated" or "graded", as the Economist don't have a legal authority to declare what is and what is not a democracy.

Also, I propose to move the line to the "Israel" section, or to a new "Studies" section, as there's no need to list every report at the top of the intro, in this case, only cherry-picking the ones that present Isreal in a slightly better light than it actually is, and ignoring the many reports that are more critical of its long list of gross human right violations.

If it's to stay in the intro, it must absolutely be moved to the bottom of the intro, after a fuller context of democracy in the countries of the region have been provided to the reader. i.e. which are parliamentary, presidential, and such..

Thanks. Greeen (talk) 12:30, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Changed to "rated", clarified to "flawed democracy", reordered sections to be next to "de jure" list of democracies and added missing reference HudecEmil (talk) 17:15, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. That sounds more factual. I'll mark 1 of the 2 requests as answered. Greeen (talk) 17:59, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Agree that Lebanon's de jure democracy started from 1943 (independence), but the provided reference has Lebanon not described as "first democracy in the middle east". For example Turkey declared a republic in 1923, reference in History section. HudecEmil (talk) 17:27, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Turkey is considered in Europe, even according to the democarcy indices that are referenced in this article.

But even if we move it to the middle-east, it only transitioned to a multi-party democracy in 1950. Before this, the country was under one-party rule following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Turkey/Constitutional-framework

Find a country in the middle east that was a democracy before 1943 and we can cite it as a the first democracy in the intro instead of Lebanon. But the first democratic country of the region needs to be mentioned in the intro. Greeen (talk) 18:06, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Would need a reference which says which country was first according to what definition of democracy. Countries considered in Middle East are discussed in Middle East#Countries and territory. HudecEmil (talk) 20:24, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

There's plenty of mentions online, and the timeline is self-evident, but if you want those extra words in a citation, this is probably the most citable I found:

https://www.arabicbookshop.net/lebanon-impasse-or-solution/opb-201 Greeen (talk) 22:00, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm marking the edit request as answered, since it has been discussed and consensus is needed for implementation. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 04:56, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

It's only been discussed with 1 person. There's no reason to close it so soon. I'm sure this is a low visibility article, as soon as more see it, you'll get plenty of consensus as the request is not biased or controversial. It's just a historical point that needs to be added. Greeen (talk) 23:51, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit extended-protected}} template. M.Bitton (talk) 14:20, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 12 September 2024

Change "thrived" to "persisted", "existed" or other non-charged terminology. Using "thrived" directly in reference to Netanyahu (46% of Israelis demanding resignation, with no polling of Palestinian residents, by https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-69-think-netanyahu-shouldnt-run-in-next-election-bennett-favored-for-pm/) implies a level of support or beneficence that cannot be stated with confidence or neutrality. Also possible would be to retain "thrived" terminology, but remove the names of specific Israeli leaders to retain a view of the nation as a whole rather than excerpts which are likely controversial. 68.161.202.133 (talk) 22:29, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

changed to "consistently" HudecEmil (talk) 15:35, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

Occupied territories of Palestine

@M.Bitton The 2 paragraphs discussed the support/criticism of Israeli apartheid longer than the relation to democracy (last paragraph, not removed). Possibly could summarize the first 2 paragraphs shorter.

"To a lesser extent in Israel" is too vague to keep without additional specification. HudecEmil (talk) 17:44, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I will ping JasonMacker (the editor who added it) and see what they have to say about your concerns. M.Bitton (talk) 17:46, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Israeli apartheid is fundamental to the understanding of the state of Democracy in Israel. There are two frameworks for understanding Israeli democracy: One is the discussion of apartheid. As the last paragraph noted, the classification of Israel as an apartheid state is a direct challenge to the view that Israel is a democracy. The other framework is understanding Israel as a Herrenvolk democracy. As I noted in my edits, I largely took already existing paragraphs with references from other articles.

As for "to a lesser extent in Israel", I only included it because that's the phrasing used in Israeli apartheid's first sentence. Personally, I think the wording would be better if "the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel" is replaced with "Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories." I agree that "lesser extent in Israel" is vague and would be happy to replace it.

Given what existed before my edits (no critical views of Israel whatsoever), my goal was just a quick improvement and let others build on it or refine it as needed. JasonMacker (talk) 22:33, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Article Israeli apartheid has separate sections "West Bank and Gaza Strip" and "Israel proper". Hence will separate here as well. HudecEmil (talk) 14:09, 8 November 2024 (UTC)