Israel is a democracy. Gail Page (Monitor Forum, March 21) argues that Israel is not a democracy but a theocracy because it regards itself as a Jewish state. Her argument is not only uninformed, but it is downright silly.
In her view, nine nations in Europe that have a state religion, namely Christianity, must be theocracies. These include Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Poland and England, where the Anglican Church is the established church. Ask a British citizen whether he or she lives in a theocracy. Like England and other democracies that have a declared state religion, Israel has a democratic parliamentary system with national elections where all citizens can vote, no matter whether they have a religion or not. Israeli elections are among many parties who vie for seats in parliament and elect a prime minister. This is a democratic system. Theocracies, like Iran, are ruled by religious clerics, like the ayatollah.
Jews are an ethnic nation with a homeland in Israel going back before 1000 BCE. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to legislate its immigration law, no less than any other country. The strident, shrill and biased tone of Page’s piece, and her disregard for facts, is sadly typical of what makes peace so hard to achieve there. Anyone with a sincere wish for a safe, happy and productive life free from fear, violence and oppression for both Israelis and Palestinians might refer to the objective statement of fact in the Wikipedia page on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
RUTH CHEVION
Hopkinton