[danny_codes]

Palestinians living in the Palestinian Territories are not Israeli citizens and cannot vote. I would say the Palestinian Territories are occupied, not part of Israel (though Bibi definitely has a sizable camp in his government that would love to make it so).

Do we expect occupied peoples to have a vote? sort of depends how you define democracy. Under an American interpretation (no taxation without representation, 1 person 1 vote) there’s a good argument that you should count occupied peoples.

It’s never so simple is it

[shykes]

> Under an American interpretation (no taxation without representation, 1 person 1 vote) there’s a good argument that you should count occupied peoples.

Palestinians are not taxed by Israel. They are taxed by the Palestinian Authority, and participate in Palestinian elections. So they do have representation - just not in Israel.

[scoofy]

If we are talking about Democracy—which is where I started this—then yes. If occupied peoples don’t have representation in the government occupying them, yes, that’s very obviously less democratic than if they did. Quite literally by definition. This shouldn’t be controversial.

[bbshfishe]

Prior to October 7th. Gaza was not occupied. Israel left in 2005.

Stop spreading misinformation.

[scoofy]

I’m talking about Gaza and the West Bank. Israel blockading the Gaza is very obviously de facto governance.

If you can’t enter and leave your country freely, you don’t that autonomy.

I’m not even some Palestinian political advocate. We still cannot pretend that Israel isn’t effectively in control of the Palestinian Territories.

[bbshfishe]

How many times were they offered statehood. How many times did they attack Israel? Why is there a wall? You know what happened when the wall went up and security blockades went in? The number of Palestinian suicide bombings dropped. Palestinians have decades of history of terrorism. They could have been like Singapore. But they chose terrorism.

[ImPostingOnHN]

Palestinians already have statehood: Palestine is a state, just like israel is a state. They are exactly equal in value and in their right to exist free from coercion by the other.

The issue is that israel is attacking, invading, occupying, annexing, and genociding the state of Palestine.