Israel declared its “independence” on May 14, 1948. Created on Palestinian land, Israel is a very strange country. Here are ten things about Israel that make it different from a “normal” country.…

1 Never was independent. The initial European colonisation of Palestine took place under the protection of British soldiers. Today Israel has the region’s biggest military. But its power depends on US bombs, planes, economic assistance, and diplomatic cover. Without US (and European) support Israel would collapse. Israel has never been really independent.

2 Created by the United Nations. Israel was created as a result of UN resolution 181 which approved of seizing over 50% of the British Mandate of Palestine and giving it to European Jews to have a state of their own. Its proclaimed intention was to protect Jews, but it ignored the rights of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants. It was unfair, racist and colonial and in violation of the UN’s proclaimed support of the right of self determination of peoples.

2.  No constitution. Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. This is not an oversight. Its “Declaration of Independence” was full of fine phrases about equality and non discrimination, but those proclamations were never codified into law. Israel’s basic laws were written on the principle that Jews were superior to others.

3 No borders. All states have recognized borders within which they exercise state power. Not so for Israel. Historical records show that Israeli President David Ben-Gurion refused to declare fixed borders in 1948, leaving room for future expansion. This approach, often described as “strategic ambiguity,” enabled ‘Israel’ to seize and occupy more territory over and over again without being legally bound to specific boundaries. Since 1948 it has continued to expand its territory (eg. Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon) whenever it sees an opportunity. Some Israelis even hope for a “Greater Israel” from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.

4. Main source of worldwide antisemitism. In the shadow of the war in Gaza, there was a surge in the number of cases of severe violence against Jews in the West in 2025, according to the annual report on the state of antisemitism in the world The actions of the world’s only Jewish state have made Israel the main engine behind a world wide rise in antisemitism. While an increasing number of brave diaspora Jews dare to criticize Zionist actions, most Jewish establishment organizations either ignore or actually defend, a genocide that most Canadians find “morally outrageous”.

5. Highest number of UN  condemnations. Israel holds the record for the most condemnations by the UN General Assembly. Incredibly, since 1949, there have been more UNGA votes critical of Israel than of every other country put together! Why? Israel keeps ignoring UN resolutions on many issues including human rights, ending the occupation and recognizing the Palestinian right to self determination.

6. Sociopathic social norms. Soldiers of every country at war commit war crimes – including extrajudicial murder, rape torture and imprisonment of innocent people. (think Mai Lai, or Abu Ghraib). In normal countries, the public is appalled by such acts and the guilty are punished. But torture has become “state policy” in Israel. Polls show that over 50% of the Israeli public endorse the Gaza genocide Soldiers (and settlers) who torture and kill Palestinians are celebrated.

On March 30, 2026, the Israeli Knesset passed the “Death Penalty for Terrorists” law mandating the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians convicted of offenses deemed to “negate the existence of the State of Israel” and mandates execution within 90 days

7 Leadership under criminal indictment. Israel is one of the only countries in the world where the sitting leader is under indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. The only other ones are Haibatullah Akhundzada of Afghanistan and Vladimir Putin of Russia..

8 Legalized racism. Racism exists in every state in the world. But Israel is one of the few countries where racism is a cornerstone of its governance framework. By law, only Jews have the right to self determination in Israel. Jews are considered more important and have more rights than non Jews.

9 Peculiar basis. “Normal” states consider themselves to be a state of ALL of their citizens. But Israel is different. It conceives of itself as a state of the Jewish people wherever they live in the world. Jews living in Brooklyn or Toronto have more rights in Israel than Palestinians whose families have lived in Jaffa or Haifa or Jerusalem for centuries.

10 No “Israeli” nationality. In a normal country, “citizenship” and “nationality” are synonymous. In Israel, “nationality” denotes ethno-religious identity (Jewish, Arab, Druze, etc.), which in turn determines rights related to land and immigration. Israel’s supreme court has ruled that “Israeli” nationality does not exist, upholding Jewish nationality as supreme. Citizens with Jewish “nationality” have more rights than those who are not Jewish.

Canada Talks Israel Palestine is the biweekly newsletter of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion ababout the Israel/Palestine issue from a Canadian perspective. Readers are invited to make comment. To get on our regular mailing list, or for more information write: ofip.chair@gmail.com