From: Ismail Zayid
To: Globe& Mail
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 12:55 PM
Subject: Israel, a theocratic state.

12 Dec. 2002
 
The Editor,
The Globe & Mail.
 
Dear Editor:
 
David Lee [Letter, Dec. 12] asks those who question whether Israel is a democracy or a theocracy to answer. Israel's Basic Laws indicate that it is a theocracy. Israel is a Jewish state, for all the Jewish people throughout the world, be they from Russia, Africa, China or India, rather than a state for all its citizens, regardless of their religious faith or ethnicity. Furthermore, Israel's Law of Return, a Basic Law, stpulates that any person of the Jewish faith, regardless of his/her origin, can be granted Israeli citizenship on arrival in Israel. This privilege is not available to anyone of a different religious faith. Moreover, 92% of the land in Israel, largely confiscated Arab land, cannot be sold, leased or tilled by anyone who is not of the Jewish faith. That exclusion applies even against the Muslim and Christian citizens of the State of Idrael.
 
Is there any democracy in the world that would practice such laws?
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Ismail Zayid, MD.