n many discussions of the Middle East we are told that the Palestinians in Israel enjoy far more rights than Arabs in other parts of the Middle East and, given the generally undemocratic character of moderate and radical Arab states this may be true. Wonks Anonymous is, however, more interested in comparing the performance of Israel with that of other modern states - a group to which Israel claims to belong.

When this standard is used Israel's treatment of its Arab minority leaves much to be desired. Wonks Anonymous will consider here two basic human rights: the right to property and the right to political participation.

Property rights in Israel are severely restricted for all. Some 97% of the land is owned either by the Israeli government or by the Jewish National Fund. This land is administered by the Israel Land Authority with the land owned by the Jewish National Fund - 13% of Israel's land - being earmarked for Jews. The Jewish National Fund holds 12 of the 22 seats on the board that governs the Israel Land Authority. The rest are filled by government ministers.

Now various claims have been made back and forth about the extent and nature of discrimination by the ILA Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab and Minority Rights in Israel presents a discussion of its legal cases opposed to various attempts by parties and governments in Israel to restrict the access of Israeli Arabs to land. Other points of view and claims on this issue are easily found by web search. An actual study of the allocation decisions of the Israel Land Authority would be a very interesting dissertation in the economics of discrimination.

Wonks Anonymous will, however, observe that he suspects that such a study would find significant discrimination. Even with the best of intentions, when one group allocates a resource through a centralized agency, discrimination will likely occur simply from unconscious biases.

And it is unlikely that the biases of various Israeli governments have been entirely unconscious. Which observation brings us to the other human right considered here. Israeli Arabs have had the right to vote for some time but political participation by Israeli Arabs has been limited to non existent. So far as Wonks Anonymous can see there has been exactly one Arab Minister who participated in an Israeli government. This would be Walid Sadik of the Meretz party who was Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Yitzak Rabin's government 1992 to 1996.

In this time no Arab political parties have held any posts in government although they do elect members to parliament.

This is a curious fact, given that Arabs make up about 20% of Israel's population. It becomes even more curious when we understand that Israel has a system of proportional representation which amplifies the political power of fringe groups. Indeed the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party has regularly held numbers of cabinet posts entirely out of proportion to is representation in parliament. Another minority party the Yisrael Beitenu party, which advocates the elimination of most Arabs from Israel holds at least two ministries in the current government.

It would seem that Israel's unique status as a Jewish Democracy is secure.

Information on Israeli Governments can be found at the Knesset Web site. George Bisharat provided valuable suggestions for research for this post. All errors are owned by Wonks Anonymous.