Montesquieu's Declaration Of Independence

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement created by many philosophers of the 18th century aimed to change their governments. These philosophers wished for more rights for the people and more representation in a constitutional government instead of the monarchy. Philosophers like Voltaire called for tolerance, reason as the primary source of authority, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech and expression. In addition he promoted the separation of religious and state, in order to mark a distance between any organized religion and the nation state. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government. He advocated that separation of powers would keep any individual or group from

These philosophers ushered in a new era of human government in which the people controlled their government and its jurisdictions. They created the structures that were needed to form a government of and for the people. On May 14th 1948, a day before the expiration of the British mandate on the areas that were known as Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish agency, declared the establishment of the state of Israel. The declaration of independence affirms that Israel “will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations”. In the following day, the armies of four Arab countries, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Jordan, launched the 1948 Arab-Israeli war in order to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. After a year of fighting a ceasefire was declared. The people of Israel were banding

Indeed, all Israeli citizens irrespective of religion, race or sex can form political parties, vote for them in the general elections, and be represented in the Knesset and cabinet. All citizens are equal in front of the law and have the same court system. All have freedom of speech, movement, demonstration, education and culture. Even more, Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages of the land. However, although the growing representation of Arabs in political, judicial as well as military and police positions, many believe that the Arab citizens of Israel live in a reality in which they experience discrimination as Arabs. Over 93 percent of Israeli lands are owned by the state. Whereas property is given to Jews in order to expand settlements and communities Arabs are facing difficulties and restrictions regarding property ownership and housing so they are living in increasing crowdedness in sub optimal sanitary conditions. Employment inequality in the allocation of public funding, and widespread employment discrimination, present significant economic hardship for Arab citizens of Israel. Of the 40 towns in Israel with the highest unemployment rates, 36 are Arab towns. Although the life expectancy has increased 27 years since 1948, and Arab infant mortality rate dropped from 32 deaths per thousand births in 1970 to 8.6 per thousand in 2000, there is still a significant