A muslim Arab voting in Israel - credit: Reuters

Relative rankings of Belgium and Israel according to The Economist Global Democracy Index.

Global Democracy in 2021 - source: The Economist

The Economist's new Global Democracy Index sees Israel continue to become more democratic & praised for "positive trends", ranked 13 places higher than Belgium.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, February 10, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In its annual report on global democracy, The Economist ranked Israel as the 23rd most democratic country in the world, only marginally behind France. The report reveals a trend that has seen Israel increase its position in the index, which since its inception in 2006 ranks all countries according to scores out of ten in 5 categories. Israel scored a full ten out of ten for the category of 'political participation', which considers the extent to which "ethnic, religious and other minorities have a reasonable degree of autonomy and voice in the political process". Only the number one ranked country, Norway, got the same top marks.

During the same period, Belgium's democracy score has fallen steadily, such that the country is placed 21st out of 23 European countries, with only the divided and partially occupied island of Cyprus and Turkey coming lower. The report gave Belgium only five out of ten for political participation, the same as Kazakhstan and Angola.

These scores mean that the gap between Israel has grown to 13 places, with Israel on the verge of joining the top category of 'full democracy'.

The report praised Israel for displaying "positive trends in Israel, where an Arab party is in government for the first time as a minor player in a wide-ranging coalition".

A statement by Belgian Friends of Israel (BFOI) said "We welcome and celebrate the recognition by such a respected body that Israel has a flourishing democracy, despite many specific and particular challenges. The report destroys the lie, manufactured by the ideologically extreme Amnesty International and perpetuated by terrorist-linked Belgian-funded NGOs, that Israel is an 'apartheid state'. In the light of such an objective and forensic analysis of the data by The Economist's Intelligence Unit, such an outrageous misuse of the term is exposed as an absurdity".

The BFOI statement continued "Belgian politicians should concentrate their energies on making Belgium a more democratic place for its long-suffering citizens, who witness their tax money being misappropriated by ministers and state bodies to support corrupt NGOs operating in the Palestinian Authority, which again is classified as an "authoritarian regime" in the report".

"It is bizarre that at a time when Belgium scrapes the bottom of the European democratic barrel, many of our politicians remain obsessed with relentlessly demonising and delegitimising the only Jewish state in the world, which has been shown to be increasingly more democratic than their own country" concluded the statement.

Celia De Coster
BFOI
+32 493 03 86 78
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