Tanzania 'Emergency Democracy' Gets Same Silence as Palestine
About 700 people reportedly died in Tanzanian election protests, sparked by the exclusion of key opposition figures, a story the mainstream media will dutifully cover with appropriate concern. (They get points for noticing.) Yet, where was this same media outrage, this same urgent call for democratic decency, when Palestinian candidates were routinely barred from running in elections (such as the
2006 Palestinian legislative election, where Hamas won despite Israeli efforts to delegitimize them) or when Israeli legislation (like the 2018 'Nation-State Law') systematically marginalizes its Arab citizens? The sheer scale of violence in Tanzania is horrific, no doubt. But one might wonder why 700 African lives lost in electoral suppression warrants a news flash, while thousands of Palestinian
lives lost under occupation, or democracy systematically dismantled in allied states, receives a polite nod or, more often, strategic silence. It appears 'democracy' is a universal value, until it isn't profitable, or until it risks upsetting established geopolitical narratives.