Master's thesis deals with the status of Israeli Arabs within the political system of the State of Israel. For analysis of this topic two approaches were selected. First, attention is concentrated on the historical development of status of Israeli Arabs from the establishment of Israel to the present day. Subsequently, selected problematic areas in the relationship between Israeli Arabs and Israel are analyzed. These areas include: obtaining Israeli citizenship, ownership of land, compulsory military service in Israeli army, participation in political and judicial institutions, official languages, and national symbols. As it turns out, Israel disadvantages status of Israeli Arabs in many areas. However, the whole issue is not entirely unequivocal because in some cases, Israeli Arabs cause their disadvantaged status by their attitude.

Existe-t-il un pluralisme démocratique, une démocratie différente de celle des normes « occidentales » ? C’est la question que nous nous sommes posés dans notre recherche, en partant sur une hypothèse affirmative, dans un contexte spécifique qui est celui de l’alliance communément contestée entre démocratie et religion. Nous avons décidé de nous pencher sur les démocraties du Proche-Orient, sur leurs particularismes liés au rapport étroit qui existe dans ces pays entre politique et religion. Les pays de la région qui sembleraient à nos yeux les plus démocratiques à ce jour sont le Liban, Israël (en incluant une étude des Territoires palestiniens également), et la Turquie. En tenant pour principes démocratiques l’égalité et la liberté, présents dans leurs constitutions respectives, nous avons décidé d’étudier les spécificités de chaque pays ; celui d’être un Etat confessionnel pour le Liban, un Etat Juif pour Israël, un Etat sans Etat pour les Territoires palestiniens, un Etat à la fois laïc, turc, et islamique pour la Turquie. Il existe des failles démocratiques dans chacun de ses Etats, que nous avons mises en évidence, tout comme des évolutions positives. Le nationalisme présent dans chacun de ces pays est particulièrement prononcé, selon les différentes communautés d’appartenances, ce qui fait de l’appartenance ethnique principale une appartenance nationale ; d’où notre choix ambitieux d’appeler ces Etats des démocraties ethniques, se basant sur l’ethnos (l’appartenance communautaire du peuple). C’est aussi en raison de cette condition qu’ils connaissent surtout des lacunes vis-à-vis de la reconnaissance d’autres appartenances, leurs minorités respectives. / Does a democratic pluralism exist, implying a democracy different from the "Western" standards? Based on a positive assumption, this is the question that we attempt to answer to in this research within a specific framework, namely the commonly contested alliance between democracy and religion. We have decided to study Middle-Eastern democracies with their specificities related to the narrow link that exists in those countries between politics and religion. The countries of the area that seemed, as of today, the most democratic to us are Lebanon, Israel (including a study of the Palestinian Territories) and Turkey. Based on the democratic principles of Equality and Liberty, also present in their respective constitutions, we have decided to look into the specificities of each country; such as being a confessional state for Lebanon, a Jewish state for Israel, a state without a state for the Palestinian Territories and a state being at the same time secular, Turkish and Islamic for Turkey. In each of these countries there are democratic flaws that we have highlighted, as well as positive evolutions. The Nationalism present in each of these countries is particularly pronounced according to the different communities to which one belongs, which leads the main ethnic to become a national identification, hence our ambitious choice to name these states ethnic democracies based on the ethnos (people's identification to a community). It is also because of this specificity that they encounter weaknesses towards the recognition of other identifications such as their respective minorities.