By Curt_Anderson October 18, 2023 9:06 pm Category: Politics (0.0 from 0 votes) Rules of the Post Write A New Article How To Post Here Rate this article (5=best, 0=poor)

The right of return was defined as the "foremost of Palestinian rights" at the 12th Palestine National Council meeting in 1974 when it became the first component of the Palestine Liberation Organization's trinity of inalienable rights, the others being the right of self determination and the right to an independent state.

My grandmother was born in what was then Ljubljana, Austria-Hungary. She left that city in the early 1900's for America where my grandfather secured work and saved up a nest egg to start a family.

After she left, Ljubljana was in rapid succession a city in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; in a Yugoslav province; in Fascist Italy; briefly in an area controlled by Nazi Germany but officially Italian; then in Yugoslavia. Now it's a city in Slovenia.

I might claim to be the proud descendant of Austria-Hungarians but I cannot "go home" to Austria-Hungary. I don't have a "right of return" or any other right beyond that of a visiting tourist. Many people can trace their ancestry to countries that no longer exist. Most of us cannot (and don't particularly want to) "go home" to live to our ancestral homelands.

There is something to be said for "moving on".

Cited and related links:

1. en.wikipedia.org

Comments Start Below

by Donna on October 19, 2023 6:41 am The Palestinian right of return is the political position or principle that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees (c. 30,000 to 50,000 people still alive as of 2012)[3][4] and their descendants (c. 5 million people as of 2012),[3] have a right to return, and a right to the property they themselves or their forebears left behind or were forced to leave in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories (both formerly part of the British Mandate of Palestine), as part of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, a result of the 1948 Palestine war, and due to the 1967 Six-Day War. by HatetheSwamp on October 19, 2023 6:51 am Donna, That's been my point...i.e., that everyone in Israel and Palestine are the victims of what England and the UN did at the end of WW II. Beyond that, the Palestinians are victims of Arab aggression in the 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars. by Curt_Anderson on October 19, 2023 10:48 am "[Palestinians] have a right to return, and a right to the property they themselves or their forebears left behind or were forced to leave..." ---Donna Even if that "right" was declared "officially", I don't see how that promise can realistically be kept or even be expected to be kept. My parents told me that I am always welcome to stay at their house. Now that they are both dead, I suspect that the new residents of their house won't extend that courtesy and would greatly resent my bunking in their guest room uninvited. So would the residents of my grandparents' and great-grandparents' homes resent my moving in. Rather than expecting to return, it's time for a Palestinian diaspora. Other people do it. Probably all of our ancestors moved on. That includes my Bohemian ancestors---there isn't even a country called Bohemia to return to if I wanted to. There are more Irish in America than in Ireland, for example. Of course for that to happen, Israel and Egypt have to allow Palestinians to leave and other countries need to allow them entry. by Donna on October 19, 2023 5:26 pm None of your attempts at analogies work, Curt. by Curt_Anderson on October 19, 2023 5:34 pm Ignore any of my analogies. Have any other people in the history of the world ever been bestowed the right of return? Whoever grants a right for it to mean anything has to be willing and in a position to protect and enforce that right. Short of that, the right is meaningless. by HatetheSwamp on October 20, 2023 3:59 am Israel got the right to own that Palestinian property when it won it as the spoils of war, when Palestine joined with the rest of the Arab world in multiple wars against Israel. What's stunning to pb is that, otherwise rational people like Donna, buy mindnumbedly into that Anti-Israel rhetoric. Go To Top

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