Wednesday, February 06, 2013

On "Palestinian" Nationality in The Spectator

This comment:

oh my. you mean another anti-Zionist has a chance to smack Israel around? in any case, I'll pick just one point.

You write: "For the Palestinians who live here, it’s been a cruel century. Much of it has been spent under military rule. After the Ottomans came the British (1920), the Egyptians (1949), the Israelis (1967), and then, eventually, Hamas (2006)."

There is no "Palestinian" nationality. When it did exist, it was under the British Mandate and, moreover, it applied to Jews, Arabs and anyone else who merited it according to the Citizenship decree. And that Mandate had nothing to do with Arabs per se but Jews. The League of Nations decision, with the force of international law, by the way, only referred to Jews for political rights and non-Jews for private/individual rights. Here in the preamble: "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine...".

And that 'establishment' was anchored further as stemming from : "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country;"

If there is any irritation to be, it is due to the author's ignorance, prejudice and irrational world-view, which the reviewer was unable to catch.

was left at this book review.

(k/t=EG)

^

1 comment:

Alan said...

at this point,it no longer matters what the norwegiuans or the Brits think. The facts on the ground in Uhmm el Fahm are more important. These people think of themselves asz Israelis of Palestinian ethnicity. And that will not change in your grandchildren's lifetime. So the more important discussion point is how to deal with it. I don't have time at this moment to delve into details, but let's just say that a clever handling of the matter would help more than huffing and puffing. The world belongs to the smooth operators