Monday, August 03, 2009
Israeli court recognizes the right of return...for Jews
One of the fundamental issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the "right of return" - the right, acknowledged by decades-old U.N. resolutions, for those Palestinians evicted and terrorized out of their homes in 1948, to return to their homes. This isn't to be confused with the Israeli "right of return" law, which allows Jews anywhere in the world to "return" to a place neither they nor their ancestors have ever been, Israel, to become citizens.
In the news today is the eviction of 50 Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, people who had lived in their homes for more than 50 years and who have documents showing their legal ownership of the homes preceding the establishment of the state of Israel.
So why were they evicted? Because the court ruled that "the homes were owned by Jews dating back to the late 19th century, and were abandoned during a spate of Arab attacks in the area in the 1920s and '30s" (Note, by the way, that the "Jews" alleged to have owned the homes are not the Jews, nor the ancestors thereof, of the Jews who have moved into the homes, they were just "Jews". They weren't the Cohens' home, or the Lieberman's home, they were just "Jewish" homes.). So the court has clearly ruled that prior ownership of a home (highly questionable in this particular case, but those are the "facts" the court accepted) takes precedence and allows a "right of return," including evicting the current residents.
So, since supporters of Israel constantly affirm that Israel is not a racist state, we'll be expecting them to extend this right to the Palestinians looking to return to their homes any day now. Homes they actually lived in. Some of them even still have their keys (although I'm guessing the locks may have been changed). Right?
