A Note about the Right of Return

There are very few subjects that make me foam and the mouth, breathe fire, and shoot lasers out of my eyes. The Israel/ Palestinian question is one of them, which is why I tend to not discuss it on my blog.

Newt Gingrich suggested on Thursday that the Palestinians should relinquish the Right of Return. It occurs to me that not many people understand what this means, or why it is important to the Palestinians. It just so happens that I know a little bit about this subject. My knowledge comes from having a Palestinian Roommate for two years, plus four total years living and breathing Middle Eastern politics night and day. 

The Arabs in Palestine have been living in that area since time immemorial, not just since the 600s when the Ummayad Dynasty took control of the Levant. The current population of Arabs consists of not only the descendants of Arab conquerors from the peninsula, but also the descendants of Jews and Christians who had been living there during the time of Christ and before. They haven't just been living in Palestine - in many cases they have been living in the same village for generations.

Where a Palestinian is from is just as much a part of their identity as their religion and nationality. Americans can't really understand this because our society is so mobile. We've been mobile for generations and it's not really a big deal. For example, my distant ancestors are from Europe, but they all moved here within the last couple of hundred years. Most of them moved West with the Mormon Pioneers, my mom lived in Idaho most of her life, and in my own lifetime I have lived in California, New York, Texas, Utah, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt (not in that order.) When people ask where I am from, I say Houston, not because I have lived there the longest but because that's where my parents live now.

In contrast, when you ask a Palestinian where they are from, odds are they will answer with the village where their grandparents used to live, even if they had never been there themselves.

And now for the history lesson.

Back during the war of 1948, many Palestinians fled their villages to escape the fighting. Others were systematically removed from their homes and carted away in trucks. When the war ended, the Palestinian refugees wanted to return to their homes but they were denied entry into the State of Israel. "Sorry, you left. You have no rights to your land any more." Some of these empty villages were settled by European Jewish immigrants and given new names to reflect the new population, but others remain empty today. Israel is loath to allow the Palestinians' return because the Jewish establishment wants Israel to remain a Jewish state. To allow the Palestinians the Right of Return would threaten the Jewish majority, which today remains at 80%.

To an American, the Right of Return doesn't seem like a big deal. 1948 was a very long time ago. Several generations have been born who have never set foot in village of their origin. They are not from there any more and they should get over it.

But to the Palestinians, it is a big deal. Seventy years is a long time, but it is nothing compared to how long their ancestors lived in those villages prior to the war. Telling a Palestinian to relinquish their Right of Return would be cruel and barbaric and tantamount to telling an American to spit on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Bible, and their Grandparents.

Another history lesson: in the days of Ancient Assyria, when a new people was conquered, the Modus Operandi was to take the entire population prisoner and relocate them. This was done to decrease morale and to damage the cohesion and identities of the conquered population. Remember when Daniel was carried away captive into Babylon? This was how the ten tribes of Israel were "lost:" not because of actual being lost lost, but because the Assyrians successfully robbed them of their identity.

I think I had better stop there.