Rights
Jun. 13th, 2025 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo "Does Israel have the right to exist?" asked the interviewer.
And the interviewee- who was Palestinian- replied "Israel exists".....
Meaning the present state of Israel is a political fact that it would be foolish to deny but the rights of the matter are something else entirely.....
You had have the same exchange about any piece of real estate on earth. The geo-political map is always in flux. Nations blink into existence, blink out again. Empires come and go, their boundaries in a state of perpetual change. Look at a political map from a hundred years ago and it'll be hopelessly out of date.
Forget Israel- that's so contentious- and let's look at the status of a territory that's a little less so- though who knows?- California. it has existed inside it's present boundaries since the 1500s. Before that it was a patchwork of tribal territories. According to Dick Allgire- who was giving us his take on the present unrest in L.A.- it is stiil- on paper- which isn't worth a great deal- the property of the King of Spain. When Spain lost its grip on its American colonies, California passed to Mexico, but only briefly- and then to the United States. Each one of these transitions was marked by violence. Does the United States have a "right" to hold onto it? Only for as long as it can. The protesters in L.A. who are waving Mexican flags have a point....
Every name on the world map is a notion, an idea, a dream.
In 1579 the English pirate Francis Drake landed somewhere north of the present City of San Francisco. He got on well with the local tribespeople and claimed the area for the English crown, naming it New Albion. This colony of his persisted for about as long as he remained in the vicinity- and if King Charles wants to reaffirm his right to the land he would have first have to ascertain exactly where it is because people no longer remember....
And the interviewee- who was Palestinian- replied "Israel exists".....
Meaning the present state of Israel is a political fact that it would be foolish to deny but the rights of the matter are something else entirely.....
You had have the same exchange about any piece of real estate on earth. The geo-political map is always in flux. Nations blink into existence, blink out again. Empires come and go, their boundaries in a state of perpetual change. Look at a political map from a hundred years ago and it'll be hopelessly out of date.
Forget Israel- that's so contentious- and let's look at the status of a territory that's a little less so- though who knows?- California. it has existed inside it's present boundaries since the 1500s. Before that it was a patchwork of tribal territories. According to Dick Allgire- who was giving us his take on the present unrest in L.A.- it is stiil- on paper- which isn't worth a great deal- the property of the King of Spain. When Spain lost its grip on its American colonies, California passed to Mexico, but only briefly- and then to the United States. Each one of these transitions was marked by violence. Does the United States have a "right" to hold onto it? Only for as long as it can. The protesters in L.A. who are waving Mexican flags have a point....
Every name on the world map is a notion, an idea, a dream.
In 1579 the English pirate Francis Drake landed somewhere north of the present City of San Francisco. He got on well with the local tribespeople and claimed the area for the English crown, naming it New Albion. This colony of his persisted for about as long as he remained in the vicinity- and if King Charles wants to reaffirm his right to the land he would have first have to ascertain exactly where it is because people no longer remember....
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