Lacking amidst the increasingly intemperate media remarks of pro-Palestinian writers is a nuanced view of the historical aspect of land rights.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, recognises the inherent rights of peoples to land in which their political, social, economic, religious and institutional characteristics can be cultivated and maintained.
What is significant about the Declaration is the absence of a specific time frame beyond which such rights could not be claimed. Thus, the claims of the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people in Australia, who have never ceded sovereignty over their rights, are based on the millennia of their existence and occupation.
Land claims by the Maoris in Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, hark back to the 1300s. Although Maoris comprise only 18% of the population their rights are statutorily affirmed.
In that context, the Biblical origins of Israel uphold its right to exist. Yet extremist groups like Hamas and their allies deny that right and are pledged to obliterate Israel, “from the river to the sea,” as they proclaim.
As long as Israel is threatened by that fate, nobody should be surprised that it defends itself and fights fire with fire. At the same time it is worth remembering the prescient words in the Bible found in chapter 16, verse 12 of Genesis regarding Ishmael and his descendants: “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility towards all his brothers.”
Not only is the veracity of the word of God stridently manifesting itself in the Middle East, but also across Europe.
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