Everybody Is From Somewhere Else

I think I’ve mentioned this before but there is such a widely held misconception about people having some sort of inherent right to particular areas I felt it was worth repeating. The most immediate example of this is the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. They both use their holy books to prove that God has given them the land.

The reality is messier than that. As well as we can tell there have always been Jews in Israel and there have always been Arabs in Israel. What has happened over time is that one side or another has seized control of the land by force. In 1948 it was the Israelis. In 1967 and 1973 the Arabs retaliated, were defeated, and the Israelis took more territory. Since then the Israelis have negotiated some of the land they seized away.

In the 7th century it was the Arabs. In the 16th century it was the Turks. The Turks held Palestine from the 16th century to the early 20th century. During that period the only people who owned any land in Palestine were the Ottoman, Jews, and Christians. I have written about that extensively. Claims by the Muslim Arabs that their ancestors owned the land for hundreds of years are BS. They didn’t. They were tenants.

If you’re going to argue that might doesn’t make right, the only ones who have any reasonable claim to the land are the Maronites in Lebanon. Before the Israelites the Canaanites held the land (DNA tests have suggested that the Maronites are Phoenicians who were identical to the Canaanites). But reality intrudes once again: I’m quite sure that some time in the mists of history their ancestors seized the land from someone else.

That isn’t just true in ancient Palestine. It’s true practically everywhere. It’s true in the American Southwest where the U. S. government displaced the Navajo who had displaced the people who there before them who had displaced the people who were there before them. It’s true in the Northeast of the United States. It’s true in Egypt, in Britain, in France, in Germany, in India, in China. There may be some vestigial population in East Africa who have actually always been there but, frankly, I doubt it. I think the present inhabitants came from somewhere else.