An interview with Said

[Christabel]

Joseph27,

Where did you obtain the interview from?
Would like to read it in its entirety.

Thanks.

[musp]

Imagine

>How many generations should pass for >a claim not to be a claim anymore?

Why was Saddam not allowed to keep Kuwait? Did he fail your test ?

Let me answer that for you ....

A claim will not be a claim anymore only when there are no claimants or the claimants have been justifiably compensated.  

[Imagine]

Musp,

What test are you talking about? Is there a test?

How about the original inhabitans of Australia, South Africa, North America etc etc

Are all of them entitled to a compensation?
Start pulling out your wallet then!

[This message has been edited by Imagine (edited 01-10-2003).]

[Euro-Aussie]

Imagine -
* Australian Aborigines do get compensation, land, financial aid, exclusive fishing rights . . .
* N. American Indians do get compensation (to a lesser degree)
* Eskimo/Inuit get compensation - land, financial aid . . .
* S. African Blacks do get compensation - land (not sure about anything else)
*  NZ Maoris do get compensation - land, financial aid, exclusive fishing rights

And the wallets are out as these are financed by taxpayers.  

Another question then - should 'new' migrants to these countries be liable for the misdeeds of former generations, of different nations?  

This is getting off the topic, though, sorry Joseph

[Imagine]

Well, it is not exactly off topic.

See, the British?US gave Israel to the Jews after WWII.
Now, you can dispute if it was theirs to give.
However, the question now raises... who is the rightfull owner of the land there?

You might say... the rightfull owners are the Palestines, but then the Jews might have a claim also because before the Palestines came in, they were the inhabitants.
How long does a claim last? 50, 100, 300, 500, 1000 years?

Now, if I am not mistaken the examples you mention are nice to you, but not nice to the original inhabitants.
See, lets say your tribe owns the whole state of Texas. Then some white people come in and throw you in a camp. After 200 years these white people give you USD 1,000.
Nice? No, because the people do not want money... they want their land back!

So, when is USA going to give Texas back to the Indians?
And when will the complete continent of Australia be given back to the Aboriginals?

As you see... the answer is not that simple.
And same goes for Israel.

Who should by right pay off the Palestines?
The British...they gave it away, isn't it?
Or the Israelians... they accepted a gift from a country who at that time was the "rightfull" owner of that land.

I am eagerly awaiting your answer.
If I am not mistaken, we can soon start drawing complete new borders troughout Europe.

[This message has been edited by Imagine (edited 02-10-2003).]

[Texas]

"So, when is USA going to give Texas back to the Indians?
And when will the complete continent of Australia be given back to the Aboriginals?"

Thanks for enlightening me.  I never studied US history at school, so only know what I have picked up from old Hollywood Westerns.  

I am very pleased to discover that American Indians limited themselves to living within the Texas state border before the white settlers from Europe came and f***ed it all up for them.

[musp]

Its bad enough to steal someone's land and its worse to continue eating their land forcing them in a corner.

Its still worse to barge into this little corner at will with tanks and battleships, demolishing their houses, setting up road blocks.

And to threaten their leaders with expulsion or death. To build an illegal wall on their land.

There are Palestinians who are willing to accept the 2 state theory and willing to forgoe what Israel stole from them. But Israel continues to errect settlements and makes life difficult for Palestinians.

Compare the lives of the Palestinians to the aborigines, American Indians and you will know why there is no peace.

[Joseph27]

Its sad to say that few really care much about the plight of the Palestinians.  With thanks to powerful friends in the US - Isreal has succeeded in making a people forced from their homes, into the aggressors.  

Imagine Hitler has friends like that in 1939 - it would have been very good for him.  Imagine the stories in the press -

"Polish terrorist exploded a car in front of a German compound today killing 5 soldiers and injuring another 3.  Another explosion rocked downtown Warsaw. German authorities have vowed swift revenge and are sectioning off areas of town and rerouting the undesirable parts of the population into these areas.  Strict measures are necessarily.  

When we think of occupied Poland - the images of fighting against such overwhelming odds comes to mind.  Sure I understand that Israel is not Nazi Germany,  but by their own admission they are an occupying power pushing a suppressed population further and further into a corner.  No peace is possible when the Palestinians are negotiating from the stand of a defeated people.  

[musp]

Israel can get away with any atrocities. Take this wall for instance. It runs thru Palestinian land, some thru farms that Palestinians have tilled for years. Some families have been separated with houses on both sides of the wall. This is atrocious. But the world watches silently.

Opponents of the wall are wondering why Israel doesn't build the wall on their own side of the border. On being questioned they have the gall to say its "not a border just a security fence".

In face of such humiliation what choice do the Palestinians have?

[Imagine]

Anyone here can answer how long does it take for a claim to expire?

PS Israel did not steal the occupied territories.
They conquered it during the 6-day war in which they were attacked by their neighbours, who tried to steal their land.

[Publius]

You can't steal land that wasn't owned in the first place. UN Resolutions 242 and 338 and 339 recognize that the Palestinians had no ownership rights over any of the West Bank or Gaza.

There has never been a sovereign Palestinian state at any time in ancient or modern history. The "stolen" land that you speak of was captured by Israel from Jordan in a defensive war in June 1967. And prior to 1948 more Jews than Palestinians lived in the region but were driven out by Jordan in 1948 (the Jordanians razed 51 Jewish synagogues in the process).

The reason why UN Resolutions 242 and 338 are unforceable is because the UN recognized that the West Bank and Gaza were not "occupied" or captured in a war of aggression.

The only Nazis in the Middle East are the Arab states who have never given even one dollar of their billions in petrodollars to their Palestinian brethren.

The truth is that the only people who hate the Palestinians more than the Israelis are their fellow Arabs who drove them out of Kuwait in 1991.