On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > If you mean Francis Boyle, my sources are considerably wider, more > dispassionate/impartial and definitely less committed to one side or the > other than he is. Francis Boyle, a longtime subscriber to PNEWS-L is as passionate as he is partial to the truth. He is not Palestinian but he is as committed to justice as anyone I know. Read his books. The professor would be very willing to commit to any side as long as it is right. I believe there are some excerpts of his work in one of the portals or one of the News Wikis here but you will have to search for them. And he may speak for himself. As a Jew and a Zionist I support anyone's right to live but a close study of the history of the land would illustrate clearly as it has done not only for people like Boyle, but many Israelis, also in academia who have looked at the documents and the historical record and have reached these same conclusions that Palestinians also have the right to live - many of them on the same land that Israelis now live on - because it was taken from them without compensation, forcefully, and against their will. To be fair to Palestinians requires a fairness and respect for the truth and the law. The fact of the matter is to claim Jews bought the land, as if that would make a fraudulent claim valid is like saying I can give you a quit claim deed to land and that gives your the right of fee simple even if I do not have any rights in that land. There are no rights in land if I don't own it in the first place. Some had vested rights but they were illegally acquired. With a Quit Claim Deed, all I am doing is relinquishing any right I might have had. Many Palestinians did not give up their claims to the land they lived on and farmed and even if they never had deeds to the land but after living there for a hundred years they acquired real vested rights in the land. I can do that myself by paying taxes on land for a period of time in Florida. After something like 7 years I can claim a tax deed from the country records and if not contested after another period of time if no one disputes my rights in that land it reverts to me. The land the Palestinians lived on reverted to them after a period of time by virtue of using it. Native Americans have rights in land even when they did not own it because it was against their culture. It was stolen from them by the United States government as was Mexican territory stolen from Mexico by the United States. Rights are vested by custom/tradition but the greatest rights are those we obtain by caring and using the land. There is a different between a village and the public lands assumed to be in trust by a sovereign. Turkey had hegemony over public lands which was lost to the Allies in WWI and the Mandate obligation became a responsiblity of the French and British as stipulated by the League of Nations. The Mandate was to manage the land for the benefit of Arabs and a national homeland for Jews which did not prejudice the rights of the Arabs. The context of the Mandate changed many times and the Brits afterall were merely colonizers who were interested in the things colonizers are interested in: resources, labor, markets, etc. To skip ahead, the war changed everything and in the process the Israelis victimized Arabs. It is that issue which is being debated in the court of public opinion - and international law (not Israel's right to exist). Jews to come along in war and displace Palestinians does not relinquish original rights, even if/when those rights were not given by formal document. This is not only Common Law, I believe it is Ottoman Law and likely it is Napoleonic Law. It is international principle and it is ethics and moral to return to the Palestinians what was taken from them by force - either in the form of compensation or by returning land. That will have to be resolved between the parties with the assistance of honest brokers. This is about fundamental rights. Hank Roth http://pnews.org/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- / o o \ ===OO=====OO============================================= (4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) ========================================================= FIGHT THE RIGHT! ================== Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rhetoric-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
