Q&A: A Palestinian People
A Palestinian People
Question
A question that has occurred to me recently, and whose topic was mentioned on the site in another context: what does the Rabbi think about the claim that there was no Palestinian people in the past? Is that claim relevant in any way? How does it make the person who makes it right vis-à-vis the Palestinians, if at all? And is there any way to prevent a group of people in the present from coalescing into a people just because in the past (assuming it is true that there never was a Palestinian people) it was not a people? (All this assuming I even understand the relevance of this claim, because I don’t.) Thank you, and happy holiday.
Answer
For some reason this question slipped my attention. Indeed, there was no such people in the past (before the twentieth century, and perhaps even until around the middle of the century). The claim is relevant, because even if we recognize them as a people, a people cannot demand rights to a territory over which sovereignty already exists unless its rights predate that sovereignty. So this claim definitely carries decisive weight in the question of justice. The practical side is already another matter. You cannot prevent anyone from coalescing into a people, or a collective, or a Baptist village. But rights do not necessarily follow from that.