Q&A: Do the Palestinians Have Moral Rights?
Do the Palestinians Have Moral Rights?
Question
Many argue that Palestinian society has a moral right to self-determination and not to live under occupation—that only because of Israel’s security needs are they not being given what they deserve. And I want to ask: have the Palestinians, as a society that has devoted more than seventy years to the struggle to eliminate the existence of the State of Israel, not completely lost the moral and value-based right to self-determination and to a state of their own? Can you go on slaughtering Jews for decades and still retain a moral right to a state of your own?
I agree that from a practical standpoint a separation plan is preferable, but not from a moral standpoint.
Answer
I don’t know how to determine such a thing. At exactly what point are rights lost? I don’t even know when they are acquired. Does every group that wants something have a right to receive it? In my view, this is not a moral question but a practical one.