----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
Nathan Newman wrote: -I think a Pal right of return is pretty phantasmic. israel exists, -isn't going anywhere, and really shouldn't be undone at this point. -But you're referring to a right of return to countries that more or -less existed in their present form. Israel was created less than 60 -years ago mainly to accommodate Europeans, and a language was revived -that hadn't been spoken in over a thousand years. There's really not -much else like it in the handbook of nationalisms.
What do you mean? Most nation-states in the world date back no more than to World War I when the great empires began being divided up. India and Pakistan were divided at roughly the same time as Israel, with ethnic-religious displacements on an even larger scale -- and continuing demands for rights of return in places like Kashmir.
Yes, Israel has its own history but so do all countries. There is almost nothing about Israel's nationalism that is not shared with some other nation. And I think Palestinians in Brooklyn expect a full right of return to the West Bank and Gaza, if not to within the Green lines, so there is little phantasmic about it.
-How many states in the world consider religion as relevant to one's -fitness to own property?
Historically? Most. Jews were prohibited from owning many kinds of property throughout Europe until very recent times. Austria-Hungary didn't end religious restrictions on land ownership until 1864. And note my comments on the religious aspects of Serbian versus Croatian nationalism that has translated into fights over control of property.
Within Israel, Palestinians can own property in Israel. Israeli bias comes out in a whole range of economic development schemes and handing out quasi-public property (even if stolen from previous owners, but nothing strange there).
Nathan