And for most of my life I have been told that making that assumption is antisemitic.
8 Likes
3 Likes
Those aren’t… even remotely the same thing, though. An Iroquois, still living on some of the lands of their ancestors, the rest of those lands having been taken in the last couple hundred years isn’t the same as an American, whose family lived in Europe for the last millennium or two, becoming an Israeli settler. What invalidates an indigenous claim is, you know, not actually being indigenous. A millennium+ separation will do that. Do the Bretons have indigenous claim to England? I don’t think anyone would say yes. That particular lands feature prominently in cultural narratives is a separate issue. (Leaving aside how historically accurate those narratives are - or are not.)
2 Likes
“Apology for terrorism.”
As I see it, defending Netanyahu and the actions of the IDF are “apologizing for terrorism” too.
As Josh Marshall at TPM put it, Netanyahu and Hamas are allies, they each need the threat of the other to have power. The extremists of both sides are fighting and dragging the middle into the carnage.
5 Likes
I’ve had friends and family heavily involved in the justice for Palestine movement for decades. I’ve never heard anyone, even the daftest tankies say that.
4 Likes
If the Iroquois did claim New York, would the people currently there be entitled to take over York in England, or Amsterdam? 
6 Likes
We’ve actually got a New York up here near Newcastle (imaginative bunch, the Normans). They could try there?
It’s a bit shit tho.
1 Like
It’s just one of those things: Israelite implies “And the Israelites went down unto Canaan” Old Testament stuff, a person who currently lives in Tel Aviv is Israeli.
5 Likes
Too recent- if they were of English descent, then they’d presumably “go back” to Denmark/Germany.
2 Likes
Yeah, it’s actually the same in spanish, except israelite is still accepted in informal speech, as israeli is not the spanish usual way of constructing a demonym, it sounds weird to our ears 
In formal speech and press, israeli is the only accepted demonym. But these are the same rules that say we have to stop saying Pequín and use Beijing… How was the saying? “You can lead a horse to water…”
3 Likes
We’re mongrels here, even the anti-Irish/Scot/Welsh/Cornish bigots have some Celt in them. That isn’t dealing with the pre-Celtic cultures who came from Spain and Eastern Europe.
Ultimately we all come from East Africa, and they have enough problems there without us all going back and demanding “our land” back again. We caused most of those problems the last time we did that.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
