Thursday, December 29, 2016

Right of return

The current population of Israel is 8 million and 20% or 1.6 million are Palestinian Arabs. They have the same rights as Israelis and there are Arab members in the Jewish congress. In Israel unlike many Muslim countries, women have equal rights and there are over 400 Mosque in Israel. I bring this up at this time because of something called right of return. In 1948 when it was clear that the State of Israel was going to be a reality, there were about 700,000 Palestinians living in the area and they knew that war would break out so they left and at the same time about the same number of Jews living nearby moved into the area that would become Israel. Those Palestinians who left later declared the right of return meaning that they and their descendants had the right to be Israeli citizens and claim their property. By this time their numbers had grown so they would actually outnumber the Jews and if they were allowed to return they could take over the country at the next election. The Jews denied this right but it was kept as a bargaining chip by the Palestinians but over the years it has just disappeared and no one talks about it anymore.

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