Absolutely, for the jews who trace back their ancestry to folk living in Palestine before whatever date is picked as reasonable, there can be no question ... and there certainly were some, roughly ten per cent are the figures i've seen ... if in the meantime some of them have stolen the land of their former neighbours then that would be a criminal matter, but they would remain indigenous, native ... root of the word 'native' is the latin for 'birth', as is 'indigenous', 'indi-' would translate to 'native' in english, '-gena' to 'born' ... which opens up all the hairy grey areas, like what do you do about people born there, maybe whose parents were born there, but they are living on land illegitimately acquired ... well if they're born in the province you can't take away from them the title of native, no matter what else transpires, that seems reasonable eh
And all this sets up many problems, an infinity of fine judgments required on complex matters ... a Truth and Reconciliation commission job would be a hard slog for a lifetime here, i'm afraid ..... if only there was a god in the forms each side believes, to reach down just once and give them all a good whack upside the head |
