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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (201702)	9/7/2006 6:22:53 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

Apparently the Jews bought land from Ottomans and a lot of the local yokels were tenants. Much like the Indians in Fiji had leased land for 100 years but were kicked off a few years ago, causing ructions as they considered it "their" land. "We have farmed this land for a hundred years and maybe more". I imagine Palestinians who had lived in an area for generations would start to think they own it. A bit like I tell myself I own the land my house is on, but in fact I own it "In fee simple" as "tenants in common" of the Crown. What I actually buy is the right to occupy it and comply with local laws and taxation demands. And, get off it if they say "eminent domain", "public works" etc. Which is quite annoying to anyone with Libertarian ideas, but that's the way the rules work. Palestinians were apparently in similar situations with Ottomans glad to sell it out from under them to incoming Jews. Who of course wanted unoccupied land, not a bunch of people who thought they owned it. Plus, there's the small matter of conquest, which was the traditional means of ownership transfer everywhere on Earth and still is in some areas. The fact that there were some people there to buy the land from, or even if the owners were in Istanbul [aka Constantinople] doesn't mean there were more than a few. Auckland has 1 million living there now, but it was almost empty 150 years ago with perhaps no Maoris living in the part sold off as the city - the main Maori HQ being nearby at Orakei, which was presumably a good spot for the Maori chiefs to keep an eye on what was going up and down the harbour to the British enclave. Your idea that the Swiss might have owned land in Palestine is a bit far-fetched, though the gnomes of Zurich have long range interests these days. Mqurice PS: When I say the Israel area, I don't mean that Israel existed back then, I am referring, pretty obviously I thought, to the area which is now Israel [variable borders notwithstanding] so we can define what we are discussing, at least reasonably accurately if not precisely.