Tuesday, February 26, 2008
No Accommodation for Criminal Behavior
Petra MB: "As you certainly remember, we actually debated the issue you raise with respect to the right of return once, and you never got around to responding to the questions I asked you then: you live in Germany, where millions of refugees, including, as I told you, my parents, had to give up any thoughts of a 'right of return' in order to make peace possible. Any thoughts on this now?"
My reply on CIF
I don't accommodate criminal behavior, nor am I so presumptuous to even debate about abnegating "right of return," which is an inalienable and individual right. No one may legislate this individual right away for millions of refugees. You are living on the ruins of 560 deliberately destroyed Palestinian villages. You underestimate the efforts of the whole of the Palestinians, not just those in the West Bank and Gaza, who are determined to return to their land. There is absolutely no basis to assume that peace will be achieved if some misguided or co-opted Palestinian politician assumes he may "give up" our individual right.
Although I work in Germany, I grew up in California among the giant Sequoia trees and its wild beaches. I take for granted that every holiday if I choose, I may roam around the places where I spent my childhood, and I relish every summer spent among the fig, orange and plum trees my father planted fifty years ago.
But evidently, Palestinian refugees are children of a lesser God than Petra from Germany, Susie from New Orleans, etc., those who have privileges and rights in two countries and seem to be living out some fantasay on someone else's land.
My reply on CIF
I don't accommodate criminal behavior, nor am I so presumptuous to even debate about abnegating "right of return," which is an inalienable and individual right. No one may legislate this individual right away for millions of refugees. You are living on the ruins of 560 deliberately destroyed Palestinian villages. You underestimate the efforts of the whole of the Palestinians, not just those in the West Bank and Gaza, who are determined to return to their land. There is absolutely no basis to assume that peace will be achieved if some misguided or co-opted Palestinian politician assumes he may "give up" our individual right.
Although I work in Germany, I grew up in California among the giant Sequoia trees and its wild beaches. I take for granted that every holiday if I choose, I may roam around the places where I spent my childhood, and I relish every summer spent among the fig, orange and plum trees my father planted fifty years ago.
But evidently, Palestinian refugees are children of a lesser God than Petra from Germany, Susie from New Orleans, etc., those who have privileges and rights in two countries and seem to be living out some fantasay on someone else's land.
