Religion is a passport to god not land - the Jewish and Palestinian land battle



The Promise. TV series on land battles in Palestine. Photo from libcom.au.



So here's the thing - since when did one's religion give one the power over land rights?

As an Internationista I own more than one passport and have the rights enter and settle down in more than one country. As an atheist I have no right to enter or settle down in any country.

So why in the world would land rights be given to a group of people based on their religion alone? Religion is a passport to god not land.

I'm new to the land battles in Palestine and Israel, but I get the sense my recent increased exposure to it, like this article in the Sydney Morning Herald, which looks at the Bedouin people being forced out of  their properties by Israeli expansion, and this recent TV serious on the issue on SBS: The Promise, suggest that the situation is reaching a new level of intensity.

In response, my first thought was that of my mother's preachings when me and my sibling fought over a new toy: if you two can't learn to share then I'll take it away from both of you.

Then I started thinking about our responses which would fall on deaf ears: "but it's mine", "but I had it first", "dad said I could have it".

The end message was always: learn to share!

And if we didn't we'd either end up breaking it or mum would confiscate it all together.

Then I learnt that before World War II the Jewish people and Palestinians, made up of Muslims and other religions had lived side by side in relative harmony for years as they do today in many other countries in the world. However, when the United Nations granted the Jewish people, many of whom had been persecuted in the war, access and rights to settle in the area, the balance was thrown.

And so it would.

Just think if all the Catholics in the world had rights to the Vatican or Italy? All the Anglicans land rights in England? All Islamic people rights to settle in Saudia Arabia?

Following this ethos, which country should atheists have rights to?

Taking it one step further, if I started a religious group tomorrow, much like King Henry the VIII in the 1500s, and stated our holy land was Bondi Beach, Australia, could me and my followers have the land rights to Bondi Beach?

Better still, I am an internationista, believing in a world without borders. Can I claim land anywhere?

I've had many dinner discussions over whether being Jewish is a religion or a race. I believe Judaism is a religion just like all the others and struggle to understand why people would consider it a race?  

According to Wikipedia Jewish people are a "nation" and "ethnoreligious group".

Though contradictorily, in Wikipedia’s description of a nation it doesn't mention religion as being a defining agent.

As for an ethnoreligious group (or ethno-religious group)? This is presumably an ethnic group of people whose members are also unified by a common religious background. Along with Jewish people Wikipedia includes the Druze of the Levant, the Copts of Egypt, the Yazidi of northern Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran and India and the Sikhs of India.

The term ethnoreligious is quite a modern one, with countries like Australia only adding it to its anti-discrimination laws in 1994. So what were they before then? Could I hazard a guess and say just religions?

And if the Jewish are an ethno-religious group couldn't we say Italians are also? Italians all look the same, eat the same, speak the same, come from the same place of origin and 91 per cent are Roman Catholic. 

Spending a lot of time in Australia I understand the importance of land rights. The aborigines are the original inhabitants of the land. They have rights to the land not because they believe in the Dreamtime but because they are from this land, they are of this land, dating back at least 20,000 years. I get it.

What I don't get is how someone thinks is connected to the right over their land. I know great Jewish people. They used to be South African Jews and now they are South African/Australian Jews. Not Israelis. They have never even been to Israel.

Since the United Nations are the ones who got us into this mess it's up to them to fix it up.

A two minute solution from someone who knows very little about the topic would be eradicate this new foggy window which blurs race and nationality rights with religion and transform that area so that it operates like most other countries in the world. Nationalism and land rights are based on your place of birth or ancestry. If you are born in the area or you can prove your ancestors were you are entitle to access and permanency, if you are not and cannot, you are not of that land and therefore need to apply for residency just like all other immigrants wanting to start their lives in a country that is different from their place of origin.

Religion is a state of mind not a nationality. It's a passport to god not land.

Though I could have it all wrong?