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>Zionists got permission to occupy the land from the British with The Balfour Declaration This is not an accurate representation. Jewish people were given the

>Zionists got permission to occupy the land from the British with The Balfour Declaration This is not an accurate representation. Jewish people were given the legal ability to purchase land in Mandatory Palestine. The vast majority of Palestinian Arabs were tenant farmers or landless labourers. Jewish land purchases inevitably led to the displacement of these tenants, but this was the lawful outcome of a lawful land sale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palestine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palest... The issues surrounding occupation of land after the 1948 and 1967 wars are significantly more complex and arguably do involve violations of international law by Israel.

Sporktacular 3y ago
So what if that's true (and it's not entirely true - there was forced takeovers of land, and there continues to be land theft in the West Bank today). If I sell you my land, does that make it right for you to form a separate state with it? Perhaps I would rethink that decision with the advance knowledge of your intentions.
- mydriasis 3y ago
  If I understand what's happened elsewhere correctly, then we have an example of this elsewhere at the world stage -- the separation of Kosovo from Serbia is in a large part due to land purchases from Albanians, who then vied for independence when their population grew enough.
- jdietrich 3y ago
  When Israel declared independence, that land was not governed by any state due to the withdrawal of the British Mandate. The Palestinians had previously been offered statehood through the 1947 UN Partition Plan, but had rejected it. They did not take steps to establish their own state in anticipation of the British withdrawal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_British_Mandate_for_Palestine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_British_Mandate_for... The majority of land purchases were made by the Jewish National Fund. Their aspiration to form a state was explicit and overt.
  - Sporktacular 3y ago
    Sorry, you're saying there were and are no forced expulsions of Palestinians?

Sporktacular 3y ago

So what if that's true (and it's not entirely true - there was forced takeovers of land, and there continues to be land theft in the West Bank today). If I sell you my land, does that make it right for you to form a separate state with it? Perhaps I would rethink that decision with the advance knowledge of your intentions.

mydriasis 3y ago
If I understand what's happened elsewhere correctly, then we have an example of this elsewhere at the world stage -- the separation of Kosovo from Serbia is in a large part due to land purchases from Albanians, who then vied for independence when their population grew enough.
jdietrich 3y ago
When Israel declared independence, that land was not governed by any state due to the withdrawal of the British Mandate. The Palestinians had previously been offered statehood through the 1947 UN Partition Plan, but had rejected it. They did not take steps to establish their own state in anticipation of the British withdrawal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_British_Mandate_for_Palestine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_British_Mandate_for... The majority of land purchases were made by the Jewish National Fund. Their aspiration to form a state was explicit and overt.
- Sporktacular 3y ago
  Sorry, you're saying there were and are no forced expulsions of Palestinians?