#emigration

how does Palestinian right of return differ from Jewish aliyah? If diaspora Jews who are settled in another country can come to Israel, why shouldn't Palestinian diaspora be able to do the same?

(I get the demographic dilemma and why Israel doesn't want a ton of Palestinians 'returning', but regardless of that, what is the actual difference here?)

This is much simpler than you think it is, Anon.

Let's start by looking at what a Law of Return is, because Israel isn't even unusual in this.

Many countries have laws granting preferential immigration/citizenship rights to diaspora populations:

Germany (Article 116 of the Basic Law) - ethnic Germans and descendants of those persecuted by the Nazi regime

Greece - ethnic Greeks

Ireland - those with Irish ancestry (grandparent rule)

Italy - those with Italian ancestry (jure sanguinis)

Poland - ethnic Poles

Armenia - ethnic Armenians

Finland - ethnic Finns and Ingrian Finns

Japan - ethnic Japanese (Nikkeijin)

South Korea - ethnic Koreans

China - ethnic Chinese

Portugal - Sephardic Jews

Hungary - ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries

Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria - their respective ethnic populations abroad

So Ireland, for example, has decided that a foreigner of Irish descent "with a grandparent born on the island of Ireland can claim Irish nationality by enrollment in the Foreign Births Register. Additionally, the law permits the Minister of Justice to waive the residency requirements for naturalization for a person of 'Irish descent or Irish associations'."

What Ireland cannot do, though, is grant foreigners with an Irish grandparent the right to emigrate to the United Kingdom, France, Taiwan, or Saudi Arabia - because those are their own sovereign nations which set their own emigration policy.

Similarly, Israel enacted the Law of Return in 1950, giving people of Jewish ancestry (at least one Jewish grandparent) "...and their spouses the right to immigrate to and settle in Israel and obtain citizenship, and obliges the Israeli government to facilitate their immigration.

What Israel canoot do, however, is grant Jews the right to emigrate to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, or Thailand - because those are their own sovereign nations which set their own emigration policy.

If Palestinians establish a state, they could absolutely implement their own Law of Return for Palestinians to immigrate to Palestine. This would be their sovereign right, just like it is for other nations.

What they couldn't do, however, is grant people the right emigrate to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, France, or Russia - because those are their own sovereign nations which set their own emigration policies.

A state can grant people the right to immigrate TO that state, but cannot grant people the right to immigrate to a DIFFERENT state.

That's not a "right of return," that's a demand for another country to accept your population, which no state can unilaterally impose on another sovereign nation.

No other people on earth demands this as Palestinians do. No other nation is expected to regard this absurd demand as something other than absurd.

This just isn't how sovereignty and immigration law actually work and it only seems reasonable or plausible to you because you've heard it repeated endlessly as though it isn't completely insane.

Partition happened between India and Pakistan. Do people in either nation claim a right of return to the nation on the other side of their border? No, because they all know that's a ridiculous idea.

The "Right of Return" isn't a refugee claim, its an effort to destroy Israel. It's an obstacle to peace because Palestinians still cling to the hope that Israel is going to disappear....but it isn't. Palestinians are the only people in the world consciously and deliberately kept in a permanenet state of refugee status for this explicit purpose, that's what UNRWA is for.

Nobody has a right of return to someone else's sovereign country. That's the difference, Anon.

And Then There Was One: Three People Lived in This Village Until Two Were Murdered.

"Thirty years ago, 200 people lived in the Moldovan village of Dobrusa. But most have since left or died. After a twin killing in February, there’s only one survivor still standing.. Grisa Muntean, a short, mustachioed farmer often found in a flat-cap, a checked shirt and a ripped pair of blue trousers held up by a drawstring. For company, Mr. Muntean has his two cats, five dogs, nine turkeys, 15 geese, 42 chickens, about 50 pigeons, 120 ducks and several thousand bees. The other humans have either died, left for larger towns and cities in Moldova, or emigrated to Russia or other parts of Europe. “The loneliness kills you,” Mr. Muntean, 65, said on a recent afternoon. His former neighbors’ houses are vanishing almost as fast as their owners. With few animals to graze the roadsides, and with only Mr. Muntean to prune the orchards, the buildings are sinking below a canopy of walnut groves and apple trees. “When I work, I speak with the trees,” Mr. Muntean said. “With the birds, with the animals, with my tools. There is no one else to talk to.” Dobrusa was once a village of 50 houses that lined two parallel streets at the bottom of a shallow valley. Like many settlements across Moldova, it emptied out after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, an exodus mirrored across Eastern Europe, which has the world’s fastest shrinking population. Now only a few corrugated iron roofs can still be seen in Dobrusa, poking above the undergrowth. They are visible from the dirt track that connects the village to the nearest tarmac road. Even the village graveyard, set on the other side of the valley, is slowly receding into an undergrowth of nettles and brambles, grass flowers and cow parsley. Plants like these are the closest Mr. Muntean has to neighbors. Until February, Mr. Muntean relied on the company of Gena and Lida Lozynsky, a couple in their early 40s who lived at the other end of the village."

I still can't quite believe it, but it's really happening 🫨

We just bought plane tickets to France!

We are planning to stay in Paris for a week starting April 14th.

If you will be there and want to walk around the city, please let me know 😳

It's my second time visiting Paris, but the first time was so long ago, I barely remember anything 😅

But I'm sure it will be magnificent in April and oh, I'm so excited! 😍