From Israzine Nov., 2014: "Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle: Aboriginal Americans and the Jewish State"
The Indigenous Rights of the Jewish People
By Alan Baker
The Jewish People
There is no doubt whatsoever as to the historic presence and existence of the Jewish people in the Middle-East generally, and the area of historic/Biblical Palestine, or "the Holy Land" in particular.
This presence, which has continued from time immemorial up to present day, is well-documented and proven not only in the scriptures of all three monotheistic religions, and visible in extensive archeological remains, but is also borne-out by empirical historic writings and records by early Greek, Roman, pagan and other visitors to the area, dating from the third century BCE and through the third century CE, and by Moslem historians around the eighth century CE, attesting to a continuous Jewish presence.
The fact that the sources of Christianity evolved and emanated from Judaism is, in and of itself, further proof of the presence of a thriving Jewish community in the area generally, and in the specific areas in which the Jews existed from Bible times, including Judea (from which the term Jew stems), Samaria and the other neighboring tribal areas.
Of all extant Peoples, the Jewish People has the strongest claim to be indigenous/aboriginal to the Holy Land, where Judaism, the Hebrew language, and the Jewish People were born around 5,000 years ago. Before then, the Holy Land was home, inter alia, to the immediate ancestors of the Jewish People, including the Phoenicians, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines. Those other peoples have long since vanished from the world.
More recent historic documentation regarding the re-establishment of the Jewish Home in the area, including the 1917 Balfour Declaration and statements by Winston Churchill and others during the 1920's, all recall the historic connection of the Jewish People with Palestine.
Judaism, the Hebrew language and the Jewish People were already established in the Holy Land before the 6th-7th century CE emergence of Islam and Classical Arabic and the initial Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the first half of the 7th century CE.
While there is no doubt as to the historic nature of the Moslem presence in and rights to the area since the 7th century CE, and the more recent continuous residence of Arabs in the areas of Judea and Samaria, which in itself, may certainly invoke limited indigenous rights, these cannot be seen to have displaced the earlier indigenous rights, and continuous presence of the Jewish People in the area.
Indigenous Peoples
While clearly as the name implies the existence of indigenous peoples has forever been a factor in national and international society, it has only been in the past few years that international attention has been given to the fact that these peoples have rights, whether to their traditional historic and tribal lands, resources, culture and language, that must be recognized and protected by and within the international community.
These rights have recently been crystallized into the "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People" appended to a United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 61/295 adopted in 2006. This declaration, generally accepted within the international community, acknowledges the rights of indigenous peoples to their historic lands, territories and resources, and guarantees their continued rights to maintain and protect these lands, with entitlements to compensation, restitution or redress for lands confiscated or taken.
Today's Political Situation regarding Judea and Samaria
The clear and internationally acknowledged historic, indigenous presence of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel including the areas of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem (historic Palestine) in particular, when placed in the context of today's political situation in the Middle East, and the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians, leads to the following conclusions:
The indigenous rights of the Jewish people in the areas of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem (as in Israel itself) are well-founded both historically and legally, and cannot be denied by the international community, whether by individual states or international organizations such as UNESCO.
These areas cannot, by any account, be termed "occupied territories", which term implies a total lack of historic or legal connection to the area by the Jewish People. This term is also incorrect from the point of view of international law.
This term together with the term "occupied Palestinian territory", used in UN and international parlance, has no basis whatsoever in law or in fact, and is nothing more than a non-binding political determination by a political majority of states.
Settlement by Israelis in the areas of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem (commonly termed, in international parlance "the West Bank"), is not, and cannot be termed as illegitimate, and in any event cannot be described as an "obstacle to peace in the region". The establishment of towns and villages in land that is not privately owned by Palestinian residents does not violate any agreement or binding international document.
Jews have every right to re-establish their residential rights and presence in the area as long as this is done in due deference to existing legally-acquired property rights.
Any political negotiation aimed at reaching an agreed resolution of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians cannot disregard the inherent indigenous rights of the Jewish People in the area, in the same way that it cannot disregard residency and land rights of the Palestinians in the area. Due deference has to be given by each party to the valid and legitimate historic and legal claims and rights of the other, and this has, in the same manner, to be acknowledged by the international community.
The United Nations, its member states and major organs, its Secretary General and all its Specialized Agencies and associated bodies throughout the UN System, all have a duty to acknowledge and to honor the rights of the Jewish indigenous people in their ancestral home pursuant to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Any action within the various UN organizations on behalf of Palestinian rights at the United Nations must take into consideration the rights of all indigenous people in the region, and cannot ignore the indigenous rights of the Jewish People.
Alan Baker is a former a former ambassador to the State of Israel to Canada and an expert on international law.He also directs the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.Baker was one of three members appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to examine the legal aspects of land ownership pertaining to the West Bank.Chaired by former Justice Edmund Levy, the report, which was published in July 2012, came to be known as the Levy Report.
