Israel Must Recognize Its Responsibility for the Nakba, the Palestinian Tragedy

[aranthus]

27. This is a subtly difficult question to answer, but I'll give it a go.

First, I certainly didn't mean that the principle applies only to the Jews. In this case, it applies to the Palestinians as well. They are a separate people, they aren't a part of some higher sovereign, and they have a right to their own state. Also to the French, Americans, Japanese and any other existing sovereign nation. So if all you're concerned with is the I/P dispute, then it's a simple answer.

Where it gets tricky, is when you go beyond that and have multinational sovereigns like the UK, Spain, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union, where the component nation has a well defined territory. Do the Basque have the right to there own state independent of Spain? What about the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey? The UK allowed Scotland to vote on independence, but did the Scots have the right to independence even if the central government didn't want to grant it? Out there in the larger world there's a balance between national and sovereign rights, that isn't present in the I/P dispute. And what about very small tribes?

So the short answer is that the Palestinians, among others, have the right to a state, but I'm not sure that every group or tribe does.