I was thinking about this recently. Especially with respect to the Kurds (I had seen a story recently). Here's a short list (undoubtedly incomplete):

Native Americans
First Peoples (Canada)
Aborigines (Australia)
Kurds
Israelis/Jews/Habiru
Palestinians/Levant (and some overlap with Habiru)

Do all these people "deserve" a homeland? Why? I think it was De Gaulle who said "every piece of land was at sometime owned by someone else". I would agree that all these people deserve to live in peace, preferably not on reservations, free from persecution.

Native Americans aren't getting any back (beyond the reservations they were put on). Same with the First Peoples and the Aborigines. The "occupying" people have built robust societies they will not give up. Turkey and Iraq aren't going to be ceding any territory for the establishment of a Kurdistan. We know about the Israeli/Palestinian mess**.

I find the arguments of "returning to your ancestral homeland" lacking. My ancestral homeland would be either Britain or Germany (I've got a bit of both). Do I have the right to return there? Nope. And I see no reason why I should. I was born here, for better or worse. And I live in peace. That's all I have the right to.

Heck, if I extend it further, do I have the right to return to Africa (the home of ALL of us)? Why should I have that right?



**I read several years ago that the British divided territories so that only a superpower -which they were at the time- could manage them. It was strategic in nature. India/Pakistan/Kashmir, and much of the Middle East.