De Israelische Terreur 378

'The Right of Return and the Democratic Constitution

The process of drafting a constitution is an intellectual one in which the drafters attempt to imagine the future of their society. Adalah's Democratic Constitution (DC) refers to an imagined democratic, bi-national and multi-cultural state within the Green Line. The right of return is based in international law and does not depend on Israeli domestic law; the DC therefore emphasizes this right in its preamble, on the basis of UN Resolution 194. Is it possible to enumerate the right of return in the constitution of the imagined state? Article 39 of the DC, which deals with restitution of private property, provides that, “Every person whose land has been expropriated or whose right to property has been violated arbitrarily… is entitled to have his or her property restored and to receive compensation for the period during which his or her right to property was denied.” The right here relates not to citizens or residents but to “every person,” in order to include all of the Palestinian refugees and all of the non-Palestinian Arabs (Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians, etc.) whose land was confiscated by Israel in 1948, and to emphasize the individualistic aspect of the right of return. Do all Palestinian refugees wish to be citizens of the imagined state? Article 15 of the DC, which discusses citizenship, provides that, “The laws of citizenship and immigration will be established on the basis of the principle of anti-discrimination.” This citizenship will be based on the territorial principle for, “Anyone who was born within the territory of the State of Israel and whose parent was also born within the territory of the State of Israel … [anyone] who was born to a parent who is a citizen of the state … and the spouse of a citizen of the state.” In fact, this provision allows every Palestinian refugee to be a citizen since it defines a citizen as a person who was born in the territory defined as such by the constitution within the 1967 borders. Conversely, it cancels the exclusive privilege granted to Jews regarding immigration to the state.'

Zie: http://www.adalah.org/eng/index.php