CMV: There is no such thing as "a nation's right to self-determination its ancestral homeland"

Removed - Submission Rule B

I've seen a lot of Zionists use this argument to defend their position, typically accusing anti-Zionists of being antisemitic for recognizing a nation's right to self-determination its ancestral homeland for other people, but not for Jews. This argument is nonsensical, since it presupposes that anti-Zionists hold the position that nations have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland in the first place. But they actually don't!

North of Israel is a country called Turkey. Turkey is majority ethnically Turkic. Yet the Turkic peoples aren't originally from the land of the country of Turkey, a land that is called Anatolia. The Turkic peoples originate from the eastern Eurasian steppes, as far east as Siberia and around modern day Mongolia. Turks did not arrive in what is now Turkey until the 11th century A.D. Does anyone believe that Turks have the right to self-determination in Mongolia? Or in Anatolia? The same is true for Bulgarians and Hungarians, descendant from the Bulgar and Magyar tribes respectively, who didn't settle into what is now Bulgaria and Hungary until 7th and 8th centuries A.D.

I see Zionists occasionally bring up the Native Americans as a supporting argument. Yet this ignores the fact that the natives migrated too. The Sioux were originally from the Great Lakes region, and didn't migrate to the Black Hills until the 18th century. So, if the Sioux have the right to self-determination, where do they have it? The Black Hills, or the Great Lakes?

There are many black African tribes in South Africa. Some of them are ethnically Bantu, who are originally from modern day Cameroon. Yet the Bantu peoples didn't enter what is now South Africa until around 300 A.D. Do Bantu South Africans have the right to self determination in South Africa? Even in Cape Town?

I can point out more examples of a nation migrating, like the Malagasy of Madagascar, the Maori of New Zealand, but you get the idea. Nations have historically migrated all the time, well past ancient times. Yet no international legal body holds the opinion that a nation has the right to self determination in its ancestral homeland - that is to say, where it is originally from.

Regarding Israel/Palestine, if I were to hold the position that Palestinians have to right to self determination in Palestine based on "ancestral" self determination, I would have to be consistent and deny that right to Afro-Palestinians, whose ancestors arrived recently historically speaking, like Fatima Bernawi. But I don't hold that position at all!

Historically, Zionists like Joan Peters like to claim that Palestine was basically empty until the Zionists arrived, but then the Zionists built it up, and surrounding Arabs migrated to Palestine in the 19th and 20th century to work for the Zionists, and thus Palestinians are a "fake" people and don't have an ancestral connection to the land. Despite being debunked by people Norman Finkelstein and Justin McCarthy, this myth still won't die. Yet it ignores the fact that self determination has never been determined to exist in a nation's original homeland. Yes, a Palestinian whose grandfather migrated to Palestine in the 19th century, still has the right to self determination in Palestine.

Fun fact! Arabs did not first arrive in Palestine in the 7th century, but as early as the early as the 9th century B.C. For more information, look up the Qedarites.

Anti-Zionists do not hold the position that Jews don't have the right to self determination. Their position is that Jews don't have the right to self determination in Palestine/Eretz Israel. Sidestepping the debate about the boundaries of Eretz Israel and whether or not converts to Judaism have an "ancestral claim", the entire discussion ignores the fact that this "right" simply does not exist. Is their any international legal body with any credibility that acknowledges this right to self determination in their ancestral for all nations?

Do "historical ties" to a place have a time limit at all? If a Zionist were to argue that Jews have the right to self determination in Palestine/Eretz Israel based on "cultural/religious ties", that this would be a tacit admission that the "ancestral homeland" claim is insufficient. That is to say, the Zionist claim to Palestine cannot be formulated just by saying "its the Jewish ancestral homeland".

Posted Sep 13, 2026, 6:08 AM UTC

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