What determines who owns a property?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Apparently, the ownership of lands, such the West Bank and the Gaza strip, cannot be resolved by military might or economic superiority, else, the purpose of warfare would clearly be redundant. For military prowess and economic dominance have never been that bone to throw into the ring at two vicious dogs fighting over father’s lands. It’s true, territories cannot rightly be bought or sold, but if this is so, it is even more so for human lives.

The tension and current conflict between Israel and Hamas is not about who would be more progressive and touristic as the rightful owner, but more driven by an ancestral fervour, a bloodline and a descent, however twisted. The claim is that the lands belong to their generational tree, which thus escalated into a war of morality – a morality, which becomes even bloodier when both sides hold the similar claim.

It’s the same kind of fighting ‘ova ded lef lan’ that happens on smaller scale between neighbours. It is the self-assassination of a virtuous cause that you calm to be fighting for when murder becomes the basis of justice. That’s why warfare destroys their own reason for being, and any justice they profess to administer.

Perhaps the real question is: Given all of our generational rights to a piece of property, who can say he’s not a ‘Johnny Come Lately’, for who brought the Earth and the things therein into existence? Maybe many read, but failedto realise that “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” – Psalms 24:1-2

HOMER SYLVESTER

Elmsford, New York