The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Philosophical Essays on Self-Determination, Terrorism and the One-State Solution (Electronic book text)

While the conflict between Arabs and Jews over Palestine has been at the center of much historical and political discussion, philosophical treatments of the moral questions it raises are rare. When does a group of people have a right to govern a certain territory, and how are competing claims to be adjudicated? Under what conditions are people entitled to political self-determination? What rights accrue to those who have been the victims of territorial aggression? Can recourse to terrorism ever be legitimate? This book addresses these questions in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The authors conclude that neither Palestinians nor Israelis, as ethnically or culturally defined, have rights to self-determination; that refugees do have a right to return to homes and land from which they were driven; that terrorism can sometimes be justified; and that one state for both Arabs and Jews is the only moral solution to the conflict.