Sunday, August 23, 2015

This Land is Mine (Day 12)

Deuteronomy 1:8 - See, I have set the land before you. Enter and take possession of the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their future descendants. 

It's interesting that the world considers Israel as an "occupier". Have they even bothered to define the term "occupier"? An occupier is a group of people who conquer/ed a piece of land and claiming it as their own. Which makes practically every group of people* who conquered Israel an occupier. If we trace history, the very first resident of Jerusalem is Melchizedek (I could be wrong). So should we use him as a judge on who owns the land? If not, then what is the right principle to follow, given that the definition of ownership is quite vague?

Assuming that the definition above is the right definition - it's safe to say that Caucasian people are occupiers of the US, because the Native Americans are Reds. And the majority of the Filipino people are occupiers as well, including myself, as we do not seem to be from the Taong Tabon lineage.

My only point is this - if we judge others with a certain standard, should we not also check ourselves with the same standard we are imposing on them?

* People who occupied the land of Israel since 3300 BC --- Canaanite - Israelite - Babylonian - Persian - Greeks - Romans - Byzantine - Muslim - Crusader - Mameluk - Ottoman - British - Israel

(251 words)

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