Statelessness isn't history for the Palestinians; it's current events

In a commentary piece published last Saturday, ("Ship's manifest evokes memories and mysteries," Sept. 10), Ken Landfield addresses the interesting question of statelessness. Published together with the article was a facsimile of a ship's manifest of inbound, alien passengers arriving in New York on Oct. 28, 1952. As Landfield points out, four of the passengers on the manifest are listed as "stateless."  The writer wonders what became of these stateless wayfarers.

Being an amateur genealogist and historian, I felt compelled to take up Landfield's implicit challenge. I sought to find out.  I too reflected upon the status of statelessness, of having "no place to call home, no place to go back to," of being "rootless, adrift."

There are several manners in which a person can become stateless. If, for example, one possesses citizenship in, or is the subject of, a state that ceases to exist, one becomes stateless. The stateless passengers listed here were either born in Austria-Hungary or born to parents born in Austria-Hungary. That state ceased to exist at the end of World War I.

Each of the four individuals listed as stateless on the ship's manifest obtained U.S. citizenship. Ludmila and Valentine Jedlikowski retained that citizenship but apparently later settled in France. Stephan and Palagia Kowaluk became U.S. citizens in 1953. Stephan Kowaluk lived to be 92 and died in a residential care center in Margaretville, New York, in 2005.

It should be understood, however, that statelessness is by no means a thing of the past. Today, millions of people are officially, or de facto, stateless.

One of the largest groups in the world to be stateless is the Palestinians. I mention them because they are the group for whom the United States bears the most responsibility.

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Up until the end of World War I, the Palestinians were subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Like Austria-Hungary, that empire ceased to exist after the war. The Palestinians were thus rendered stateless. It is true that, under the succeeding British Mandate for Palestine, the Palestinians had nominal citizenship. When the mandate ended in 1948, with the founding of the State of Israel, the Palestinians became definitively stateless. Some 750,000 of them became stateless refugees, having been driven from their ancestral homeland. Many others, however, managed to remain in their home villages. They are neither "rootless" nor "adrift." Their roots extend back into Canaanite times. Those in Gaza, rather than being adrift, are locked in the world's largest open-air prison. And yet, these people are stateless.

With the political and financial support of the United States, Israel has succeeded in keeping millions of Palestinians in a state of perpetual statelessness. There appear to be few prospects of this ever changing. Through all sorts of chicanery and haggling over definitions, the Israelis and their supporters have sought to normalize this situation. There is, however, nothing normal about it.

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Under Israeli law, a Jewish person born in Brooklyn and a Jewish person born in the Ukraine who marry can immediately become Israeli citizens (while retaining their original citizenship) and take up residency in any part of Jerusalem, including the eastern portion of the city that was illegally annexed by Israel in 1967. In contrast to this, a Palestinian whose family has been living in Jerusalem for generations may not marry a Palestinian from Gaza and reside in Jerusalem.

There was a time when the United States generously provided a solution to millions of stateless individuals. Will we ever again rekindle the charity in our hearts to do so for the Palestinians?

Kenneth Baitsholts is a freelance writer and activist. He lives in Anchorage.

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.