Injun Country

Submitted by Harold Brackman (United States), May 3, 2005 at 11:35

I've been looking for analogies to Sharon's withdrawal plan where a government—short of military defeat—orders its subjects or citizens to vacate disputed territory. (Of course, if one views Israel as defeated by Intifadah II, that solves the problem.)

Having more difficulty than I expected, I'm reduced to the Proclamation of 1763 by which the British Crown, having defeated France in the Great War for Empire, ordered the American colonists not to settle or buy land beyond the Alleghany Mountains in "Indian country," and to withdraw where they had. The logic was to consolidate the Empire by removing exposed settlers and settlements that were expensive to defend and an irritant to the natives.

Without analyzing pros and cons, or parsing the question whether or not Indians with treaty claims had a superior legal position to the Palestinians, it can be noted that this policy was not a great success, failing to much reduce the flow of western settlement but it succeeded in outraging the colonists who alluded to the Proclamation as one of their grievances in the Declaration of Independence . . .

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".