What is a Homeland of a people (or Fatherland or Motherland, depending on whether one is inclined to ascribe a gender or sex to real property)? The claim is made that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. Others have made similar claims to other tracts of land, but as the current government of Israel seems inclined to govern that state presuming its status as Jewish homeland, claims made in that respect specifically have a certain special pertinence, and may be used as an example for purposes of discussion.
Consider the history of the land in question. It has been designated by Jews and certain nations to be a homeland for the Jewish people for less than a hundred years , and not without strong and even violent objection. What was it before then?
Before then, it wasn't peculiarly Jewish in any respect since the 6th century BCE, when Babylon conquered the area. Babylon was succeeded by Persia. Persia was succeeded by Alexander, then the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. They were succeeded by Rome. The Jews revolted twice against Rome, resulting in the destruction of the Temple and most of Jerusalem in the first century CE and then under Bar Kochba in the second century, which revolt was also crushed by Rome. After the fall of the Western Empire the Eastern Empire ruled for a time, and then Arab rule succeeded Roman rule. The fact of the matter is that there was no Jewish kingdom or nation where Israel is now located for roughly two thousand years. That's not to say that no Jews lived there, but most it seems did not.
Does the fact that there was a Jewish kingdom in Palestine from the time the tribes of Israel conquered the Canaanites and the Philistines to the Babylonian conquest make it the Jewish homeland? Why would that be the case? If we judge whether land is a homeland, fatherland or motherland based on the number of years it was inhabited or governed by a particular people, what number of years is adequate for the purpose? Does the fact that others have done so for more years, or more recently, impact the determination?
Indigenous peoples inhabited the Americas for many thousands of years before the European conquest, which took place commencing about five hundred years ago. Who has a legitimate claim to them as homelands? Does one's birth in a particular nation render it one's homeland?
I suspect the claim that Israel and the land surrounding it is considered a homeland by some is primarily for religious reasons. Some believe that God gave it to them. I also suspect that religious reasons had a place in the decision of the Great Powers, and specifically Great Britain, to support such a homeland and that they continue to figure in the support of the idea by many who aren't Jewish. Do such reasons make a homeland, fatherland or motherland? What about a common language?
This isn't an effort to question the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Rather, this is intended as an exploration of the meaning and use of the words in question, when applied to any land, nation or people. The picture at the beginning of this post is a WWI postcard, in which a German and an Austrian are shown, each pledging to fight for their supposedly mutual fatherland. They were separate nations, and it seems their heads of state weren't particularly fond of one another. Presumably, it was being maintained they had a common fatherland because they shared a language and culture.
The assertion a particular land or nation is a homeland, or fatherland or motherland seems to me to be an exhortation, regardless of its basis or lack of factual basis. It's an effort to influence people to support the interests of that nation and people or what's claimed to be their interest. Its purpose is nationalistic, in other words. It need not comport with the history of a particular region. It's appeal may be romantic, its basis in legend or stories. But its intent is exclusive; it fosters an "us against them" view, and generally they are bound to suffer in one way or another from those who assert that a particular land or region is their homeland, and others have no claim to it.
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