Property rights are capitalism’s foundation
Any true capitalist should recoil at the ongoing annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. The cornerstone of any market-based system is the protection of private property.
Without it, contracts are meaningless, investment is impossible and prosperity collapses. When land is seized without consent or compensation, it is not just a human rights issue – it is a direct attack on the principles that make free economies work.
Arbitrary seizure destroys market trust
In the West Bank, land is frequently declared “state land” by Israel and reassigned to settlers, even when it has been farmed or inhabited by Palestinian families for generations.
Imagine applying that standard in London, New York, or Singapore: private deeds ignored, ownership transferred by decree. Investors would flee overnight. Markets cannot function where property rights are conditional on politics or ethnicity.
Capitalism demands equal protection
The genius of capitalism is its universality – anyone, regardless of background, can create wealth if the law treats them equally. Annexation erodes that universality by deciding who may own or use land based on their identity. This is not capitalism; it is cronyism, where political power dictates economic outcomes. No serious defender of free markets should accept it.
Hypocrisy corrodes credibility
When Western governments defend property rights at home but turn a blind eye abroad, they undermine their moral authority and embolden those who would erode those rights everywhere. If a state can seize land today in the West Bank without consequence, what prevents other governments from doing the same to dissidents, minorities, or the politically inconvenient elsewhere?
Any capitalist who is worth their name should oppose annexation not only because it is unjust but because it strikes at the very foundation of the system they claim to champion: secure, impartial and inviolable property rights.
