Wednesday, February 04, 2026
Disclaimer:
the views expressed here are the sole responsibility of the author, weekly
Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
At the Grammys, Billie Eilish announced that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” Her proclamation was received with applause, reverence, and the familiar assumption that a complicated moral question had just been settled by a pop star wearing a weird, tux-like garment.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2026
Her “No one is illegal on stolen land” proclamation was offered as a foregone conclusion, requiring no explanation. The line worked precisely because it sounded finished, as though nothing more needed to be said. After all, it was Eilish saying this, and Eilish is famous. That, apparently, was enough to give authority to a statement that makes no sense whatsoever.
Taken seriously, the logic becomes absurd. Imagine a burglar breaking into your home and explaining that nothing illegal has occurred, because the house sits on land once taken from someone else. The theft of the land, under this reasoning, somehow nullifies every theft that follows.
Israel, after all, is routinely described as “stolen land.” Its presence is labeled “illegal occupation.” Jewish communities are not merely contested but criminalized. Entire legal, academic, and activist industries are devoted to arguing that Jewish sovereignty itself is unlawful.
It is a shame the International Court of Justice has spent years laboring over Israel’s supposed crimes. Under the principle that no one is illegal on stolen land, the allegation itself would defeat the charge. A claim of theft would eliminate the possibility of illegality altogether. There could be no crime, no unlawful presence, and no verdict to render.
Jews, of course, reject the premise of illegal occupation entirely. Because it makes no sense. The charge that Israel is “stolen land” collapses under even casual historical scrutiny. The Jewish connection to the land is documented and continuous, embedded in Jewish history, language, and practice.
The Jewish relationship to the land of Israel is one of symbiosis. Jewish prayer tracks its rain, Jewish law depends on its soil, Jewish time follows its seasons. Exile is experienced as dysfunction rather than displacement.
None of this figures into celebrity activism, which treats land as interchangeable scenery—something that can be stolen, reassigned, and morally laundered with a sentence. The idea that a people’s law, language, and obligations might be inseparable from a specific place does not fit neatly on a placard.
Ironically, the most grounded response to Eilish’s comment came not from pundits or performers, but from the Tongva people, whose ancestral land includes much of present-day Los Angeles.
Rather than attack the celebrity, the Tongva acknowledged their history and thanked Eilish for the visibility. They asked—politely—that the tribe be explicitly named when discussing its ancestral land. They made no accusations and didn’t call for eviction. No one said anything about the moral side of what happened, or what the law had to say. And no one said boo.
In fact, people were really impressed by the way the Tongva handled Eilish’s
idiotic land acknowledgement. They asked that we say their name when we talk
about their ancestral land. It all makes a sharp contrast to the way Jews are
perceived, when they own their history and plainly state that Israel is Jewish
land. The world basically explodes with hate whenever we say, “Israel is ours—it
belongs to the Jews.” But when Tongva do it, no one concludes that Los Angeles
must cease to exist, or that its residents are therefore illegitimate.
That conclusion is reserved almost exclusively for Israel, where historical claims are treated not as context, but as a mandate for reversal.
Eilish’s
comments drew applause from some and ridicule from others, much of it focused
on her wealth
and lifestyle. That debate, however, never touched the actual claim she
made. Once treated as anything more than a momentary expression, it produces
conclusions that even its defenders seem unwilling to follow—especially where
Israel is concerned.
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