Natives, who the Heck are they?

Now, the water was beautiful and enjoyable, and as such the Israelis on the other side were enjoying the water as well and yelled across this somewhat tense border and asked where we were from.  Someone from our group said England and then ask the question of them to which they said, "We're natives, we're from Tel Aviv."  Well, this was a very interesting comment to hear yelled across the Jordanian border.  Mainly because it is entirely possible this woman could have said that to Palestinians or the children of Palestinians born and raised in Palestine but forced out with the creation of Israel.  Again, I will not comment on this subject politically, but it raises an interesting question of what is a native?  Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the land of Palestine as their homeland.  The Israelis born and raised there say they are natives and the Palestinians call it their land.  How do we decide?  How do we decide a native?  In America, who are the foreigners and who are the Americans?  Does it matter about citizenship?  The entrenched population often look down on those we think of as foreigners or new-comers but also upon the Native Americans who we replaced as owners of the land.  In the history of America every wave of migration disliked the one previous to it.  The English didn't like the Germans, the Germans and English the Irish, all of them against the Italians, Spanish, Greek and other Southern and Eastern Europeans.  When other continents starting arriving the bigotry became more complex with the advent of sizable diasporas from Japan, China, Korea, South East Asia, Oceania, Africa, Central Asia and India, and much of South and Central America as well as the Middle East and Northern Africa.  We all know this, and we all see it, but who gets to decide who is a 'native' and who is a foreigner?  I don't know if subconsciously I believe simply getting citizenship or a green card makes one an American but yet I support it and love it.  I don't know how to answer this question, and the problem is that it is an important question to answer the world over.  So many wars and conflicts are fought over boundaries, land, and history.  So many hatreds are perpetrated and inflamed over issues generations before.  How do we stop it?  Who do we side with, do we even need a side?  As the world gets smaller, it becomes more divided and yet united as well.  Social contracts and understandings that have stood for thousands of years are being reshaped in less than a generation and new problems that societies have never faced are appearing everywhere.  It probably sounds like I am being pessimistic, but I am simply talking and exploring the scary recesses of my brain.  I also feel that as I write I am able to think through and understand things that were not concrete before. I wish I had an answer, or even a purpose for this other than simply to be thought provoking but that is what it is.  Perhaps, we if we are aware of these things, each one of us can work a little harder to heal the social ills, listen a little more, and work a little harder to seek out solutions and peace between cultures.  At the very least, maybe this post got you to think for a little bit about the meaning of being a 'native'.