Today, the term “Palestinian” refers to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. By adopting this name, there is an implication that these people have been connected to this land in some way for thousands of years. This means that these Palestinians have deep roots in the land, which is far from the case.
The term “Palestinian” is derived from the word Philistine. The Philistines (of which Goliath was one) were a maritime people who probably originated on the island of Crete and invaded the coastal areas around 1200 BC. Their territory included the Gaza Strip and extended as far north as present-day Caesarea. The Philistines disappeared with the Babylonian conquest in the 6th century BC and, as far as I know, have not been heard from since.
In 63 B.C.E., a Roman army led by Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem. Rome's goal was to destroy any vestiges of Jewish attachment to this land, which was then called Judea and from which the word Judea arose. The Romans then renamed the land by calling it Palestine.
Islam was founded in 610 AD and spread rapidly through conquest and conversion. Muslims reached and conquered Palestine in 632 AD, and the name Palestine disappeared.
The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 AD, expelled or killed thousands of Muslims and Jews, and repurposed Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock as Christian shrines. Jerusalem was then recaptured by the Islamic military genius Saladin in his 1187 year. The author's bronze coin is from his 1946 year. (Credit: JACOB SIVAK)
In 1291, the Templars were defeated by the Mamluks at the siege of Acre (the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the last major Crusader stronghold). It was only a matter of time before the Christian presence in the Holy Land disappeared. The land remained under Mamluk rule for 220 years until surrendering to Ottoman power in 1516.
During the Ottoman rule, which lasted 400 years, the land was called Filastin.
In 1917, British troops invaded Palestine. In 1918, Ottoman rule came to an end with the defeat of the Ottoman army at the Battle of Megiddo.
On April 25, 1920, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine. The name Palestine was revived as cartographers created all new borders in the Middle East.
Historically, “Palestine” referred to a place, not a people
Until the 20th century, the name “Palestine” referred exclusively to the ancient land of the Jews. The Arabs who lived there were called Arabs and thought of themselves as living in southern Syria. They never recognized the land as their own proper homeland.
During the Mandate, it was Jews who often referred to themselves as Palestinians.
The Arabs who lived west of the Jordan River called themselves the “sons of southern Syria.” About half of these Arabs are from Syria and about half from Egypt. These Arabs were so reluctant to use the name Palestinian that it was accepted by everyone that Palestinian was a term used only for Jews. In fact, Golda Meir said, “I am Palestinian.”
In 1964, the Russian KGB, the godfather of all Arab terrorism, decided that the 200 million Arabs' view of the small Jewish state aroused too much sympathy for Israel. Israel was the David of the Bible, while the Arabs were perceived to be the Goliaths, so they came up with the following: The idea is to turn the tables.
They singled out Arab refugees from the 1948 war and called them Palestinians. The Russians have realized that Islamic anti-Semitism is so deeply entrenched that the Islamic world is a petri dish for the malignancy of American-Israeli hatred. To make Yasser Arafat the leader of the struggle, the Russians destroyed documents showing he was born in Cairo and instead forged documents showing he was born in Jerusalem. Thus, a new Palestinian people and Palestinian nation were born.
The Six Day War and the devastating losses of the Arabs caused great damage to Russia's prestige. In an attempt to redress the damage, they continued to broadcast anti-Zionist propaganda. 4,000 Russian agents possessed thousands of copies of the forged Russian document “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' which was distributed throughout the Arab world.
They promoted the idea that the United States and Israel were fascist and that the imperial Zionist country was funded by wealthy Jews. The Soviet Union came up with many trigger words borrowed from the Nazis, including genocide, racism, and concentration camps. The United Nations turned out to be overwhelmingly grateful for Soviet propaganda, which resulted in Resolution 3375 condemning Zionism as a form of racism and discrimination.
Thus, it was the Soviet Union that rebranded the term Palestinian, despite the fact that Palestinians represent everything opposite to Western liberal thinking, without sufficient information. , which has tapped into the naive and not-so-latent anti-Semitism within us. .
The author is a practicing endocrinologist in Dallas, Texas, and currently lives part-time in Caesarea, Israel. He is the author of his 13 books chronicling his personal experiences in which he learned life lessons.
