Origins of the Name “Palestine”
from: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/palname.html
Though the definite origins of the word “Palestine” have been debated for years and are still not known for sure, the name is believed to be derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word peleshet. Roughly translated to mean “rolling” or “migratory,” the term was used to describe the inhabitants of the land to the northeast of Egypt – the Philistines. The Philistines were an Aegean people – more closely related to the Greeks and with no connection ethnically, linguisticly or historically with Arabia – who conquered in the 12th Century BCE the Mediterranean coastal plain that is now Israeland Gaza.
A derivitave of the name “Palestine” first appears in Greek literature in the 5th Century BCE when the historian Herodotus called the area “Palaistinē” (Greek – Παλαιστίνη).In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which Jerusalem and Judea were regained and the area of Judea was renamedPalaestina in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel.
Under the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917), the term Palestine was used as a general term to describe the land south of Syria; it was not an official designation. In fact, many Ottomans and Arabs who lived in Palestine during this time period referred to the area as “Southern Syria” and not as “Palestine.”
After World War I, the name “Palestine” was applied to the territory that was placed under British Mandate; this area included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan.
Leading up to Israel’s independence in 1948, it was common for the international press to label Jews, not Arabs, living in the mandate as Palestinians. It was not until years after Israeli independence that the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were called Palestinians. In fact, Arabs cannot even correctly pronounce the word Palestine in their native tongue, referring to area rather as“Filastin.”
The word Palestine or Filastin does not appear in the Koran. The term peleshet appears in the Jewish Tanakh no fewer than 250 times.
A lengthy, detailed, and seemingly comprehensive history of a “Timeline of the name ‘Palestine'” can be found on Wikipedia.
There Has Never Been a Sovereign Arab State in Palestine
August 10, 2016 | Eli E. Hertz
Source: http://www.mythsandfacts.org/article_view.asp?articleID=311
The artificiality of a Palestinian identity is reflected in the attitudes and actions of neighboring Arab nations who never established a Palestinian state themselves.
The rhetoric by Arab leaders on behalf of the Palestinians rings hollow. Arabs in neighboring states, who control 99.9 percent of the Middle East land, have never recognized a Palestinian entity. They have always considered Palestine and its inhabitants part of the great “Arab nation,” historically and politically as an integral part of Greater Syria – Suriyya al-Kubra – a designation that extended to both sides of the Jordan River. In the 1950s, Jordan simply annexed the West Bank since the population there was viewed as the brethren of the Jordanians.
The Arabs never established a Palestinian state when the UN in 1947 recommended to partition Palestine, and to establish “an Arab and a Jewish state” (not a Palestinian state, it should be noted). Nor did the Arabs recognize or establish a Palestinian state during the two decades prior to the Six-Day War when the West Bank was under Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control; nor did the Palestinian Arabs clamor for autonomy or independence during those years under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.
And as for Jerusalem: Only twice in the city’s history has it served as a national capital. First as the capital of the two Jewish Commonwealths during the First and Second Temple periods, as described in the Bible, reinforced by archaeological evidence and numerous ancient documents. And again, in modern times as the capital of the State of Israel. It has never served as an Arab capital for the simple reason that there has never been a Palestinian Arab state.
Well before the 1967 decision to create a new Arab people called “Palestinians,” when the word “Palestinian” was associated with Jewish endeavors, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, testified in 1937 before the Peel Commission, a British investigative body:
“There is no such country [as Palestine]! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries, part of Syria.”
In a 1946 appearance before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, also acting as an investigative body, the Arab-American historian Philip Hitti stated:
“There is no such thing as Palestine in [Arab] history, absolutely not.”
Populations of Palestine
Many Jews lived in Palestine in near-modern times. During the Ottoman empire the population of Palestine in 1800 was estimated to be 275,000, with about 10% Jews, slightly fewer Christians, and the majority Muslims. By 1915, still under the Ottoman empire the numbers had increased to about 690,000 total, including 12% Jews, 2.4% Christians, and the balance Muslims. By British Mandate times the totals had changed dramatically:
| British Mandate Census: | 1922 | 1945 |
| Muslims | 590,890 | 1,061,270 |
| Jews | 83,794 | 553,600 |
| Christians | 82,498 | 149,650 |
| Total | 757,182 | 1,764,520 |
Populations of Jerusalem Before the State of Israel
Jews have been a majority in Jerusalem since at least 1844, when somewhat reliable data were collected. Here is the estimated mix of population during the Ottoman and British Mandate times (source here):
|
Year
|
Jews
|
Arabs/Muslims
|
Christians/Other
|
Total
|
|
1844
|
7,120
|
5,000
|
3,390
|
15,510
|
|
1876
|
12,000
|
7,560
|
5,470
|
25,030
|
|
1896
|
28,112
|
8,560
|
8,748
|
45,420
|
|
1922
|
33,971
|
13,411
|
4,699
|
52,081
|
|
1931
|
51,222
|
19,894
|
19,335
|
90,451
|
|
1948
|
100,000
|
40,000
|
25,000
|
165,000
|