Definitions of Palestine and Palestinian

The term Palestine and the related term Palestinian have several overlapping (and occasionally contradictory) definitions.

Palestine

Prehistoric times

The term Palestine is derived from the name of the Philistines, a people of uncertain origins, possibly Aegean, who, in the 12th century BCE, settled along the southern Mediterranean coastal plain of what is now Israel and the Gaza Strip and disappeared several centuries later. After crushing Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135), the Romans Latinized the hitherto seldom-used Greek name Palaestina (Παλαιστίνη) and applied it to the entire region that had formerly included Iudaea Province (which combined Judea, Samaria, and Idumea). The Arabic toponym Filastin (فلسطين) is derived from this name.

Ancient Palestine

In historical contexts, especially predating the establishment of the State of Israel, Palestine was mostly a geographical term, particularly used in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and other languages taking their geographical vocabulary from them; it comprised the Roman sub-province of Syria Palaestina, roughly equivalent to ancient Canaan (including the Biblical kingdoms of Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia) and thus included much of the land on either side of the Jordan River although with further political sub-divisions along the River Jordan valley .

Is Jordan Part of Historical Palestine?

Before the establishment of the British mandate (see below), most of the area that is today Jordan was part of the Ottoman Vilayet of Syria (previously called the Vilayet of Damascus), the southern part of Jordan was part of the Vilayet of Hejaz. Palestine was divided between the Vilayet of Beirut and the Sanjak of Jerusalem. Throughout most of history the rift valley comprising Wadi Arabah, the Dead Sea and River Jordan has formed a political and administrative frontier, even within empires which controlled both territories. The exception was during the period of the Caliphate when what is today southern Israel/Palestine and southern Jordan were termed Al Jund al Filasteen and the northern parts of these land as Al Jund al Urdun. In 1920, most of modern Jordan was incorporated into the planned League of Nations mandate territory termed Palestine. Trans-Jordan became a separate political unit on April 11 1921 and the Mandate came into force in September 1923.

British Mandate of Palestine

Between July 1922 and 1948, the term Palestine referred to the British Mandate of Palestine. The term referred to all of what is now Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip and was used by both Arabs and Jews without any ethnic connotations. For example, the Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper, was known as the Palestine Post from its founding in 1932 until 1950. The idea of ethnic "Palestinians" was the brainchild of the PLO in the 1960s in an effort to promote nationalism.

Palestinian Authority

Sometimes people use the term Palestine to refer to lands currently under the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority, a quasi-governmental entity which governs but lacks full sovereignty. Since the late 1990s, this has included the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank.

Palestine as a state

Modern usage of the term Palestine usually refers to a prospective Palestinian state, incorporating both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Some nationalists regard all the land west of the Jordan River, including territory of modern State of Israel, as the territory of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea".

The term is also used to convey the sense that Palestine is already a state, either (a) consisting only of Gaza & West Bank or (b) including as well all land held by Israel (see views of Palestinian statehood).

Palestinian

This section describes several viewpoints of what makes a person a "Palestinian".

By place of birth

A "Palestinian" can mean a person who is born in the geographical area known prior to 1918 as "Palestine", or a former citizen of the British Mandate territory called Palestine, or an institution related to either of these. Using this definition, both Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews were called "Palestinians".

Mandate definition

Britain used the term "Palestinian" to refer to all persons legally residing in or born in the boundaries of the British Mandate of Palestine without regard to their ethnicity, religion, or place of origin.

By place of origin

In its common usage, "Palestinian" refers to a person whose ancestors had lived in the territory corresponding to British Mandate Palestine for some length of time prior to 1948. This definition includes the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (including Dom and Samaritans, but excluding Israeli settlers and most Armenians), the Israeli Arabs (including Druze and Bedouin), the Israeli Jews whose families moved there prior to The founding of the State of Israel, and the Arab refugees and emigrés from 1948 and their descendants (though not the pre-Israeli Independence (1948) non-Bedouin population of Jordan.) This usage excludes people who immigrated into the area during the twentieth century.

JSource, the Jewish Virtual Library, uses a similar but slightly narrower definition: "Although anyone with roots in the land that is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is technically a Palestinian, the term is now more commonly used to refer to Arabs with such roots ... Most of the world's Palestinian population is concentrated in Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan, although many Palestinians live in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries." JSource Virtual Library definition of Palestinian

By citizenship

A more specific widespread usage of "Palestinian" sometimes heard is to refer to native residents of British Mandate Palestine who do not have Israeli or Jordanian citizenship, and to institutions outside the Israeli state and territories not incorporated into it.

By ethnic origin

Referring to the Arab subculture of the southern Levant

The word "Palestinian" is occasionally used by ethnographers and linguists to denote the specific Arab subculture of the southern Levant; in that sense, it includes not only the Arabs of British Mandate Palestine, but also those inhabitants of Jordan who are originally from Palestine and the Druze, while excluding both Bedouin (who culturally and linguistically group with Arabia) and ethnic minorities such as the Dom and Samaritans. However, some of this definition is not accepted. The Samaritans of the West Bank are usually referred to as Palestinian ^*.

Referring to Jews in a national rather than religious sense

Jews who lived in Palestine during the Middle Ages are also referred to as "Palestinian Jews" in a scholarly sense, eg. the authors of the "Palestinian Talmud". The name refers to the "Jerusalem Talmud" - its Hebrew name. Most early literature when referring to "Palestinians" meant to designate Jews, but after the modern State of Israel was born, Jews were identified as Israelis, their original self-definition. It was after the 1967 War that the word "Palestinian" began to be used to differentiate the Arab of the Palestinian region from the other Arabs of the region, eg the Egyptians, the Syrians, etc.

External links

The Cry of the Children in Palestineby Henrietta Szold to the Executive of the Vaad Leumi. September 13, 1936.

Arab-Israeli conflict | Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Jewish history | Palestine

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