There was no Palestinian nationality before the 1960s, when it was invented in order to reposition what was then universally known as the Arab/Israeli conflict. Up to the invention of “Palestinians,” the Israelis were the tiny, besieged people amidst a huge number of hostile Arabs; after that invention, the “Palestinians” themselves became the tiny, besieged people against the big, bad Israelis. PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said this in 1977:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
The Israelis were mistaken ever to play along with this charade.
“A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695: No sign of Arabian names or Palestinians,” by Avi Goldreich (translated from the Hebrew by Nurit Greenger), The Palestine-Israel Conflict, April 27, 2014 (thanks to Inexion):
The time machine is a sensation that nests in me when I am visiting Mr. Hobber old books store in Budapest, Hungary. Hobber learned to know my quirks and after the initial greeting and the glass of mineral water (Mr. Hobber is a vegan) he leads me down the stairs to the huge basement, to the Jewish “section.”
The Jewish section is a room full of antiquity books on subjects that Mr. Hobber sees to be Jewish. Among the books there are some that are not even worthy their leather binding. However, sometime, one can find there real culture treasure. Many of the books are Holy Books that may have been stolen from synagogues’ archives: Talmud, Bible, Mishnah, old Ashkenazi style Siddur, and others. Customarily, I open them to see who the proprietor is; who was the Bar Mitzvah boy who received the book two hundred years ago and to whom did he pass the book at the end of his days. It is simply curiosity.
Many of the books are written in the German language. They are books of Jewish rumination written by Christians or assimilating Jews. Sometime one can find a hand written Talmud volume that is very expensive; thousands of Euros, set in the specially aired cabinet. Hobber knows their value. Sometime one can find a bargain such as the book Palestina by Hadriani Relandi — its original professional name Palaestina, ex monumentis veteribus illustrata, published by Trajecti Batavorum: Ex Libraria G. Brodelet, 1714. One can find such original books in only few places in the world, also in Haifa University.
[Origina link for places where the book could be found and details about the author, etc.. Now down]:
http://libri-antichi.posizionamento-web.it/ palaestina-ex-monumentis-veteribus-illustrata.htmlThe author Relandi[1], a real scholar, geographer, cartographer and well known philologist, spoke perfect Hebrew, Arabic and ancient Greek, as well as the European languages. The book was written in Latin. In 1695 he was sent on a sightseeing tour to Israel, at that time known as Palestina. In his travels he surveyed approximately 2500 places where people lived that were mentioned in the bible or Mishnah. His research method was interesting.
He first mapped the Land of Israel.
Secondly, Relandi identifies each of the places mentioned in the Mishnah or Talmud along with their original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it together with the appropriate sentence in the Holy Scriptures. If the source was Roman or Greek he presented the connection in Greek or Latin.
Thirdly, he also arranged a population survey and census of each community.
His most prominent conclusions
1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except to Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name. Till today, most of the settlements names are of Hebrew or Greek origin, the names distorted to senseless Arabic names. There is no meaning in Arabic to names such as Acco (Acre), Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, or Jenin and towns named Ramallah, El Halil and El-Kuds (Jerusalem) lack historical roots or Arabic philology. In 1696, the year Relandi toured the land, Ramallah, for instance, was called Bet’allah (From the Hebrew name Beit El) and Hebron was called Hebron (Hevron) and the Arabs called Mearat HaMachpelah El Chalil, their name for the Forefather Abraham.2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Shchem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.
The interesting part was that Relandi mentioned the Muslims as nomad Bedouins who arrived in the area as construction and agriculture labor reinforcement, seasonal workers.
In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. The Jews grew and worked in their flourishing vineyards, olive tree orchards and wheat fields (remember Gush Katif?) and the Christians worked in commerce and transportation of produce and goods. Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jewish and except of mentioning fishermen fishing in Lake Kinneret — the Lake of Galilee — a traditional Tiberius occupation, there is no mention of their occupations. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).
3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
The book totally contradicts any post-modern theory claiming a “Palestinian heritage,” or Palestinian nation. The book strengthens the connection, relevance, pertinence, kinship of the Land of Israel to the Jews and the absolute lack of belonging to the Arabs, who robbed the Latin name Palestina and took it as their own.In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of AndalucÃa, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! Nada, as the Spanish say! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule; only huge robbery, pillaging and looting; stealing the Jews’ holiest place, robbing the Jews of their Promised Land. Lately, under the auspices of all kind of post modern Israelis — also hijacking and robbing us of our Jewish history.
Footnote
[1] From http://www.answers.com: “Adrian Reland (1676-1718), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Ryp, studied at Utrecht and Leiden, and was professor of Oriental languages successively at Harderwijk (1699) and Utrecht (1701). His most important works were Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (Utrecht, 1714), and Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum.”
Jay Boo says
The religious heritage of Jerusalem to Jews (and Christians) is undisputable.
It is well-documented and is part of the ancient holy land of Israel.
In contrast, Islam invents a connection to JERUSALEM by pretending its prophet traveled to the city on a magical flying donkey on a “night flight.”
The Jewish Temple to Muslims is as a Ground Zero Mosque.
The reason Islam is so desperate to control the holy cities of JERUSALEM and BETHLEHEM is the jealous false hope that it might eventually destroy Judaism and Christianity and become a religion not on its own merits but by scavenging.
mortimer says
Up to 90% of those who identify as Palestinian have Jewish DNA, as well as Jewish customs, such as lighting funeral candles. The folk tradition of many of them is that they were converted to Islam in the 1600s under Ottoman pressure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QLSaX1CamTA#t=289
Jonathan says
This is an assertion that is not proven, and the evidence provided is by people who have a political agenda of some sort. It is true that Muslims conquered the land of Israel and founded a city upon an already existing town of Lud, trying to rename it Ramleh. But they have no ancient or intrinsic interest here, other than to defeat Judaism and Christianity and promote their own faith exclusively.
Tyler says
false – several YDNA phylogenetic tree studies have suggested this to be true
dumbledoresarmy says
Which ones, where?
Because there is ALSO, I understand, good documentary/ demographic evidence – *and* anthropological/ linguistic evidence (such as the names of clans, derived from locations **far away from the land of Israel**, such as “Al-Masri”) indicating that many of the Muslims currently resident in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem who now call themselves “Palestinians” descend from Muslims who only migrated into the area in the 19th and early 20th centuries, after the Jews began to make the place worth living in. That many came only a few generations ago from Egypt, Saudi Arabia (and associated areas), Iraq, Lebanon, Syria… As well as other Muslim migrants from – not Jewish, *Muslim* – who came from North Africa (e.g. Morocco) and even Islamised Slavs and Turkish Muslims leaving the Balkans after Greece and neighbouring nations threw off the Ottoman yoke; that is, there are families of so-called “Arab” “Palestinian” Muslims whose ethnic origin is, in fact, **Slavic**.
One finds a document pertaining to this migration of ethnically-Slav Muslims from the Balkans, in Bat Yeor’s “The Dhimmi”, pp 385-386, Document no. 109, headed “Muslim Colonization of Palestine (1875-1885)”, consisting of a passage from L Oliphant’s “Haifa”, in which he refers to an influx of Bosnian Slav Muslims who had settled on the coastal plain near Haifa, and “two or three colonies of Circassians. These are the people who committed the Bulgarian atrocities” and “In immediate proximity to them are the black tents of a tribe of Turcomans”.
There is another document I know I have seen, that lists a melange of ethnicities of people – overwhelmingly Muslim – who had entered the region and became the forebears of most of today’s “Palestinians”, but I cannot find it at the moment. When I do, I will post the relevant passage with reference.
John C. Barile says
The Ottoman Empire reduced the land to an abomination of desolation, to support absentee Turkish landlords and the ruling Ottoman military caste.
Rezali Mehil says
Hello all,
Being a “bobber” himself…Mr. Spencer has conveniently “forgotten” to mention that there was no Israel either before 1948….only 22 years before 1960….so what’s the difference?
If there is room for Israel…then there is room for Palestine too.
Do you not think that it has an exotic ring to the name Pal-e-s-t-ine…the nearest town to the gateway to Jannat ….to Allah SWT via the mystical beast on that magical night ….all those years ago.
On the way to meet Allah SWT Muhammad SAW met up with lesser prophets to agree on the lasting legacy of the last of the prophets.
I know that Noah PBUH, Moses PBUH, Isa PBUH were consulted and as they had been there longer, Muhammad’s humility here has to be so commended…it raises the hair on the back of my beautifully crafted neck when I think about it for long…sometime I am tearful….such beauty from the messenger PBUH.
Isa …”Allah SWT has a sense of humor …he is going to ask you “how many times should one pray to me….and will deliberately quote excess” so be watchful…he will be playing you as one does their slaves”.
Together in a huddle…they talked about 50/day ….and then less ….until Muhammad magically said 5….instantly they liked that from the highest of the messengers (PBUHs).
“Hi 5 to that ….Muhammad SAW ” ….Isa PBU was the 1st to congratulate him …and in that instant they both knew how many times the call to prayer would be ….and even Allah SWT smiled to that little tickler.
“Naughty little prophets eh”…. but Allah SWT was pleased.
5 times is right….people need to get up …and pray ….people need time to work ….achieve a little bit and pray …and finally people need to pray and then sleep…..it was like baby’s milk ….a formula that works…and so people 1400 years later, the converted and the convertee love it.
You can love it too…get down to you local mosque and drink the shahada nectar….”al-noor” it …come out of the darkness….see the light…you know it makes sense.
More Later….
Rezali
Salah says
Keep your head down.
Narrated Ibn Abbas: “I saw the Prophet (pbuh) putting Hussein’s thighs apart and kissing his (little) penis.”
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2012/03/grandpa-muhammad.html
Jay Boo says
Rezali Mehil claims to be a Muslim yet doesn’t even know the most basic fact about Muhammad:
Rezali wrote
….Muhammad SAW
Yet everyone knows he spelled that attribution to Muhammad backwards
Darren Wesley rushton Fogel says
@ rezil mehil , is that satire or are you being serious ? You must be having a laugh lol
Rezali Mehil says
Darren,
Why do you think this is satire? What a laughable thought.
Prior to his meeting with Allah SWT , there were 360 “dieties” in Mecca, there was no direction to pray and the number of times fro dua was not fixed.
Muhammad SAW actually negotiated the number of time from 50 to 5. He did consult the lesser prophets.
It is what has made him the greatest man that ever lived and defined Islam to what we know today.
All, please pay the greatest of respects….
More Later…..
Rezali
duh_swami says
Did Gabriel tell you all that nonsense?
john spielman says
Dear Rezali: most of the time your comments seem appropriate for the topic of discussion. Toda y is an exception.
Evidence of Israeli occupation of Caanan ( not Palestine ) has ben documented extensively. dating back to the Israelite conquest of Caanan in the times of King David and before. The Moabite stone attests to later Kings of Judah and Israel but NO MENTION OF ARABS! The name “Palestine” given to the land by Rome referred to th people who live in the land -mixture of Samaritan( Assyrian/ Jewish) and Phoenician, Egyptian(Coptic) NONE WERE ARAB.
Buraq says
@ Rezali, the clown
A question for you, you brainless bint.
What was Palestine called before the Roman Emperor Hadrian dreamed up the name Palestine? It was called Judea. Y’know, the land where the Jews live. And it had been called Judea for 2,000 years before the Emperor Hadrian decided to change the name as a childish way to get his own back on the Jewish tribes who had the temerity to challenge Roman rule.
You’re a wire-wigged, baggy- trousered, red-nosed clown!
Mirren10 says
You know, I’m really beginning to think old rezali is actually**on our side**, and his posts are really*designed* to illustrate the vacuity of the mohammedan mindset, and to spur the best ripostes from us !
Either that, or he really is just a twanker. (:))
More later, chumbawumba !
Rezali Mehil says
@Mirren….
old rezali is actually**on our side**, and his posts are really*designed* …
LoooooL ….LoL…. LOL…
An old 67 old fart of a kuffara dares to think….
I am Rezali – and Abdulah of Allah ….and will always be.
My Dua is to peacefully get as many to embrace Islam as possible. The post above shows you that Muslimas and Allah SWT has humor too (despite your denials).
More Later ….
Rezali
Mirren10 says
”An old 67 old fart of a kuffara **dares** ( my emphasis: Mirren) to think….”
There’s that mohammedan attempt at supremacy again ! 🙂
” The post above shows you that Muslimas and Allah SWT has humor too … ”
Yep, I was rolling on the floor with the exquisite humour of it ! sarc/off
Also, for anyone who hasn’t come across the risible ‘rezali’ before, he originally pretended he was a mohammedan female, living in the UK, and originally from Pakiland. Well, he is male ( I use the term loosely), and if he is in fact living in the UK, it’s strange he would use American spelling !
In the UK, and in Pakiland, ( by virtue of the education system being established by the Raj) ‘humor’ as old dumb rezali would have it, should actually be spelt *humour*.
More later, chumbawumba ! 🙂 🙂
Mirren10 says
Cheers, rezali !
You are ceaseless in your efforts to show us just how brain dead mohammedans are. Thanks for that !
More later, chumbawumba !
Tyler says
Such a silly comment. It doesn’t matter what you call the territory. The fact remains that there is no historic record of anything resembling a “Palestinian” culture in the region.
To the contrary, the Hebrew culture is the oldest surviving culture in the region.
mike says
actually the term Palestine comes from the ancient Greeks referring the Philistines who settled in the region around 12th century BC. Modern day Arabs are decedents of Bedouins who have in fact lived in this region for centuries as per the Encyclopedia Britannica
bob therrien says
too bad the POS quran states in many places 5:32 (sura is one example)”the children of israel”! allah: the greatest of all deceivers…satan: the greatest of deceivers…allah: the most proud…satan: the most proud.
Joel Johnson says
A little research reveals he never traveled to Palestine, but wrote the book base on historical documents. He may not have put in Arab names as he was focusing on Jewish Christian sites. Still pertinent but not the slam dunk we would like.
Rob Crawford says
It never hurts to cite claims contradicting the original article.
Joel Johnson says
Ya, I was excited and wanted to buy an English translation (it’s available 2 vol $60-70). Then found the site in Israel that has the original with background. Someone added the one sentence about the vacation travel in 1695 to make it untrue.
str8talk says
Or could it be that Wikipedia is wrong and Reland really did travel to ‘Palestine’ in 1695.
LX says
Again: any support to your claims? Why don’t you share your source with us?
Transmaster says
If you are interested a facsimile edition, 2 volumes in English published in 1923
is avialable below.
http://www.amazon.com/Hadriani-Palaestina-Monumentis-Veteribus-Illustrata/dp/117959049X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398703170&sr=1-1&keywords=Hadriani+Relandi+Palaestina+ex+monumentis+veteribus+illustrata
Frau Katze says
I believe it is in Latin, not English.
Andy says
@Reza Mehil, Masyaallah, wake up man!
duh_swami says
It really doesn’t matter if there were Arabs in the area. They were not ‘The ‘Palestinian people’ as they don’t exist today. The ‘Palestinian people’ of today were invented around 1967..
mortimer says
Palestinian nationality is a egregious hoax. So why do so many Leftists fall for this hoax hook, line and sinker? They errantly determined to be misled.
Tyler says
For the same reason the Left have historically embraced revisionist history – to them, perception is reality. Change the history books, and you change (erase) history as it is perceived by future generations
Kepha says
It’s very simple, Mortimer. Israel fell afoul of the Soviet Union and/or ceased to be useful for its foreign policy. Hence, anything to undermine Israel gained legitimacy.
mark says
Thank you for this interesting, revealing history lesson. Further back into history, all the way back to Exodus 15.14, we read of ‘the inhabitants of Palestina’ that the Israelites would soon displace by God’s command and endorsement. These Palestinians of today are not from the stock of the inhabitants that that verse speaks of. But that they call themselves Palestinians is somewhat apropos because they are barbaric just like the Canaanites of old.
Sweetness says
Exodus 15.14
The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia
Samson fought the Philistines, right?
dumbledoresarmy says
The historians and archaeologists understand the “Philistines” – also known as “sea-people” to be a group of people who invaded *from the sea*, possibly from Crete, and settled on the coast. They have absolutely no ethnic or cultural connection with “Arabs”.
Buraq says
@ Sweetness
You wrote: Samson fought the Philistines, right?
Correct. But the Philistines came originally from the North, from around Crete. That means they spoke a language related to Greek. So, if the so-called Palestinians are descended from the Philistines, why do they speak Arabic and not something like Greek?
The Jews have been speaking Hebrew for 3,000 years, or so. They didn’t give up Hebrew and adopt another language. So, why do the so-called Palestinians speak Arabic if they originated from the North?
The answer is that there is no connection between the Philistines, who did exist, and the so-called Palestinians who came suddenly into existence in June, 1967.
Reality Check says
Outstanding, poignant and thought-provoking. This is one of the biggest reality checks life could have ever given me.
Reality Check says
And then they say lies don’t carry you far.
Clare says
So why did the Israelis play along? And for all these decades later as well.
Bezelel says
Invented people, not a very skillfully invented people either.
Tyler says
What is truly ironic is that the various derivatives of the name, Palestine, throughout history and various cultures of the Mediterranean region – Peleset, Peleshet, Paleseth, and Philistine – all mean “invader.”
Wasp says
I think all these comments, reports, journals and books etc are, to a certain extent, academic and can be argued over until the cows come home. There is one inescapable truth, a truth that history has provided since the dawn of Human habitation. That truth is, quite simply this. The land ultimately belongs to those who populate it.
In the West, particularly Europe, Europeans are not having sufficient numbers of children in order to replenish their populations. On the other hand, Africans, Asians and Arabs et al continue their cultural practice of having large families, approximately 4 or 5 children per couple. Far more than is needed for population replenishment. Their populations roughly double with each generation.
It is likely it is they who will populate the land and thus become the owners of it at some point in the not too distant future, while we Europeans are assisting our own suicide as a race and a culture.
European/Americans should not be too sanguine either, for that process is also happening in the USA too and is mostly evident in the Southern and South Western states.
How long can the Israelis survive when surrounded by a burgeoning population of hostile enemies, whether they call themselves Palestinians or not?