| Revision as of 20:55, 24 October 2005 editRamallite (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,949 edits →By place of birth: Clarified - otherwise you'd have to be over 87 years old to qualify! (Unless I'm misunderstanding and the sentence is intended to refer to pre-1918 only)← Previous edit | Revision as of 12:21, 30 October 2005 edit undo83.67.49.229 (talk) →Palestine as a stateNext edit → | ||
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| ===Palestine as a state=== | ===Palestine as a state=== | ||
| Modern usage of the term '''Palestine''' usually refers to a prospective ], incorporating both the ] and the ]. Some nationalists regard all the land west of the ], including territory of modern ], as the territory of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea". | Modern usage of the term '''Palestine''' usually refers to the idea of a prospective ], incorporating both the ] and the ]. Some nationalists regard all the land west of the ], including territory of modern ], as the territory of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea". However history reveals that at no time ever has a 'State of Palestine' ever existed, under the Brisith administration 'Palestine' was refered to as 'British Mandate Palestine', under the Turks the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine has never been a soverign state or country but merely a term used to describe a geogrpahic area with ever changing borders. | ||
| 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 ]). | 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 ]). The lack of any historical prescendence for a Palestinian state/country makes the peace process ever more difficult, as the 'Palestinians' are a modern 'people' without ever in history having had a soverign state/country. | ||
| ==Palestinian== | ==Palestinian== | ||
Revision as of 12:21, 30 October 2005
The term Palestine and the related term Palestinian have several overlapping (and occasionally contradictory) definitions.
See also: Palestine (region) and Palestinian territories.
Palestine
Palestine Defined
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 Παλαιστίνη (Palaestina) 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 .
See also: History of Palestine.
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. As Trans-Jordan became a seperate political unit on May 15 1923 and the Mandate came into force in July 1922, it is the case that Trans-Jordan and Palestine were the same political unit during the Mandate period. Thus, it is clearly the case that Jordan can be considered part of Palestine.
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 Transjordan 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 Mandate included what is now modern Jordan (apart from the Aqaba and Maan districts) Some months after the Mandate's establishment by the League of Nations, Britain withdrew the Trans-jordan section from the requirements of the rest of the Mandate in regards to Jewish settlement, in that Jews were not allowed to live there. Transjordan remained under British control until 1946. A map of the 1920 Mandate Border may be found here
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 most of the Gaza Strip and large sections of the West Bank.
Palestine as a state
Modern usage of the term Palestine usually refers to the idea of 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". However history reveals that at no time ever has a 'State of Palestine' ever existed, under the Brisith administration 'Palestine' was refered to as 'British Mandate Palestine', under the Turks the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine has never been a soverign state or country but merely a term used to describe a geogrpahic area with ever changing borders.
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). The lack of any historical prescendence for a Palestinian state/country makes the peace process ever more difficult, as the 'Palestinians' are a modern 'people' without ever in history having had a soverign state/country.
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.
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 minority of Israeli Jews whose families moved there prior to Zionism, and the Arab refugees and emigrés from 1948 and their descendants (though not the pre-Nakba (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 the inhabitants of Jordan who arrived as refugees 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 define themselves as Palestinian.
Referring to Jews in a national rather than religious sense
Some, particularly certain Palestinians and Arabs, still refer to Jews whose ancestors had lived in Palestine before Zionism as "Palestinians". 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". Most early literature when referring to "Palestinians" meant to designate Jews, but after the modern State of Israel was born, Jews identified themselves as Israelis. 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.