.. The history you're about to read, is an incomplete history, but does show a Palestinian history prior to the Kingdom of Israel and the Roman Empire, and that Palestine existed through history. The purpose is to get you search more, and to understand that the history portrayed by Western Media isn't at all accurate.
BCE - Before Christ Era
- 1150 BCE | Land of “Peleset” referred to in numerous Egyptian hieroglyphics, referring to their neighbors during the 20th dynasty. First mention was in the texts at the temple of Medinet Habu referring to the “Sea People during Ramsses III reign.
- 800 BCE | The Assyrians called them the Palashtu or Pilistu. There were references to them for over a century.
- 5th century BCE | Herodotus wrote about Palaistine in The Histories^ In his work, Herodotus referred to the practice of male circumcision associated with the Hebrew people: "the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, are the only nations who have practised circumcision from the earliest times. The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the custom of the Egyptians.... Now these are the only nations who use circumcision." The History of Herodotus
^ Beloe, W., Rev., Herodotus, (tr. from Greek), with notes, Vol.II, London, 1821, p.269 "It should be remembered that Syria is always regarded by Herodotus as synonymous with Assyria. What the Greeks called Palestine the Arabs call Falastin,which is the Philistines of Scripture." ^ Elyahu Green, Geographic names of places in Israel in Herodotos
This is confirmed by George Rawlinson in the third book (Thalia) of The Histories where Palaestinian Syrians are part of the fifth tax district spanning the territory from Phoenicia to the borders of Egypt, but excludes the kingdom of Arabs who were exempt from tax for providing the Assyrian army with water on its march to Egypt. These people had a large city called Cadytis, identified as Jerusalem.
- 4th century BCE | Aristotle wrote about the Dead Sea in Palestine in his book, Meteorology,
"Again if, as is fabled, there is a lake in Palestine, such that if you bind a man or beast and throw it in it floats and does not sink, this would bear out what we have said. They say that this lake is so bitter and salt that no fish live in it and that if you soak clothes in it and shake them it cleans them," - an obvious reference to the Dead Sea.
Later writers such as Polemon, and Pausanias also used the term to refer to the same region. This usage was followed by Roman writers such as Ovid, Tibullus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder,[15] Statius, as well as Roman-era Greek writers such as Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom and Roman-era Judean writers such as Philo of Alexandria[16] and Josephus.
CE - Christ Era
- 135 CE | After the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the Romans called it Syria Palaestina
In Hebrew, the name Palestine (פלשת) and the name Philistine (פלשתי) are pretty much the same, and Philistine literally means One Of Palestine.
The Philistines are descendants of the Casluhim, who were sons of Mizraim, son of Ham, son of Noah (Genesis 10:14).
Peleshet (פלשת Pəlésheth)- usually translated as Philistia in English, is used in the Bible more than 250 times.
- In the Torah / Pentateuch the term is used 10 times and its boundaries are undefined. The later Historical books (see Deuteronomistic history) include most of the biblical references, almost 200 of which are in the Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel, where the term is used to denote the southern coastal region to the west of the ancient Kingdom of Judah.
1500s
As for the early population of Palestine, even the Jewish Virtual Library (Click for resource) puts the Jewish population at less than 2% in 1517
According to the founder of Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics Roberto Bachi there were :
219 000 Muslims, 11 000 Christians and only 2 000 Jews in the year 1690.
So Muslims were the vast majority. Even by each Palestinian city, you can see that. In the middle of the 16th century for example Hebron had 749 Muslim taxable households to only 20 Jewish. Jerusalem had 7,287 Muslims and only 1,363 Jews. Nablus 806 Muslim households to only 15 Jewish. Safed had 1,121 Muslim households to 716 Jewish (Jewish community of Safed was just formed at that time of Jewish refugees from Spain).
SHAKESPEARE
There are also references to "Palestine" in Shakespeare. In Othello, Act 4, scene 3 ..
"I know a lady in Venice would have walked bare-foot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip". In King John, Act 2, Scene 1, "fought Holy Wars in Palestine". Othello was written between 1601 and 1604. King John Was written in 1594-1596.
1600s
"Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata" - a detailed geographical survey of Palestine in 1696 written in Latin by Adriaan Reland published by Willem Broedelet, Utrecht, in 1714.
1800s
As early as 1882 Ben-Yehuda and Yehiel Michal Pines, Zionist pioneers in Palestine, talked about 500 000 Arabs living in Palestine.
Ahad Ha'am, the founder of cultural Zionism, visited Palestine in 1891 and described it as Arab developed land. The founder of Israel David Ben Gorion, spoke about Arab farmers as descendants of ancient Hebrews. Michael Bar-Zohar, Ben-Gurion's official biographer, said that Palestine was not an empty land, and the Jews were only a small minority of its population.
^ a b Robinson, Edward, Physical geography of the Holy Land, Crocker & Brewster, Boston, 1865, p.15. Robinson, writing in 1865 when travel by Europeans to the Ottoman Empire became common asserts that,
"Palestine, or Palestina, now the most common name for the Holy Land, occurs three times in the English version of the Old Testament; and is there put for the Hebrew name פלשת, elsewhere rendered Philistia. As thus used, it refers strictly and only to the country of the Philistines, in the southwest corner of the land. So, too, in the Greek form, Παλαςτίνη), it is used by Josephus. But both Josephus and Philo apply the name to the whole land of the Hebrews ; and Greek and Roman writers employed it in the like extent."
^ Studies in Hellenistic Judaism ：Louis H. Feldman
1900s
Arthur Ruppin the founder of the Bit Shalom Kibbutz movement, said that in Palestine there were hardly any more arable unsettled lands, Israel Zangwill, another Zionist leader in 1900 said that the pashalik of Jerusalem is already twice as thickly populated as the United States, having fifty-two souls to the square mile, and not 25% of them Jews, ...
1910s | Battle of Nablus
American author and Professor of Political Science Alan Dowty put it best when he wrote ..
"Palestinians are the descendants of all the indigenous peoples who lived in Palestine over the centuries."
Moreover, studies suggest, that part, if not the majority of Arabs living in Palestine, descend from a core population that dates back thousands of years.
Filastin was a daily newspaper published from 1911-1967 in Palestine. Published from Jaffa, the principal publishers (who edited and owned the paper) were Issa El-Issa and his cousin Yousef El-Issa. Both El-Issas were Greek Orthodox, opponents of British administration, and supporters of pan-Arab unity. The paper supported the Committee of Union and Progress, opposed Zionism, and promoted Palestinian nationalism.
1919 | Aref Al-Dajani President of the Palestine Arab Congress, (also president of the Jerusalem Christian-Muslim Society). Also part of the Executive Committee were Izzat Darwaza and Yusef al-‘Isa, editor of paper Falastin, the newspaper of Palestine. (So much for an invented people.)
1920s | 1920-1934: Musa al-Husayni, former mayor of Jerusalem was elected President of the Palestine Arab Congress. It had 36 delegates, including Sheik Suleiman al-Taji Al-Faruqi, Daoud Issa, and head of the Catholic community -Bullus Shehadeh. The congress was opened by Haifa's mufti, Muhammad Murad.
1921 | Musa Kazem led a delegation from the executive committee to meet the British Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill.
1922 | Funds were raised by the 100 delegate Congress and Executive Committee by the selling of stamps that depicted the Dome of the Rock and said "Palestine for the Arabs" in English and Arabic. (again...usage of the national identity term “Palestine.”)
1929 | A Women's Congress, attended by 200 women, was convened in 1929.
Organisers included Wahida al-Khalidi (wife of Hussein al-Khalidi) and Amina al-Husayni (wife of Jamal al-Husayni). It was led by Salma al-Husayni, wife of Musa Kazim.
1930s | 1934, Christian executive vice-president Yacoub Farraj became acting president.
The Palestine Arab Congress was eventually broken up by the British and other groups took its place in a splintered Palestine.
April - Palestine Arab Party established.
23 June - Reform Party (Palestine) established.
1935- 25 April – The Arab Higher Committee is established, on the initiative of the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni, to oppose British rule and Jewish claims in Palestine.
1936-1939 - Palestine Arab Revolt for Independence against the British. Palestinian Arabs -Arab Higher Committee (until October 1937)
Central Committee of National Jihad in Palestine (from October 1937) 1 in 10 Palestinian adults were murdered by the British and led to greater support for the Zionist immigration and division of Palestine. Palestine was lead by city leaders during this time. Each city had its own leader and coordinated attacks against the British.
From 1939-1948 Britain and Palestinians fought.
Zionist immigration expands dramatically, most of the Kibbutzes are founded. thousands of Palestinians are murdered and most Palestinian villages are destroyed.
Jewish women were pressured and used to spy and to curry favor with British soldiers during the mandate period. These women were later persecuted, ousted from Israeli society, kidnapped and murdered by Jewish extremist groups who didn’t know these women were forced into these relationships by those working for Israel. (Watch: Daniela Riche: Miscegenation in Mandatory Palestine on Youtube)
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”– David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99″
"We will expel the Arabs and take their place. In each attack a decisive blow should be struck resulting in the destruction of homes and expulsion of the population.” David Ben Gurion, Letter to his son, 1937
"We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village." Moshe Dyan, March 19, 1969, speech at the Technion in Haifa, quoted in Ha'aretz, April 4, 1969.
This article was written by Linda Nicole
A Lobbyist, political activist, studied journalism-politics. Been through many careers and experiences most have not. From political activist to international equestrian, currently living a quiet life.
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