When The Arabs Became The “Palestinians” – The Invention of a People

British-Palestine passport belonging to Mr. Rafael Roschrivsky

British-Palestine stamp printed in English,  Hebrew and Arabic

By Michelle Cohen

The biggest mistake Israelis make, is agreeing to call regional Arabs “Palestinians.”  

It is exactly the same as supplying Arabs with ammunition with which to delegitimise Israel.  It is exactly like saying, “We agree with you — you were here first, this is your land and we stole it.” 

 

This is the Arab narrative anyway and we, as Israelis, are justifying this claim by agreeing to call regional Arabs by the name they have stolen.  If we wish to be taken seriously by the “international community”, it is high time and highly recommended that we go back to calling “Palestinians” Arabs and make certain our voices are heard across the land, in Government, in Media and around the world.

 

Arabs from the region of modern-day Israel would have us all believe that they are direct descendants of the Canaanites and/or the Philistines, but as of yet they have not been able to make up their minds of which group they are descendants.  In any event, they could not possibly be descendants of either because neither peoples exists anymore and have not for over 5000 years. Furthermore the vast majority of regional Arabs are Muslim.  Since Judaism exists for over 5700 years, and Christianity for over 2000 year, but Islam only exists since the seventh century, then who are the so called “Palestinians”? It is actually not necessary to go into a whole lot of historical detail in order to discover that the reason Arabs decided to call themselves “Palestinians” is because they actually lack solid identity. The letter ‘p’ does not exist in the Arabic language, much less the name Palestine, which originates from the Roman name Judæa-Palæstina in order to humiliate Jews after the Roman conquest ((circa 75 B.C., over 600 years prior to the beginning of Islam). The name Palæstina is in reference to the name Philistines (sea people during Iron Age, circa 1175 B.C.) who invaded Judæa—in which case, if Arabs have chosen to use a name that refers to invaders, it is actually quite appropriate. 

 

Some have written about this before, but few actually acknowledge it:

 THE ARABS IN THE HOLY LAND – NATIVES OR ALIENS? — by Dr. Harry Mandelbaum 

The LIE THAT IS PLO – by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator

Prior to 1967, no news headlines ever referred to Arabs as “Palestinians”. The Middle East conflict was known as the Arab-Israeli Conflict and not the “Palestinian”-Israeli conflict. 

During a 1958 interview with Mark Wallace entitled ‘The Arab-Israeli Conflict’, Abba Eban referred to the arabs as such, and there was never an instance when Arabs were referred to by any other name:

Arab-Israeli conflict: The Mike Wallace Interview – Abba Eban 1958 (1 of 3) 

In his 1997 book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, historian Rashid Kalidi notes that, “Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with Arabism, religion, and local loyalties playing an important role. Khalidi cautions against the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to “anachronistically” read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact “relatively modern.”

When did Media begin calling Arabs “Palestinians”?  

 

Before the creation of Israel, it was actually the Jews who were referred to as Palestinians, not the Arabs.  As a matter of fact, Arabs did not accept being called “Palestinians” because they did not want to be associated with Jews or with the British Mandate for Palestine:

 

 “The Arabs who lived in the region became “Palestinians” only after the war of 1967. Before that, Judea and Samaria, together with Jerusalem, were occupied by Jordan, and Gaza was occupied by Egypt — but not a single arab thought of himself as a “Palestinian”. Moreover, to call an Arab a “Palestinian” would mean to insult him. “We are not Jews, we are Arabs”, they used to say in answer.”

 

“Even Yasser Arafat, the most famous “Palestinian” and leader of the P.L.O, is not native to so-called “Palestine”. He called himself a “Palestinian refugee” but spoke Arabic with an Egyptian accent. He was born in 1929 in Cairo, Egypt. He served in the Egyptian army, studied in the University of Cairo, and lived in Cairo until 1956.  Arafat’s full name was Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini.” 

 

His last name, Al-Husseini, is a clear indication that his ancestry is from the Jordanian region.

 

“Until the late 60s the word “Palestinian” was commonly, unanimously and globally associated with Jews. The world knew: Palestine is just another name for Israel (or Judaea),  like Kemet was just another name for Egypt. And they had very good reasons to say it.

Until 1950, the name of the Jerusalem Post was THE PALESTINE POST

The journal of the Zionist Organisation of America was NEW PALESTINE

The Bank Leumi was the ANGLO-PALESTINE BANK

The Israel Electric Company´s original name was the PALESTINE ELECTRIC COMPANY

There was the PALESTINE FOUNDATION FUND and 

the PALESTINE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 

All these were JEWISH ORGANISATIONS, organised and run by JEWS.

In America, the Anthem of the Zionist youngsters sang, “PALESTINE, MY PALESTINE”, “PALESTINE SCOUT SONG” and “PALESTINE SPRING SONG”. 
Arabs knew that the term “Palestinian” is the synonym of a “Jew”, that is why they felt offended.

But after the war of 1967 the Arabs suddenly “recalled” they were “Palestinians”. The idea belonged to the PR experts of the Soviet KGB. The plan of the PR campaign and the ideological base were brilliantly prepared and elaborated in the Soviet Institute of Oriental Studies whose director was Evgeniy Primakov. Primakov, the professional Intelligence officer, spoke Arabic very well and had been working for many years in different Arabic countries under the “cover” of a journalist of the official Communist Party newspaper “Pravda”. All the media of the Soviet satellite countries immediately wept over the “poor Palestinians whose land was stolen by the cruel Jews”. This idea about the “poor Palestinians” was immediately supported by the leftist media in the West. After 3 years of the massive PR campaign, with the media crying over the “poor Palestinians”, Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat rendered passionate speeches in European universities, in the United Nations Assemblies and at the political meetings about how he, “a native Palestinian”, was robbed and humiliated by the “Khazar Jews”. The appeared-from-nowhere “Palestinian people” was firmly rooted in the minds of people in Western Europe. The fastness with which it all happened was also due to the fact that it was against the Jews; if the Soviets and Arabs had tried this trick with, let’s say, Spaniards and tried to tell the world the stories about how “the cruel Spaniards robbed the native Andaluces of their land”, all the world would be laughing. But the Jews… Europeans have never been “in love” with them, and readily accepted the story about the “poor Palestinian people” who were driven from their land “by the Jews”.

Israel did all it could to launch the counter PR campaign, but the balance of power was clearly not in Israel’s favour; one tiny Israel against all the media of the Soviet block supported by the crowds of the liberal leftists in the West; did Israel have any chance to win the propagandistic war?

And now we have Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians” and weep over how “Jews stole their land” in Judea, and tell idiotic tales about how “Israelis robbed them of their land” in Israel.”

 

Some Arabs were actually Jews who were forced to convert to Islam, just as some Christians were forced to do so as well. 

Because of the fact that the region of Palestine comprised more than just Israel, it is clear that Arabs do not only originate from the territory known today as the state of Israel.  It would be impossible for Arabs to determine from which exact region they originate.  The fact that they insist they all originate from the area designated for the Jewish State makes them appear as liars.  There is a great possibility they actually come from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries as well. Many of their surnames are good indications of their origins: Al Masri, Al Metzarwah (Egyptian), Al Husseini, Al Urdondi (Jordanian), Al Suri, Al Nashashibi (Syrian) Al Haurani (Hauran, Syria), Al Lubnani (Lebanese), Al Tarabulsi (Tarabulus-Tripoli in Lebanon), Al Iraqi (Iraqi), Al Saudi, Al Husayni (Saudi Arabia).  These are common surnames amongst Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and including Israeli Arabs. 

Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist acknowledged the lies he was told and the lies he was expected to repeat. He explains: “Why is it that on June 4, 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a ‘Palestinian’?”

“We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of a sudden we were ‘Palestinians.’ They (Arabs) removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a ‘Palestinian’ flag”.
“ When I finally realised the lies and myths I was taught, it is my duty as a righteous person to speak out”.

 

According to United Nations standards, any person who spent two years in “Palestine” before 1948, with or without proof, is considered a “Palestinian”, as well as all of that person’s descendants. Indeed, the PLO leaders eagerly demand the “right” of all Arabs to return to the land that they occupied before June 1967 c.e., but utterly reject the right of return to other countries where they lived only 50 years prior, namely, in 1917 c.e. If they agreed to do so, they would have to resettle in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Libya or Egypt — and only a handful of Arabs would remain in Israel. 

 

The state of Israel is situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including the Golan Heights, Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It is thoroughly documented that the first inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael, after some centuries, were to be the Jewish people, and not the Arabs who are the so-called “Palestinians.” 

 

Some eyewitnesses have written their memories about the Land before the Jewish immigration: “There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent (valley of Jezreel, Galilea); not for thirty miles in either direction. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee. Nazareth is forlorn. Jericho lies a mouldering ruin. Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation are untenanted by any living creature. A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse, a desolation. We never saw a human being on the whole route. Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes, desolate and unlovely”.

– Mark Twain, “The Innocents Abroad”, 1867 

Where were the “Palestinians” when Mark Twain visited the Holy Land? Where was that “ancient” people in the mid XIX century c.e.? Of course, modern biased Arab politicians try to discredit Mark Twain and insult and accuse him of racism. Yet, it seems that there were other people who did not see a single “Palestinian” in earlier days:

“In 1590 a ‘simple English visitor’ to Jerusalem wrote: ‘Nothing there is to bescene but a little of the old walls, which is yet remayning and all the rest is grasse, mosse and weedes much like to a piece of rank or moist grounde’.”.

– Gunner Edward Webbe, Palestine Exploration Fund, 

Quarterly Statement, p. 86; de Haas, History, p. 338 

“The land in Palestine is lacking in people to till its fertile soil”.

– British archaeologist Thomas Shaw, mid-1700s 

“Palestine is a ruined and desolate land”.

                                                                                                                     Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, count de Volney, XVIII century, French author and Historian 

“The Arabs themselves cannot be considered but temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it”.

– Comments by Christians concerning the Arabs in Palestine in the 1800s 

“Then we entered the hill district, and our path lay through the clattering bed of an ancient stream, whose brawling waters have rolled away into the past, along with the fierce and turbulent race who once inhabited these savage hills. There may have been cultivation here two thousand years ago. The mountains, or huge stony mounds environing this rough path, have level ridges all the way up to their summits; on these parallel ledges there is still some verdure and soil: when water flowed here, and the country was thronged with that extraordinary population, which, according to the Sacred Histories, was crowded into the region, these mountain steps may have been gardens and vineyards, such as we see now thriving along the hills of the Rhine. Now the district is quite deserted, and you ride among what seem to be so many petrified waterfalls. We saw no animals moving among the stony brakes; scarcely even a dozen little birds in the whole course of the ride”.

– William Thackeray in “From Jaffa To Jerusalem”, 1844 

“The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population”. 
– James Finn, British Consul in 1857

By the middle of the nineteenth century […] Jews also constitute a significant presence, often a plurality or majority, in Safed, Tiberias, and several other cities and towns. (p. 17), Source cited: James Finn to Viscount Palmerston, november 7, 1851.

“There are many proofs, such as ancient ruins, broken aqueducts, and remains of old roads, which show that it has not always been so desolate as it seems now. In the portion of the plain between Mount Carmel and Jaffa one sees but rarely a village or other sights of human life. There are some rude mills here which are turned by the stream. A ride of half an hour more brought us to the ruins of the ancient city of Cæsarea, once a city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, and the Roman capital of Palestine, but now entirely deserted. As the sun was setting we gazed upon the desolate harbor, once filled with ships, and looked over the sea in vain for a single sail. In this once crowded mart, filled with the din of traffic, there was the silence of the desert. After our dinner we gathered in our tent as usual to talk over the incidents of the day, or the history of the locality. Yet it was sad, as I laid upon my couch at night, to listen to the moaning of the waves and to think of the desolation around us”.

– B. W. Johnson, in “Young Folks in Bible Lands”: Chapter IV, 1892 

“The area was underpopulated and remained economically stagnant until the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers in the 1880’s, who came to rebuild the Jewish land. The country had remained “The Holy Land” in the religious and historic consciousness of mankind, which associated it with the Bible and the history of the Jewish people. Jewish development of the country also attracted large numbers of other immigrants – both Jewish and Arab. The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts… Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen… The plows used were of wood… The yields were very poor… The sanitary conditions in the village [Yabna] were horrible… Schools did not exist… The rate of infant mortality was very high… The western part, toward the sea, was almost a desert… The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants”.

– The report of the British Royal Commission, 1913 

The list of travellers and pilgrims throughout the XVI to the XIX centuries c.e. that give a similar description of the Holy Land is quite longer, including Alphonse de Lamartine, Sir George Gawler, Sir George Adam Smith, Siebald Rieter, priest Michael Nuad, Martin Kabatnik, Arnold Van Harff, Johann Tucker, Felix Fabri, Edward Robinson and others. 


All of them found the land almost empty, except for Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Shechem, Hebron, Haifa, Safed, Irsuf, Cæsarea, Gaza, Ramleh, Acre (Akko), Sidon, Tzur, El Arish, and some towns in Galilee: Ein Zeitim, Pekiin, Biria, Kfar Alma, Kfar Hanania, Kfar Kana and Kfar Yassif. Even Napoleon I Bonaparte, having seen the need that the Holy Land would be populated, had in mind to enable a mass return of Jews from Europe to settle in the country that he recognized as theirs’ – evidently, he did not see any “Palestinians” claiming historical rights over the Holy Land, whose few inhabitants were mainly Jews.

Besides them, many Arab sources confirm the fact that the Holy Land was still Jewish by population and culture in spite of the Diaspora:   

·In 985 c.e. the Arab writer Muqaddasi complained that in Jerusalem the large majority of the population were Jewish, and said that “the mosque is empty of worshippers…” . 


·Ibn Khaldun, one of the most creditable Arab historians, in 1377 c.e. wrote: “Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel extended over 1400 years… It was the Jews who implanted the culture and customs of the permanent settlement”.

After 300 years of Arab rule in the Holy Land, Ibn Khaldun attested that Jewish culture and traditions were still dominant. By that time there was still no evidence of “Palestinian” roots or culture . 


·The historian James Parker wrote: “During the first century after the Arab conquest [670-740 c.e.], the caliph and governors of Syria and the [Holy] Land ruled entirely over Christian and Jewish subjects. Apart from the Bedouin in the earliest days, the only Arabs west of the Jordan were the garrisons”.



Even though the Arabs ruled the Land from 640 c.e. to 1099 c.e., they never became the majority of the population. Most of the inhabitants were Christians (Assyrian and Armenian) and Jews.

If the historic documents, comments written by eyewitnesses and declarations by the most authoritative Arab scholars are still not enough, let us quote the most important source for Muslim Arabs: 

“And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd’.”  – Qur’an 17:104 
Any sincere muslim must recognize the Land they call “Palestine” as the Jewish Homeland, according to the book considered by Muslims to be the most sacred word and Allah’s ultimate revelation.

 

-Zuheir Mohsen (Arabic: زهير محسن) – “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”

 
So why do we continue to call regional Arabs “Palestinians”? Because once again, Israel and Jews have compromised themselves for the sake of appeasement.