Palestine - Definitions of Palestine
The term Palestine and the
related term Palestinian have several overlapping (and occasionally
contradictory) definitions.
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.
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 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 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
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.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_Palestine
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