Arab Historian Admits there is No Palestinian People
Judith Bergman | 09/11/2017

When the Ottoman rule ended, there was no Palestinian national identity or political borders. It was all made up later. Arabs themselves say so, but the west isn't listening

One of the biggest, most stubborn and costliest untruths of our time is the notion that the jihad waged by Arabs in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Gaza against Jews in Israel is a national struggle of an indigenous people for independence.

No matter the facts, the lie persists to the tune of billions of dollars in international aid and political prestige, which makes it increasingly difficult for anyone involved to admit that the whole thing is nothing more than a propaganda stunt.

Unlike the fairy tale of 'The Emperor's New Clothes', everyone pretends to be blind and deaf when it is pointed out that the emperor is naked. In fact, if the emperor himself were to stand up and yell, 'I am naked folks, go home!' the crowd would go on complimenting his non-existent garments.

Last week the naked emperor did just that:

"Before the Balfour Promise, when the Ottoman rule [1517-1917] ended, Palestine's political borders as we know them today did not exist, and there was nothing called a Palestinian people with a political identity as we know today," historian Abd Al-Ghani admitted on official PA TV on November 1.

"Since Palestine's lines of administrative division stretched from east to west and included Jordan and southern Lebanon, and like all peoples of the region [the Palestinians] were liberated from the Turkish rule and immediately moved to colonial rule, without forming a Palestinian people’s political identity.”

In 1917, says this Arab historian on official PA TV, there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. This statement amounts to saying that the whole narrative of an 'indigenous Palestinian people' was made up at a later point in time.

As Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad speaking on Al-Hekma TV said in March 2012: "Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis. Who are the Palestinians? We have many families called Al-Masri, whose roots are Egyptian. Egyptian! They may be from Alexandria, from Cairo, from Dumietta, from the North, from Aswan, from Upper Egypt. We are Egyptians…"

There is a reason, why the "Palestinian National Museum" is empty of historical artifacts.

The Arab historian's admission corroborates the observations of 19th century travelers to the region, who notably had no specific political agenda when they visited, unlike so many visitors to Israel today:

"Outside the gates of Jerusalem, we saw indeed no living object, heard no living sound," wrote French poet Alphonse de Lamartine about his visit in 1835.

"The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of population." wrote British Consul James Finn in his 1857 description of the Holy Land.

"Palestine sits in a sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that withered its fields and fettered its energies. …Palestine is desolate and unlovely….It is a hopeless dreary, heartbroken land." wrote American author Mark Twain in his description of his visit in 1867.

Nevertheless, the Arab propaganda machine gets away with publishing fantastic falsehoods, such as this one on the Palestinian Authority's tourism website: "With a history that envelops more than one million years, Palestine has played an important role in human civilization. The crucible of prehistoric cultures, it is where settled society, the alphabet, religion, and literature developed, and would become a meeting place for diverse cultures and ideas that shaped the world we know today."

The international community not only approves of these falsehoods, it happily pays for them.

Historian Abd Al-Ghani's declaration on PA TV was a historic, highly newsworthy admission that ought to have made the headlines everywhere, considering the importance the issue is given by political leaders, diplomats, the media and other establishment figures all over the world.

After all, if the Arabs themselves admit that the 'Palestinian people' is an invented entity, should not the consequence be that the countless UN projects, billions of dollars in international aid, and the endless campaigns against Israel cease and be used for more noble purposes?

The answer is yes, but no one is paying attention.

We live in a post-factual world. Facts no longer have any currency, unlike feelings and ideological posturing. The truth has been reduced to a troublesome inconvenience and if it happens to stare you in the face, nothing could be easier than closing your eyes or simply looking away.

https://en.mida.org.il/2017/11/09/arab-historian-admits-no-palestinian-people/

Who were the philiestines that constantly waged war with the ISREALITES in the Bible?

bedspread:


Who were the philiestines that constantly waged war with the ISREALITES in the Bible?

The Phillistines have been wiped out of existence I believe.

OLAADEGBU:


The Phillistines have been wiped out of existence I believe.

i don't think so... it was the Amalekites that were wiped out!!
I think the philestines are this Palestine

bedspread:


i don't think so... it was the Amalekites that were wiped out!!
I think the philestines are this Palestine

At the end the day, the Philistines got assimilated into Canaanite culture. The Philistinians eventually disappeared from the biblical record and from history altogether, and the name "Palestine" is just a testimony of their existence.

bedspread:
Who were the philiestines that constantly waged war with the ISREALITES in the Bible?

For sure they are never Arab nor Arab speaking people and so never can be the fake population calling themselves Palestinians in Isreal today....

There is nothing like Palestinian people...they are all Arab people who came to settle..most after salahudeen took over Jerusalem from the crusaders..!!!

The Arabs themselves know this fact..even there so called late PLO leader Yassar Arafat is an Egyptian..!!!
Peace.!!!

This sounds like someone, before Nigeria's independence, claiming there was no Nigeria, to me. Fact is the area being fought over did have people living there before the creation of the Jewish State. Arriving Jews did after all buy land from the inhabitants of the land when they first arrived.

budaatum:
This sounds like someone, before Nigeria's independence, claiming there was no Nigeria, to me. Fact is the area being fought over did have people living there before the creation of the Jewish State. Arriving Jews did after all buy land from the inhabitants of the land when they first arrived.

The ancient Jewish kingdom of Israel of the city of David had existed in the region before the Jewish State was conquered and Jews driven into exile by the Roman conquerors before the fall of Rome after which the Othoman empire took over which led to mass migration of Arabs to the holy land before the creation of the modern Jewish State.

drakeli:
The ancient Jewish kingdom of Israel of the city of David had existed in the region before the Jewish State was conquered and Jews driven into exile by the Roman conquerors before the fall of Rome after which the Othoman empire took over which led to mass migration of Arabs to the holy land before the creation of the modern Jewish State.

So there were people there, right?

Don't leave out the mass migration of the Israelites to the region in the first place now. If you looked closely at those who have lived there for centuries, apart from their culture, they look no different to Arabs, to me, despite some claiming to be Jewish. That area was always occupied by people from all over as it was a significant point along ancient trade routes and hence a melting pot for whoever arrived there.

budaatum:

So there were people there, right?

The People there were Arabs immigrants. Nothing like Palestinians in history. In the early 20th century, those Arab answered by their countries of origin like Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians and not Palestinian. Palestinian is a modern propaganda invention. The arrival of Jews from Europe brought more economic prosperity to the region and more Arabs started flocking in in search of economic opportunities.

Can you tell me if there’s any book or historical record written before 1900 that refers to some people as Palestinians? There’s no such record.

drakeli:
The People there were Arabs immigrants. Nothing like Palestinians in history. In the early 20th century, those Arab answered by their countries of origin like Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians and not Palestinian. Palestinian is a modern propaganda invention. The arrival of Jews from Europe brought more economic prosperity to the region and more Arabs started flocking in in search of economic opportunities.

Can you tell me if there’s any book or historical record written before 1900 that refers to some people as Palestinians? There’s no such record.

As I said in my first post, the claim against "Palestine" is similar to one against "Nigeria" before it was named that. Nigeria, as well as Palestine (though much older), being rather new names for the relevant areas and people.

Here's a piece from the Jewish Virtual Library. It's from a pdf from the link under what it titles as the myth that "Palestine was always an Arab country".

MYTH
Palestine was always an Arab country.

FACT
The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the twelfth century BCE, settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain—now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century CE, after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Arabic word Filastin is derived from this Latin name.

The Hebrews entered the land of Israel about 1300 BCE, living under a tribal confederation until being united under the first monarch, King Saul. The second king, David, established Jerusalem as the capital around 1000 BCE. David’s son, Solomon, built the Temple soon thereafter and consolidated the military, administrative, and religious functions of the kingdom. The nation was divided under Solomon’s son, with the northern kingdom (Israel) lasting until 722 BCE, when the Assyrians destroyed it, and the southern kingdom (Judah) surviving until the Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE. The Jewish people enjoyed brief periods of sovereignty afterward until most Jews were finally driven from their homeland in 135 CE. Jewish independence in the land of Israel lasted for more than four hundred years. This is much longer than Americans have enjoyed in-dependence in what has become known as the United States.

In fact, if not for foreign conquerors, Israel would be more than three thousand years old today. Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most of the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University professor Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said, “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.”

Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, they adopted the following resolution:

We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geo-graphical bonds.

As I said, claiming that the people there today called Palestinians are not Palestinians is like claiming no Nigerians lived in Nigeria before the name Nigeria was coined for the region so named. And Palestine is a name with an origin that's about 1800 years older than "Nigeria!

And note, The Jewish Virtual Library is criticised as being an Israeli propaganda website

Also wiki has the following entry:

Syria Palaestina was a Roman province between 135 AD and about 390. It was established by the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, following the defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. Shortly after 193, the northern regions were split off as Syria Coele in the north and Phoenice in the south, and the province Syria Palaestina was reduced to Judea.[citation needed] The earliest numismatic evidence for the name Syria Palaestina comes from the period of emperor Marcus Aurelius.[citation needed]

budaatum:

As I said in my first post, the claim against "Palestine" is similar to one against "Nigeria" before it was named that. Nigeria, as well as Palestine (though much older), being rather new names for the relevant areas and people.

Here's a piece from the Jewish Virtual Library. It's from a pdf from the link under what it titles as the myth that "Palestine was always an Arab country".

MYTH
Palestine was always an Arab country.

FACT
The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the twelfth century BCE, settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain—now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century CE, after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Arabic word Filastin is derived from this Latin name.

The Hebrews entered the land of Israel about 1300 BCE, living under a tribal confederation until being united under the first monarch, King Saul. The second king, David, established Jerusalem as the capital around 1000 BCE. David’s son, Solomon, built the Temple soon thereafter and consolidated the military, administrative, and religious functions of the kingdom. The nation was divided under Solomon’s son, with the northern kingdom (Israel) lasting until 722 BCE, when the Assyrians destroyed it, and the southern kingdom (Judah) surviving until the Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE. The Jewish people enjoyed brief periods of sovereignty afterward until most Jews were finally driven from their homeland in 135 CE. Jewish independence in the land of Israel lasted for more than four hundred years. This is much longer than Americans have enjoyed in-dependence in what has become known as the United States.

In fact, if not for foreign conquerors, Israel would be more than three thousand years old today. Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most of the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University professor Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said, “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.”

Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, they adopted the following resolution:

We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geo-graphical bonds.

As I said, claiming that the people there today called Palestinians are not Palestinians is like claiming no Nigerians lived in Nigeria before the name Nigeria was coined for the region so named. And Palestine is a name with an origin that's about 1800 years older than "Nigeria!

And note, The Jewish Virtual Library is criticised as being an Israeli propaganda website

You are still not getting my point. I say it again, there were no Palestinians in history before 1900. What you quoted up here supported my analysis more than yours. It’s even a record of 1900s. It even says that there was never an Arab country called Palestine that it’s a myth. Yes, the Romans named a vast region Palestine. Palestine as named by the Romans was not limited to the small Palestine of today. It included part of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and even the ancient Israel itself.

Palestine as created by the Romans was inhabited by different nationalities answering to their national identity. There was an all inclusive region with different countries in it called Palestine. But there were no people calling themselves Palestinians. There were no Palestinians. Palestinian is a modern propaganda invention.

It’s like when Europeans named Africa. We all answer to our different nationalities. Imagine some people now migrated from different African countries and settle in Nigeria, claiming land and saying they are Africans. Come on! We are all Africans by European creation. But we have our different countries of origin. The same way we can say Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Iranians and even Israelis are all Palestinians considering the fact that all those regions were all together Palestine by Roman creation and not by British creation that we have today. The so called Palestinians never called themselves that until the British called them that. They went by the names of the countries their parents or themselves came from.


I say it again, no we’re in history did we have people calling themselves Palestinians. All we have was a vast region called Palestine. No historical record that predates 1900 calling any group of people in the Middle East Palestinians because there were no such people then. All we got in Palestine were Jordanian, Egyptians, Jews, Syrians, etc. The new identity “Palestinian “ was adopted by the descendants of Arabs from these countries that settled on the ancient Jewish land not their own.

drakeli:
You are still not getting my point. I say it again, there were no Palestinians in history before 1900. What you quoted up here supported my analysis more than yours. It’s even a record of 1900s. It even says that there was never an Arab country called Palestine that it’s a myth. Yes, the Romans named a vast region Palestine. Palestine as named by the Romans was not limited to the small Palestine of today. It included part of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and even the ancient Israel itself.

That's somewhat true. And I've said just about the same with my "Nigerian" analogy.

The story one gets about the area being discussed has always been a subject of propaganda as it's been fought over by different factions since antiquity. It therefore falls down to which propaganda one wishes to accept.

drakeli:
Palestine as created by the Romans was inhabited by different nationalities answering to their national identity. There was an all inclusive region with different countries in it called Palestine. But there were no people calling themselves Palestinians. There were no Palestinians. Palestinian is a modern propaganda invention.

This isn't however. Least not as simply as you're putting it. Yes there were no people calling themselves Palestinians, just as there weren't Nigerians before the invention of Nigeria. National identities however are a rather new invention which not many had. It's why religion and origin was an identifying factor. If you worshipped Yahweh you were Jewish, and if you worshipped something else you were something else. Those "something elses" are the people who were identified as modern "Palestinians", as you rightly claim, and to distinguish them from the Jews. And probably, not even by themselves to start with, but as named by those who came in contact with them. But I disagree with the "modern propaganda invention". I'd say it's more of fitting in with western conventions of identifying people in a region, and since the cap fit, those who lived there adopted it.

drakeli:
It’s like when Europeans named Africa. We all answer to our different nationalities. Imagine some people now migrated from different African countries and settle in Nigeria, claiming land and saying they are Africans.

And this, being where I saw this going, is what I completely disagree with! One might as well claim modern day occupants of Egypt are not Egyptians, and that they migrated from somewhere in Arabia! The question however would be, when does one get to call them by the land that they occupy?

One could easily argue everyone in Syria Palestine, as it was named by the Romans, migrated from different places. That's not to claim they "claimed land". The area has always been inhabited, even when some of the inhabitants were exiled both by the Babylonians, and the Romans. In fact, the only historical evidence for any group of people arriving there and claiming land is when the Israelites did so. How others got to own the land when they did is somewhat sketchy.

drakeli:
The so called Palestinians never called themselves that until the British called them that. They went by the names of the countries their parents or themselves came from.

I agree, with reservations. Your argument sounds much like claiming the inhabitants of North America prior to the arrival of the Europeans, were not "Americans". While true, the land was still their's, except they didn't actually own the land as land ownership was an alien concept to them. And while some may have identified by "countries their parents or themselves came from", after a couple of generations, this would have ended just as modern day Americans don't identify as their place of origin anymore but as Americans.

The only source for those who lived in Palestine - a specific area at that - not identifying as Palestinians prior to the British doing so, is propaganda. The area was known as Syria Palestine in the 2 century, and if nationalities existed at the time, that's precisely what they'd have been known as (even if they weren't, mind), and especially after the first few generations after they might have forgotten where they came from. The common phrase that "people came from the east", is indicative of the ignorance of geography at the time.

So there. It is my opinion, that each of us is choosing which propaganda we wish to accept as more valid, and you now know mine.

(Please note that you write very well and clearly enough to be understood. 'Disagreeing' is not the same as not 'understanding'!)

No Palestinian people?
Alright, there is nothing such as Jewish people either.

Interesting read.