The word “Palestine” has referred to several different entities, at different times. The word likely derives from the “Philistine” people who lived in the territory of what is today Israel, during Biblical times, though the Philistines have no connection to modern-day Palestinians. The Philistines were a non-Semitic seafaring people of Aegean origin who settled along the coastal plain of Canaan around 1200 BCE, whereas today’s Palestinians are predominantly Arab and linguistically, culturally, and ethnically distinct from the ancient Philistines.[1]
In about 135CE, the Romans began to refer to the region of what is today Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Lebanon, as “Syria Palaestina” and the name existed in one form or another for the next two thousand years. This renaming occurred specifically after the Romans crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt, the last Jewish uprising against Roman rule. Emperor Hadrian deliberately chose to rename Judea as “Syria Palaestina” in an attempt to erase Jewish connection to the land and punish the Jewish population for their rebellion. This historical context is important for understanding how the term originated as an imposed foreign designation rather than an indigenous name.[2]
Though the land came under various different rulers for 2,000 years, starting in the 1600s, it became part of the Ottoman Empire, which after subduing a Jewish rebellion readopted the name Syria-Palestine. Throughout these centuries of changing imperial control, Jewish communities maintained a continuous presence in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Tiberias, and other cities, despite facing periods of persecution and expulsion. This unbroken Jewish presence in the land predates both Arab conquest of the region and the development of Palestinian national identity.[3]
During World War I, when the British, French and Ottomans were fighting over the territory, “Palestine” referred to what is today Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan.
When the British Mandate began, they severed what was then Palestine into two different territories: Palestine (the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) and Transjordan (the land of Palestine east of the Jordan River). This division effectively allocated approximately 77% of the original Mandate territory to what would eventually become the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, significantly reducing the area available for potential Jewish settlement despite the Mandate’s original purpose of establishing a Jewish national home.[4]
During the British Mandate, “Palestinians” referred to both Jews and Arabs who resided in the territory. After 1948, the majority of what was then considered Mandatory Palestine became the State of Israel, with Egypt occupying the Gaza Strip, and Jordan occupying the West Bank. There was effectively no more Palestine after 1948, since the Arabs, who had an opportunity to establish their own independent State of Palestine, declined to do so. It’s worth noting that The Palestine Post (later renamed The Jerusalem Post) was a Jewish newspaper, the Palestine Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic) was founded by Jewish musicians, and Palestine Airways was a Jewish-owned airline, all demonstrating how the term “Palestinian” was commonly associated with Jewish institutions prior to 1948.[5]
Only in 1965, with the advent of the Arab-Palestinian nationalist movement, Palestine was adopted. The Palestinian nationalist movement took to referring to themselves as “Palestinians” and their eventual state as “Palestine.” This emergence of a distinct Palestinian national identity occurred after the establishment of Israel and developed largely in response to it. Before this period, most Arab residents of the region identified primarily with their local city or village, their clan, or with broader concepts like “Greater Syria” or the Arab nation as a whole, rather than as “Palestinians” in the modern national sense.[6]
A sovereign “State of Palestine” never existed prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The legality of the current “State of Palestine” in modern geopolitics is still widely debated. While the Palestinian Authority has achieved observer state status at the United Nations as of 2012 and has been recognized by 139 UN member states, it lacks several key attributes of sovereignty, including full territorial control, unified governance (given the Hamas-Fatah split), and exclusive authority over its claimed territories.[7]
Understanding the complex history of the term “Palestine” is essential for countering antisemitic narratives that deny Jewish historical connection to the land of Israel. Claims that Jews are “European colonizers” with no historical ties to the region, or that “Palestine” was an established Arab nation that was “stolen” by Jews, misrepresent the historical record and often serve to delegitimize Israel’s existence. These distortions frequently appear in anti-Israel rhetoric and can contribute to antisemitism by denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, a right affirmed by international law and recognized for other indigenous peoples.[8]
Sources
[1] Israel Antiquities Authority, “The Philistines in Archaeological Record,” 2022. This archaeological research documents the distinct non-Semitic origins of the Philistines based on material culture, genetic evidence, and historical records.
[2] Cassius Dio, “Roman History,” Book 69. This primary historical source documents Emperor Hadrian’s renaming of Judea as “Syria Palaestina” following the Bar Kokhba revolt as a deliberate attempt to erase Jewish connection to the land.
[3] Ben-Zvi Institute, “Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land,” 2021. This historical analysis provides documentation of uninterrupted Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and other cities throughout the centuries of changing imperial control.
[4] British Mandate for Palestine, League of Nations, 1922. The official Mandate document and subsequent amendments show the original territorial scope and the later division that created Transjordan.
[5] National Library of Israel Archives, “Pre-State Jewish Institutions,” 2020. This archival collection includes documentation of Jewish institutions that used “Palestine” in their names during the British Mandate period.
[6] Rashid Khalidi, “Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness,” 1997. This scholarly work by a prominent Palestinian historian traces the development of Palestinian national identity, acknowledging its relatively recent emergence.
[7] United Nations, “Status of Palestine,” 2023. This official UN documentation details the current international legal status of Palestine, including recognition by member states and observer state status.
[8] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, “Working Definition of Antisemitism,” 2016. The IHRA definition specifically identifies “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” as a form of antisemitism.