The “Palestinian people” is a propaganda fiction. It’s time to stop playing along. My latest in FrontPage:
President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” was a brilliant illustration of his mastery of the art of the deal. This extravagantly generous proposal, and the Palestinians’ contemptuous rejection of it, severely damages the international Left’s claim that the Israelis are the obstacles to peace, and exposes the Palestinian leadership for the genocidal warmongers they are. Now it is time to take one more crucial step: end the recognition of the “Palestinian people” altogether. There is no such nation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or culture, and never was. Returning to reality on this matter will pave the way to the adoption of sane policies for the region.
“The Palestinian people” was born in 1963, when the foes of Israel hit upon a new strategy that would turn the tide of international public opinion against Israel and give new impetus to the jihad against it. Before that, as The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process shows, amid all the drama surrounding Jewish settlement in Palestine, the rise of Zionism, and the establishment of the Jewish state, the Palestinians are nowhere to be seen. Palestine was the name of a region, like Staten Island or Dubuque, not the name of a people.
It is no accident that neither Mark Twain, nor any of the series of English travelers who visited the area, nor anyone else who traveled through desolate Palestine over the centuries ever mentioned the “Palestinian” people. They spoke of encountering Arabs, as well as Jews and Christians and others, but no one, among multitudes of people who wrote about Palestine, ever refers to any Palestinians. Nor do the many British White Papers and other documents the British government produced during the Mandate period ever mention the Palestinians. The opposing factions in those documents are the Jews and the Arabs.
There is a very simple reason for this: there were no Palestinians.
An uncomfortable fact for those who advance the claim that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the area is that they have no history: there was never a state of Palestine, never a King or President of Palestine, never (until quite recently) a Palestinian flag, and nothing that distinguishes the Palestinians culturally, linguistically, or otherwise from the other Arabs of the region.
During the Mandate period, the Arabs of Palestine generally considered themselves to be Syrians, and Palestine to be Southern Syria. Early in 1919, Arab Muslims in fourteen Palestinian municipalities, calling themselves the Muslim-Christian Association, presented a petition to the Paris Peace Conference, which was deliberating about the postwar fate of Syria, Palestine, and other former Ottoman possessions.
The petitioners insisted that Southern Syria, i.e., Palestine, be considered to be “inseparable from the independent Arab Syrian government,” for it was “nothing but part of Arab Syria and it has never been separated from it at any stage.” Arabs in Palestine, they said, had “national, religious, linguistic, moral, economic, and geographic bonds” with Syria, and therefore insisted that Palestine must be “undetached from the independent Arab Syrian Government.” Palestine “should be part of Southern Syria, provided the latter is not under foreign control.”
Those who were making these demands would all today be considered Palestinians. Yet they would be baffled beyond measure if they could be transported a century ahead and made to listen to today’s rhetoric about the Palestinians, the indigenous people of Palestine. So would Musa Kazim al-Husayni, who as head of the Jerusalem Town Council declared in October 1919: “We demand no separation from Syria.”
Even Ahmad Shukairy, who in the 1960s was President of the Palestine Liberation Organization, conceded that at the close of World War I, no one was talking about the rights of the Palestinian people; instead, what was in the air was union of the Arabs of Palestine with the Arabs in Syria: the slogan went “Unity, Unity, From the Taurus [Mountains] to Rafah [in Gaza], Unity, Unity.”
In fact, the word “Palestinians” was more often applied to Jews than to Muslim Arabs. During the Mandate period, some Arabs rejected the term, explaining: “We are not Palestinians, we are Arabs. The Palestinians are the Jews.”
Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, an Arab Muslim leader, regarded the term with the same disdain, telling the Peel Commission in 1937: “There is no such country as Palestine! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.”
In 1946, the Arab-American historian Philip Hitti testified before the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry: “There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not” – meaning that there had never been a nation bearing this name.
By the early 1960s, however, the situation had changed, and changed drastically. The 1963 draft constitution of the Palestine Liberation Organization refers matter-of-factly to “Palestinians,” as if they were a distinct and readily identifiable people. “All the Palestinians,” it states, “are natural members in the Liberation Organization exercising their duty in their liberation of their homeland in accordance with their abilities and efficiency.”
In the early days of the existence of the Palestinians, the fact of their non-existence in history was much more widely know than it is today. In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir stated that “there was no such thing as Palestinians….It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” In fact, she noted, an “independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian State” had never existed.
The Arab Muslims of Palestine knew this as well. Syrian President Hafez Assad once told Yasser Arafat: “You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people.”
Prince Hassan of the Jordanian National Assembly put it simply on February 2, 1970: “Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine; there is only one land, with one history and one and the same fate.” PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people was a propaganda invention in a 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw:
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, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
Abdul Hamid Sharif, the Prime Minister of Jordan, would have agreed. He said in 1980: “The Palestinians and Jordanians do not belong to different nationalities. They hold the same Jordanian passports, are Arabs and have the same Jordanian culture.”
King Hussein of Jordan put it most succinctly of all in 1981: “The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.”
Nonetheless, the myth has taken hold, and it is now widely taken for granted, in our age that has little historical memory and scant interest in gaining more, that the Palestinians are a genuine nationality, and are the indigenous people of the land that Israel illegally occupies.
This is a propaganda success that Josef Goebbels and the editors of Pravda would have envied, and it became the foundation for more. Having established the Palestinians as a tiny indigenous people whose land was stolen by rapacious, well-heeled, and oppressive foreigners, it was time to return to the negotiating table – not in order to achieve any genuine accord with Israel, but to exploit the victimhood status of the new tiny people they had invented in order to win valuable concessions from the Israelis.
If all this were recognized, the onus would be on Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the other Arab states for not welcoming their Palestinian Arab brethren. The contention that the Palestinians are a people who must have a state would lose much of its force. Returning to reality and discarding propaganda fantasies can never have a downside. It’s time to take that step.
ntesdorf says
It is far more likely that there is a Yeti, Big Foot, Yowie or Bunyip than that there is anything called a ‘Palestinian People’.
John Lloyd Scharf says
Palestine is a nation between Oz and Panem. Those are fictional too; unless you are from La Puta.
Feldwebel Wolfenstool says
I bet that ancient Palestinian coins are worth a good buck to the right collector.
marc says
you mean these https://www.bnaibrith.org/palestine-mandate-coins.html
mortimer says
Good point from Robert Spencer: ‘There are no Palestinians’ … Indeed, there are only Arabs from Syria, Lower Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Arabia and North Africa.
The first reference to ‘Palestinian’ in reference to an Arab peasant living in the region is found in 1898:
Khalil Beidas writes in his preface to his translation of Akim Olesnitsky’s ‘A Description of the Holy Land: “…the people of Palestine were in need of a geography book about their country… the Palestinian peasant waits impatiently for winter to come, for the season’s rain to moisten his fossilized fields”.
It has been proposed that this represents the first instance in modern history where the term ‘Palestinian’ or ‘Filastini’ appears in Arabic.
Source: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_%22Palestine%22#Rashidun,_Umayyad_and_Abbasid_Caliphates_period)
Trick_or_Treat says
“What have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon and all the coasts of Palestine?” – Joel 3:4 [KJV]
“The people shall hear, and be afraid; sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.” – Exodus 15:14 [KJV]
“Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina.” – Isaiah 14:29 [KJV]
“Howl, O gate; cry, O city, thou whole Palestina, art dissolved.” – Isaiah 14:31 [KJV]
The oldest known historical reference to Palestine is by the Greek historian, Herodotus (circa 484-425), in referring to “Palaisttine” as being “part of Syria” along the Mediterranean coast.
Having said/related the above, this in NO WAY infers that I think the modern concept of a geopolitical so-called ‘State of Palestine’ is anything other than the modern fabrication/hoax that it is.
Palaistine, Palestina, Palestine, was more referring to general region. ANYBODY living in that region, whether they were Arab, Jew, or whatever, could’ve been considered to be a ‘Palestinian’ – as in being a resident of that region.
gravenimage says
And, of course, all of these references are to Palestine as *Jewish*. When I was a child in the 1960s, Jews considering Aliyah to Israel would say, “Next year in Palestine!”.
mortimer says
Robert Spencer wrote: The “Palestinian people” is a propaganda fiction. It’s time to stop playing along.”
Yes, RETIRE this PSYCHODRAMA now.
mortimer says
The ‘Palestinian’ consciousness is bogus and invented by the KGB at that.
Arab Rashid Khalidi shoots down the idea that Arab ‘Palestinians’ have a long pedigree.
Wiki: “In his 1997 book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, historian Rashid Khalidi notes that the archaeological strata that denote the history of Palestine—encompassing the Biblical, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods—form part of the identity of the modern-day Palestinian people, as they have come to understand it over the last century,[8] but derides the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to attempt to “anachronistically” read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact “relatively modern.”[9] Khalidi stresses that Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with “Arabism, religion, and local loyalties” playing an important role.[10] He argues that the modern national identity of Palestinians has its roots in nationalist discourses that emerged among the peoples of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century which sharpened following the demarcation of modern nation-state boundaries in the Middle East after World War I.”
mortimer says
The first use of the word PALESTINIAN in reference to Arabs was written by Russian Orthodox theologian, Palestinian scholar and Hebraist, Akim Alexeevitch Olesnitskiy; He was a professor in the Department of Biblical Archeology at the Kiev Theological Academy.
The first time the word PALESTINIAN occurs in reference to Arabs, it was NOT written by an ARAB.
gravenimage says
+1
Wellington says
And hey, let’s not overlook that Jesus was a Palestinian.
Absurd? You betcha’.
But then so is Islam. Indeed, Islam from its very beginnings has been rooted in: 1) appropriation from others (for “starters” I would reference the Bible, never mind many other achievements exclusive to Western Civilization, from the invention of democracy and philosophy by the ancient Greeks to the development of the scientific method in Early Modern Europe and the most impressive technological developments ever); 2) a victim-oriented mentality; 3) mendacity (e.g., Mo’s flight to Jerusalem on a hybrid beast and his visit to Hell where most “inhabitants” were women); 4) a total incapacity to apologize for past wrongdoings, for instance the African slave trade (N.B., to all blacks who are Muslim you really have been had); 5) no Golden Rule for all of mankind—you know, the “best of peoples” self-serving garbage {Sura 3:110} versus, as one of many examples, Jews and Christians being “the vilest of creatures” {Sura 98:6}; and 6) parasitically feeding off free societies all the while intending to destroy freedom.
Islam is arguably the single greatest mistake of mankind over the longest period of time. Right now, can’t think of one that would “top” Islam in this regard. Can anyone?
Meanwhile, there are those poor, dear “Palestinians.” Yeah, right.
Keys says
Well said, Wellington. Islam is absurd, and worse, diabolical.
More Islamic absurdities:
1. Jesus, a Jew, was a Muslim.
2. Mohammad is God’s prophet.
3. Mohammad is the perfect and model man.
4. Islam is the religion of peace.
5. The Koran is eternal and only understood in Arabic.
Too many more absurdities to list. And can anyone think of anything diabolical that is not sanctified in the teachings of Islam by the best of deceivers ?
Wellington says
I entertain a hope, Keys, that absurd ideologies, like Islam and modern Western Leftism, will ultimately collapse not from without (though this would be fine too) but from within.
Count me in as a skeptical optimist, i.e., one who thinks that, a la Churchill on America, mankind will finally do the right thing after exploring every other possibility. Surely this applies to finally placing Islam, all of it, on the trash heap of history. Not there yet but, well, I remain cautiously optimistic. Will now have a beer with this “rosy view” in mind.
eduardo odraude says
Islam not only appropriates; it usurps. To give just one example among so many:
People who become Muslim do not convert. They “revert.” Why the term “revert”? Because according to Islam, everyone is born Muslim. So you see, Islam owns everyone from the get go. So in a way you really have no choice. But that is Islam’s modus operandi. It uses lies to usurp the self-possession of the soul.
You know, if Islam did not intend to use force and fraud to destroy humanity, the claim that everyone was born Muslim would be harmless. But since Islam is based on force and fraud, the claim that everyone is born Muslim is a malign usurpation of the right of every human soul to itself.
gravenimage says
Good, Keys.
gravenimage says
Good post, Keys.
mortimer says
Yes, it is an ‘absurd’ anachronism to call Jesus ‘Palestinian’ when the Romans hadn’t used that word for another 100 years. After the Bar Kochba revolt, the Romans renamed Judaea ‘Syria Palaestina’.
Jesus called himself an ‘Israelite’ by nationality and his ethnicity ‘Jewish’. “We Jews know whom we worship because it is from the Jews that salvation comes” – John 4 v 22
JESUS WAS A PATRIOTIC ISRAELITE, NEVER A “PALESTINIAN’.
Dan says
People will NEVER accept the truth about “Palestinians” because of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3nXvScRazg
PRCS says
Thank you.
Or Else! says
Around 5:15 of the clip. “Exposure to true information does not matter anymore.”
Exactly what’s manifesting now with the neo-Marxist Left and their propaganda media. Trump has pulled back that curtain.
gravenimage says
End the Hoax: There Are No Palestinians
…………………
Just an attempt–an all too successful one–to make a part of the huge Muslim horde of Middle Eastern Muslims dwarfing tiny Israel appear to be a minority themselves, and hence sympathetic to many foolish people.
eduardo odraude says
The goal is to usurp, too. Usurp the Temple Mount. Usurp Israel. Usurp Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Islam backs sacralized vicious lies with monstrous brutality masquerading as morality in order to suck out the marrow from everything real.
eduardo odraude says
As to your comment, gravenimage, Bingo!
gravenimage says
Thank you, Eduardo. I’m shocked that so many foolish Infidels have fallen for this.
L. D. Haney says
Thank you!!!…I have been saying exactly that for a very long time…There is no, nor has there ever been a sovereign nation called Palestine, ergo, there cannot be, nor have there ever, been a people called Palestinian…Now there are at least two of us, that know the truth…They do not want peace, they want war, so the river of money, doesn’t dry up…
OREN WYSOCKI says
Imagine how many millions of americans know that black crime is wildly out of proportion with white crime, that racist white American cops have almost nothing to do with the discrepancy in incarceration rates.
How many millions of americans fume every time they have to sit there and hear how islam is A religion of peace, and muslims do not discriminate against others, non muslims in muslim lands live in heaven, just like it was in anandalus. How many people rage at every person who gets arrested, fired and censored for saying that muslims disproportionately commit terrorism, and saying so does not make you an islamaphobe.
How many millions of americans rage at american teachers forced to teach young children that gender is fluid, causing gender confusion, telling girls that there are no biological differences between boys, trannies and girls in sports. Girls are welcome to join front line combat, there are no reasons they shouldn’t, just like there are no reasons girls shouldn’t box mike Tyson with A wig on.
I agree, the left made up the Palestinian people, and the right wing media continues the lie, and helps maintain the censorship.
What horrid times we live in, what an abominable nation. In G-d I trust.
Dubi says
If you want to hear the truth about this from the lips of an Arab, please watch this!
https://youtu.be/WwsPE7-J25w
Nelson. M says
if there were a country called Palestine then we could have a history like Julius Caesar of Rome, Gangiskhan of Mongol, David and Salomon of Israel and many other kings, queens and their kingdoms, their currencies etc…nothing about Palestine or Palestinian kings, queens or coins. Robert always spot on.
Upier says
So if there was a Palistine what was their form of government and what was their currency?
sidney penny says
One of Robert Spencer’s best articles.
Well, he wrote the book.
Could not find any negative reviews of ” The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process ”
Human conditioning is so bad that humans do not want to disbelieve a hoax.
What about a one state solution.( hard to believe that too?)
A landmark manifesto issuing a bold call for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Solution-One-State-Peace-Middle/dp/0385348061
Easier to end the Hoax.
Josephus says
Palestine is Judea, the Roman name for ‘Land of the Jews’. How DID MUSLIMS SUDDENLY BECOME ‘PALESTINANS’ after 2,000 YEARS?
https://www.quora.com/How-DID-MUSLIMS-SUDDENLY-become-PALESTINANS-after-2-000-YEARS/answer/Joseph-Shellim
Fr. John Claypool says
Listen to your rhetoric. Your words come from absolute ignorance. No Palestinians? Are you kidding? That land has been occupied by Christians since the time of Christ. If not indigenous Palestinians, who are they? Of all the words you wrote in this article you forgot to write that it was the Roman Empire in the first named them Palestinians.
gravenimage says
There has never been a nation of Palestine. The local Muslims have never been a separate people, and never called themselves “Palestinians” until after the Soviet Union dreamed up the “Palestinian people” in 1967.
Fr. John Claypool says
Ok- so leave out the name Palestine, if that’s your point of contention. There have been Christians there since the time of Christ. Those indigenous Christians have a lineage to the Twelve Tribes.
Two Studies: University of Arizona in 2000 and Hebrew University in Israel reached the same conclusion. The DNA of the indigenous Jew and the indigenous Palestinian is exactly the same. So they both have rights to the same land. Leaving aside the Islamic argument, both the indigenous Jew and Christian have a spiritual and legal right to the land.
So, are you telling me that because Palestinian Christians don’t have a currency or a Western identifiable form of government we should just kick them out of Israel?