Has anyone noticed that the term "Palestine" has come into common usage in the mainstream press? People now say that they've visited "Palestine" and are concerned about the conflict between "Palestine" and Israel. The CIA differentiates between Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza; and I've seen maps that highlight "Palestinian autonomous areas," but nobody has made it perfectly clear what is Palestine and what isn't.
The first mention of Palestine was when the Romans renamed Judea to make it clear that Jews were banned from eyesight of Jerusalem (which they renamed Aelonia Capitolina). I don't know what the boundaries were of the Roman province, but I don't know if anyone cares anymore.
The Ottoman Empire divided the area into several regions, but as far as I know they didn't call any of them Palestine.
The next real usage of "Palestine" was by the Brits when the accepted the mandate from the League of Nations. The Mandate of Palestine included all of today's Israel, West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the Kingdom of Jordan.
The United Nations proposed separating what remained of the mandate into an Arab and a Jewish part but didn't really stipulate who got to keep the name Palestine. Between 1949 and 1967, there wasn't much talk of Palestine, and as far as I can tell it was only during this time "Palestinians" came to mean something distinctly Arab.
(It's not even clear who the "Palestinians" are - supposedly half of Jordan is populated by "Palestinians," which makes no sense when you consider that Jordan was itself part of Palestine. And when you add the fact that a great number of self-proclaimed Palestinians are descendants of 19th-and 20th century immigrants from such far-flung places as Greece, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Somalia, and the Sudan, it becomes even more complicated. And the UN, in its arbitrary wisdom, made it so that any Arab who claimed displacement after 2 years in "Palestine" could claim refugee status).
Which leads us to today. If you look at the maps that the PLO and others use, "Palestine" includes all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. But I doubt that many will say they visited Palestine if they spent a couple of days in Ashdod or Haifa. I suppose Ramallah is in Palestine, and probably also Bethlehem. But is Jerusalem in Palestine, or Arab settlements in the Galilee? Is "Palestine" synonymous for "schtachim" (Hebrew word for "territories?")
Perhaps Palestine is those parts of the non-Jordanian mandate that is under Arab administration, but that would be too small.
For better or worse, "Palestine" doesn't exist as a political entity (yet), nor has it ever existed as one. Historically, it's a reference to a vaguely defined geographic area. In contemporary polemics, it's a rallying cry for territorial expansion.
Whenever someone uses the term "Palestine" I suggest asking them where precisely this place is.
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