Under what conditions would it be correct to say "There were no "New Englanders" then"?
Under what conditions would it be correct to say "There were no "Palestinians" then"?
Palestine is a historical region of southwest Asia at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and roughly coextensive with modern Israel and the West Bank. Occupied since prehistoric times, it has been ruled by Hebrews, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Turks.
The earliest known inhabitants of Palestine were of the same group as the Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe. By the 4th millennium B.C. Palestine was inhabited by herders and farmers. It was in the 3d millennium that most of the towns known in historical times came into existence. They became centers of trade for Egyptian and Babylonian goods. During the 2d millennium, Palestine was ruled by the Hyksos and by the Egyptians. Toward the end of this period Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, across the Sinai, and into Palestine.
In the Bible, Palestine is called Canaan before the invasion of Joshua. Palestine is the Holy Land of Jews, having been promised to them by God; of Christians because it was the scene of Jesus' life; and of Muslims because they consider Islam to be the heir of Judaism and Christianity and because Jerusalem is the site, according to Muslim tradition, of Muhammad's ascent to heaven.
The Holy Land derives its special character from being a place of pilgrimage. Shrines, shared in common by several religions, cluster most numerously in and about Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Hebron.
To know the history of Palestine is to know the history of the world. It is sad that there are uninformed people who dismiss the peoples of that land by claiming they never existed. As a a person from "Dixie" might say to those uninformed people; "you can put your boots in the oven but that won't make'em biscuits", unless of course one asserts that Dixie never existed.
No one is saying there was no Geographic Area called Palestine.. or no people in it (tho it was sparse).
What is being said is Palestine, as an independent Political Entity, Or as a distinct people, Did not exist.
Nor did Arabs living in what was that territory call themselves 'Palestinians'. The Term 'Palestinian' as applied to Arabs did not start until the Mid-1960's until then they were just 'Arabs'.. over the centuries wandering in and out of that land. Palestine reaching perhaps it's emptiest point in the Mid-19th century.
See "Zionist Impact on Palestine"
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_early_palestine_zionists_impact.php
There hasn't been a Self-ruling Palestine, a politcial Palestine, a Palestinian people, from the time the Romans defeated the Jews until the Jews Re-established Israel in 1948.
(As a side note.. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran and was Not where Mohammed ascended to heaven.
The Koran talks of 'Al Aqsa', the 'Farthest Mosque'.
At the time the Koran was revealed (app 620 AD) there were no Mosques, Muslims, or Islam in Jerusalem. The reference was to another site.
Subsequent to the Moslem Conquest of Jerusalem 70 years later they built a Mosque in Jeruslam and named it 'al-aqsa', and it's holiness has varied over time.. but has jealously regained importance since the Jews arrived.)
See Pipes: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/84
The term Palestinian as it is used today is a political choice not a national name. We all know that when you say Palestinian you mean the Arabs of Palestine. You do not mean Jews, Romans, Turks, Druze or any of the other people of Palestine, because when you refer to them you call them by names other than Palestinian.
So please drop the charade and deal with the reality.
I did not say that there are no people in Palestinian now or then, but they are not and never were a homogenous group or a distinct nation. They are ethnically diverse. The Arabs of Palestine speak the same language, share the same customs and history, and even the same genetics, of the Arabs of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. They are not a national group either in the political or ethnic sense, although they may become a nation in the political sense some day if they attain political sovereignty and autonomy.
The dispute today is between the two largest groups - the Jews and the Arabs - of Palestine. They are both "Palestinian" because they both live on Palestine lands and in a sense they are fighting a civil war over the land.
Palestine is just one name for this land. Other people who lived on it have called it other names over the millenia. So to pretend that this land is only called "Palestine" and that the Arabs of Palestine are "the Palestinians" as if this gives them some exclusive and uncontroversial title over the land is to reinforce being 'uninformed'. Indeed, it is to play the part of a propagandist.