Palestine summary

By the fifth century BC, the modern cognate of Philistia – Palestina in Greek, and Palestine in Latin – began to appear as the dominant name of the region between modern-day Lebanon and Egypt. This would continue to be the case for the next 1,200 years, until the Islamic conquest in 637 AD.

Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote detailed texts on Palestine, using this term in the fourth century BC. Herodotus, known as the “Father of History,” describes fifth-century BC Palestine as a polytheistic, trade-rich region. The Arabs inhabiting Palestine’s southern port cities controlled the frankincense trade route that stretched all the way to India, endowing Palestine with much wealth and status, as well as eastern spices and luxury goods.

When Christianity became the Roman state religion in the fourth century, Palestine gained new importance. It was, after all, the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth and the spiritual epicenter of Christianity.

In the fourth century, the now-Christian Byzantine Roman empire split Palestine into three new administrative regions – Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda and Palestina Salutaris. These correspond to central, northern and southern Palestine today. Funnily enough, the naming of these regions was meant to reflect the three-in-one concept of the Christian Trinity. And, like the Trinity, these regions weren’t to be seen as completely separate – unity between the regions continued politically, culturally and religiously up until the Muslim period in the seventh century.

The conquest of Palestine by Muslim armies profoundly changed the region. It also cemented the use of the Arabic language, which would be spoken by the majority of people in the region for the next 1,300 years.

During this time, Palestine acquired its modern Arabic name, Filastin, which derives from the ancient Philistia. Filastin made up a core province of the new Muslim empire, or “Caliphate,” along with neighboring Dimashq, or Damascus.

European Crusaders had ravaged Palestine from 1147 on, seeking to establish European, Christian supremacy over the Holy Land. Legendary military commander Salah al-Din reversed Crusader victories in the region at the Battle of Hittin in 1187, however, and re-established Muslim rule in Palestine. This rule would continue for the next seven centuries.

There was one exception to Salah al-Din’s military successes – he wasn’t able to retake the well-fortified coastal city of Acre, occupied by French crusaders. His descendants fared better, however, and were able to free it from oppressive crusader rule in 1291. With the restoration of Muslim rule, Jews and Muslims were able to worship freely again without persecution, and desecrated religious sites were restored to their former splendor.

After the Mamluk sultanate gave way to the Turkish Ottoman dynasty in 1517, Palestine continued to connote the Muslim-majority, Arabic-speaking region between Egypt and Lebanon. Not only was it used by the indigenous Palestinians – European cartographers through to the twentieth century continued to use Palestine to describe the area. Even Shakespeare references it!

The Ottoman period proved to be a pivotal moment in Palestinian history – it was the first time that Palestinians formed their own state and identity as a nation. Conventional history represents Palestinian nationalism as a European export in the nineteenth century, combined with westernizing Ottoman reforms. However, a more detailed reading of history paints a different picture.

Two decades after al-Umar’s death, change was brewing across the Mediterranean in Europe. France’s new emperor Napoleon was making war throughout Europe and North Africa, including a campaign in Egypt and Palestine. But his campaign hit a roadblock after he failed to take the Palestinian coastal city of Acre, where he was defeated in 1799 by an Anglo-Ottoman coalition. This signaled the beginnings of British colonial interest in Palestine.

Over the first few decades of the nineteenth century, British evangelicals flocked to the region, and travel companies such as Thomas Cook began arranging tours of Palestine. British interest was made official when a delegation arrived in 1871 with the purpose of creating detailed maps of Palestine. With the Ottoman Empire at risk of collapse, the British prepared to assume the role of colonial power in the area. They thought that Palestine would be useful as a stopover on the way to British India.

The nineteenth century was a time when European colonialism began to intensify around the world. Along with it came the view that European interests always took priority over the interests of colonized indigenous peoples.

The emerging ideology of Zionism was no different than any other form of colonialism. Like British colonialists saw the people of India as uncivilized and unworthy of self-governance, Zionists held the same beliefs concerning the people of Palestine. But Zionism had one defining characteristic that set it apart from British colonialism. British colonialists in India, for example, sought to exploit the country for their own benefit economically. But Zionism was a settler-colonial project, whose goals weren’t simply economic – they aimed to replace the indigenous Palestinian population with non-Palestinian Jews.

Jaffa wasn’t the only city that was cleansed of its original inhabitants. Starting in 1948, the new state of Israel began removing any historical traces of Palestine from their newly colonized lands.

Now in control of the majority of historical Palestine, Zionists began a systematic process of branding Zionism as the return of indigenous people to their homeland after a 2,000-year absence. Key to this was work done by the new Government Names Committee.