| What is Palestine? Who are Palestinians? It’s all explained here. |
Given events in the Middle East, the word “Palestinians” is suddenly everywhere, which is odd because there is no country—or even place—named Palestine. In fact, there’s never been a country known as Palestine.
So what are “Palestinians?” Are they an ethnic group, like Arabs or Australian Aborigines? No, there is no such ethnic group. Are they a race, like Caucasian? Nope. Not that either.
So what are they? If you’re confused, this blogpost is for you. “Palestine For Dummies” will explain it all, and after reading it, you’ll be an expert on the subject—at least on a surface level. Note that I’ve divided the tutorial into numbered paragraphs, to serve up the data in digestible bites. Here we go…
1. “Palestine” has referred, for thousands of years—at least since Roman times—to the general area along the far-Eastern Med which includes where Israel is today. However, it was never an independent country. It was always a province or territory of some other country (or empire).
2. Palestine was first a province of the Roman Empire, then eventually a province of the Ottoman Empire. During Roman times it was originally called Judea (the Latinized version of Judah where the people of the tribe of Judah—later to be called Jews—lived.) But after some Jewish revolts, the Romans renamed the place Palaestina (a derivation of Philistine, another ethnic group in the region.) They did this to sort of stick it to the Jews, linguistically, and make Judea disappear. Take that, Jews!
3. Jump ahead to 1920. The Ottoman Empire, which had been controlling Palestine for hundreds of years–pretty much since the time of the Romans–was defeated in WW1. So Palestine was handed off to the British Empire (England). This was done by “mandate” of the League of Nations, and hence it was called the Palestine Mandate. There were half a dozen or so other “mandates”, such as Lebanon and Trans-Jordan. These mandates weren’t normal territories, like Guam. They were being groomed for eventual independent statehood. And most of them did become independent states, and mostly peacefully. The mandate system generally worked.
4. However, things got messy with the Palestine Mandate, because after WW2 (before Palestine ever became independent from Britain) the newly formed U.N., by resolution, “partitioned” the Palestine Mandate into three pieces.
5. One of the three pieces was Israel. The same day the resolution went into effect, Israel declared its statehood accordingly, and has been an independent and sovereign nation ever since. (Thank you, United Nations!)
6. Now pay attention because this is where it gets complicated. The other two pieces, which were called, collectively, the “All Palestine Government,” never became a government, let alone a nation. While Israel accepted the partition plan, generally the “Arabs” did not. (And from now on let’s call them Arabs, not Palestinians, because they were no more Palestinians than were the Jews who lived there—and at this point Palestine no longer exists.) So while the UN divided the Palestine Mandate into three pieces, two of which were given the name “All Palestine Government,” (APG) there was a disconnect. Rather than march on proudly and become an independent country, or perhaps two independent countries, the two pieces of the APG reverted to being territories controlled by Egypt and Jordan, called—respectively—Gaza and West Bank.
7. Critically: there was never a point where this “post-Mandate, two-piece Palestine” was ever an independent country named Palestine. Never. There has never been a country called Palestine. The part next to Egypt became a territory of Egypt and the part next to Jordan became a territory of Jordan. What SHOULD have happened was that Gaza, the part next to Egypt, should have simply been annexed into Egypt, and the same with W. Bank, which should have been annexed into Jordan. This didn’t happen because the surrounding Arab governments didn’t want Israel to exist, and so they kept the Gazians and West-Bankers in a limbo of dysfunctional refugee camps, held there presumably until they could “return” to their homes in what had been British-Mandate Palestine, once Israel was wiped out. That plan went on the rocks because—despite multiple wars—they couldn’t wipe out Israel. In fact (see next item…)
8. They (surrounding Arab states) tried again in 1967 and that “six day war” resulted in Israel kicking their butts. When the dust settled, Israel now controlled both Gaza and W. Bank, and held on to them for security reasons, becoming an occupying force.
9. This proved so problematic that Israel finally, arbitrarily, left Gaza in 2005, and even removed any Jews who happened to be living there. At that moment Gaza (no longer a territory of Egypt, or an occupied territory under Israel) became an independent country, and even elected a government. The government, known as Hamas, was also a terrorist organization, with the written goal of existing for the sole purpose of wiping out Israel and the Jews living there. Note: I seem to be the only person on the planet to recognize that Gaza has been an independent country since 2005. Not sure why the rest of the world is confused about this.
10. While the situation in Gaza is simple (it’s an independent country) West Bank is a mess. Based on the 1990’s Oslo Accords, W.B. is divided up into Areas A, B, and C. (Who knew?) Areas A are 100% controlled by their own Arabic populations, with the controlling entity being the “Palestinian Authority.” (The “PA” is West Bank’s answer to Gaza’s “Hamas.”) Areas B are jointly controlled between the PA and the Israeli occupiers. And Areas C (more than 50% of the total) are 100% controlled by Israeli occupiers.
11. Israeli migrants have been moving into Areas C for decades now, and choosing to live there, under Israeli Occupier control. Of course, plenty of Arab communities also live there. When Israeli migrants build homes there, these are called by the world “Israeli Settlements” or “Jewish Settlements.” The Arab communities aren’t called Settlements they’re called Communities. Note: This is a huge bone of contention on the world stage. Most people don’t think this migration of Jews into these C-Areas of W. Bank is a good thing, and it should be stopped and reversed.
BOTTOM LINE: The whole problem now stems from the ethnic Arabs who were living in “Mandate Palestine,” plus surrounding Arab countries, not believing Israel should exist. These days, most of those surrounding Arab countries have accepted the inevitable and have grudgingly recognized, or are likely to soon recognize, Israel as a country. (The Abrahim Accords under Trump brought in four new countries that recognized Israel’s right to exist.)
Gaza, today, is an independent country with clearly defined borders and—while it hates Israel and hopes to vaporize it—that’s just hope. Gaza can be ignored in terms of the chess pieces because the dust has already settled and the borders of Gaza are clearly defined. The problem is West Bank. What a mess. Probably Israel and Jordan (and no one else) should negotiate some kind of division of territory, with an Arab-based West Bank defined, and the rest of that area absorbed into Israel. The non-Israel part should be named the country of West Bank—or whatever other name they choose—and that would be the end of the problem.
SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS? They don’t exist, in the present. While the term was useful to refer to those people living in the ancient province of Palestine during the Roman Empire and later the Ottoman Empire, and later the British Empire (Mandate Palestine), after the Partition the word “Palestine” lost all meaning except from an historical standpoint.
Palestine, and Palestinians, are gone. They no longer exist, in the same way that Carthage and Carthaginians no longer exist—even though there may be descendants still living in the same area. The world map has changed. Palestine, the ancient province owned by multiple empires, was replaced with three entities in 1948:
Israel—an independent country from the moment of Partition. It is inhabited by Israelis, most of whom are Jews but many of whom are Arabs.
Gaza—initially a province of Egypt from the moment of Partition, then a land occupied by Israel, and today an independent country. It is inhabited by Gazians, who are 100% Arabs. No Jews live there at all.
West Bank—initially a province of Jordan from the moment of Partition, then a land occupied by Israel, and today a big mess consisting of three types of areas, some under the control of an autonomous organization called the Palestine Authority, and some under the control of Israel, and some under the control of both, jointly. Jews and Arabs live all over this West Bank place. Trying to figure out West Bank will give anyone a headache, even if you don’t live there.
Congratulations, reader! You now understand the basics about Palestine, Palestinians, and the fact that neither exists today.
Jacques Voorhees 