WHO ARE THE "PALESTINIANS?"

Peace in Middle East a Palestinian Peace Ploy - Rachel N. Stephens
As long as there is a fight over Israel, I'll always support the Jews because the Palestinians, as a whole, have no claim to the Land of Israel, nor are they trying to coexist peacefully. Just who are the Palestinians? And what is Palestine? After a Jewish revolt in 135 CE, the Roman procurator of Israel asked the scribes to identify the Jews' worst enemies. He was told, "The Philistines." To humiliate the Jews, he renamed the province, "Philistia" which became "Palaistina" and now "Palestine." Modern-day Palestinians are Arab. The Philistines were from Greece, Crete and Western Turkey. Arabs did not arrive in Israel until the 7th century CE - almost 2000 years after the Jews had settled on that land. Up to the 1940s, the term "Palestinian" was used for Jews in the land.

PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said: "The Palestinian people do 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." (Daily O'Collegian-Oklahoma State University)