"When Were There Any Palestinians? Where Did It Come From?"

[JStone]

Arab Commentator Azmi Bishara

Well, I dont think there is a Palestinian nation at all. I think there is an Arab nation. I always thought so and I did not change my mind. I do not think there is a Palestinian nation, I think its a colonialist invention - Palestinian nation. When were there any Palestinians? Where did it come from? I think there is an Arab nation. I never turned to be a Palestinian nationalist, despite of my decisive struggle against the occupation. I think that until the end of the 19th century, Palestine was the south of Greater Syria.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3n5-yG-6dU]Professor Azmi Bishara: There Is No "Palestinian Nation", Never Was ! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJjm5K07V0]Who are the Palestinians? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Roudy]

"Palestiians" were always though of as Jews, until the mid 1960's when Arafat decided to call the Arabs by that name. Prior to 1960 if you called an Arab a Palestinian he would take it as a big insult in fact he might try to beat you up, because you just called him a Jew.

 

[JStone]

Dr. Jerold Auerbach, PhD and Master's degrees in History, Columbia University, Chairman of the History Department, Wellesley College
When the Arabs Themselves Denied There Was a Palestine

Newt Gingrich has been challenged for calling the Palestinians an “invented” people. He was accused by a spokesman for the American Task Force on Palestine of “deep historical ignorance and an irrational hostility toward Palestinian identity.” To Sabri Saidam, adviser to Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Gingrich had displayed “extreme racism.” But the former speaker seems to know more about Palestinian history than his critics. Indeed, Palestinians have said the same thing about themselves for decades.

Testifying before the British Peel Commission in 1937, Syrian leader Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi asserted: “There is no such country as Palestine. . . . Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us.” Prominent Arab historian Philip Hitti conceded: “There is no such thing as Palestine, absolutely not.” According to Columbia history professor Rashid Khalidi, a student of Palestinian identity, “Palestine” did not even exist until it emerged from the wreckage of World War I.

Zahir Muhsein, PLO military commander and member of its executive committee, acknowledged: “There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation.” Identification of a Palestinian state, he conceded, was merely “a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel.”

There is nothing new or wrong with being an “invented” people. The important question is whether a national identity is constructed from the distinctive experience of a people or, as the Palestinians have done, from plundering the history and heritage that belong to someone else.

Mr. Gingrich has been criticized near and far for his “invented” people observation. An Arab-Israeli Knesset member deplored his “lame and shameful comments.” Governor Romney blamed his rival for “incendiary words.” But Mr. Gingrich, as Palestinians have testified for 75 years, knows his history.
When the Arabs Themselves Denied There Was a Palestine - The New York Sun

Philip Hitti, Eminent Arab Historian, PhD, Columbia University, Professor of Semitic Literature and Chairman of the Department of Oriental Languages, Princeton University, Advisor to the Arab Delegation Which Established the United Nations, Representing the Institute of Arab American Affairs Testifying Before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946

The Sunday schools have done a great deal of harm to us, becauseby smearing the walls of the rooms with maps of Palestine, they areassociating it in the mind of the average American--and I may say perhaps the Englishman too---with the Jews.

Sir, there is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not.
Hearing before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Washington D.C., State Department, Jan. 11, 1946