So…what’s Palestine?
After the Romans conquered the Land of Israel in 70 CE, they felt the need to impress upon the the conquered Jewish people that they had been…well, conquered.
To this end, the Romans re-named the Land of Israel (now merely a small region within the Roman Empire) after the Jewish people’s ancient nemesis: the Philistines. The name “Philistine” is derived from
the Hebrew word for “migrant” also translated as “
invader.” In the accent of ancient Latin, Philistine came to be pronounced, “Palestina.”
Think about the enormity of this change: it would be like the United States conquering India, turning all its citizens into slaves, and changing its name to “South-Pakistan,” just to be extra hurtful.
The Land of Israel (under its new name) was conquered and re-conquered numerous times, including: by the ancient Greeks, by an Arab caliphate, by European Crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire, and when the Ottoman Empire fell as a result of World War I, the League of Nations entrusted management of the region to the British Empire.
Finally, in 1948, a year that was 1,878 years after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Land of Israel saw the
re-establishment of the Jewish state.
(full article online)
Tisha B'Av: Yes, Jews Were Here First | HonestReporting