Amidst all the usual abuse on the Middle East threads there are a number of myths about the Palestinian past and present that I think are worth addressing.
Myths:
1 - Palestinian never existed as a country
2 - There was never a Palestine in history
3 - The Palestinian people are not real or pure or are created
4 - Palestinian nationalism only began in the 1960's
None of these have much basis in reality, but are interesting to look at in the context of the history of all nations.
Prior to about 1800 there were almost no countries at all because the concept of a nation state is quite recent. In 1850, neither Italy not Germany existed, and never had done. There were no German people, no Italian people and there never had been. People living in those areas considered themselves Piedmontese, Hannoverian, Prussian, Genoan or Venetian.
Likewise in the Middle East people moved slowly from more of a nomadic existance to being more settled, and thus moved from a more 'tribal' identity (Phoenician, Scythian, Cimmerian) to an identity more often based around a town, community or local leader. The concept of identification anf loyalty to a nation state began in Palestine much the same time it began to sweep across Europe. By WWI Palestine had nationalist newspapers, had experienced uprisings against Egyptian and Turkish rule, and had a clear sense of identity entirely seperate from Syria or Jordan.
Going further back, the word 'Palestine' appeared on maps for 600 years, and dates back to the 5th Century BCE, thus making it one of the oldest names for a nation on the face of the earth. While the name 'Palestine' probably is a bastardization of the word 'Philistine', Palestinians have more in common genetically with the Canaanites of the inland hills than they do with the coastal Philistines.
Genetic testing has established that the modern Palestinians can trace genetic code back in towns like Jericho at east 3,000 years. Again, this is a far longer period of permanant habitation than claimed by dozens of countries around the world. Palestinians have not sat, isolated, on one piece of land for the past 5,000 years, but neither have the English (whose blood is largely Nordic, Norman, Roman and Saxon) or any other people.
What this means to me is that the Palestinian claim to land in the region is as strong as Israeli claims, and needs to be accepted as such. Luckily, from a historical perspective, many towns and regions are clearly one or the other, and I don't believe division of land need be as difficult as some opponents suggest.
