there was never a Palestine or Palestinian people, for it to be invaded. It was Ottoman land for 700 years, and then British territory.
You can't deny a people's legitimacy based on that kind of history. If you did, you'd be denying the rights of Slovenia, Slovakia and Belarus to be states. How long does it take for a people to be a people? Palestine as a place with a high Arab population has been around for centuries.
Palestine was never a "place", it was called Southern Syria. "High Arab population" oh yes, Arabs have invaded and squatted enough, why shouldn't there there be a few places where it's not ruled by Arabs or Muslims. Israel constitutes less than 1% of the land mass in the Middle East,.
WAS never?!?! Palestine IS an actual geographical designation no less valid than Slovenia, Slovakia and Belarus, also nations that have never been countries until recently. The question of if there's land called 'Palestine' is irrelevant to the question of where a Jewish nation can be sited. Do you feel your argument is so weak that you have to go out on a tangent like that? I haven't said a thing about the state of Israel and its disposition.
It was never even a geographical designation during the 700 years of Ottoman rule. Let's see what Arabs have said:
Let us hear what other Arabs have said:
Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:
"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not".
"There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it".
- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 -
- Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 -
"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria".
- Representant of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 -
"The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly lasted, as such, 22 years".
“Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?”
“We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag”.
“When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my duty as a righteous person to speak out”.
-ex PLO terrorist
"There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity... yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel".
- Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO Executive Council -
"You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people".
- Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat -