What is the name of Palestine?

Answer 1

The confusion as concerns "Palestine" is that it refers to two separate things.

Definition 1

The British Mandate of Palestine covered all areas between Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It was a relatively small territory that was also bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest and has access to the Gulf of Aqabah in the south.

Definition 2

The current country of Palestine, which is ruled by the Palestinian Authority, is de jure (this means by law) a small grouping of city-states in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. De facto (this means in reality) the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized leadership of Palestine, has lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas as of the Summer of 2006.

Most Palestinians want a united country (that is to say that Gaza and the West Bank would become one nation, even though they are bifurcated) and many are willing to settle with Israel to create reasonable borders. On the same note, many Israelis feel the same way. The issue in both camps is that extremists routinely advocate the all-or-nothing solution and use maps of the British Mandate of Palestine to represent their side's ideal outcome.

Additional Discussion

This use of the Mandate-Map by extremist Palestinian organizations and by many in the Arab World has led to much confusion concerning the actual territories under Palestinian control and the territories which are being negotiated between Israel and Palestine for a future solution.

There are those who would prefer to not believe that there is a current recognized Palestinian government. However, almost every major international forum recognizes the Palestinian Authority as the governing authority with whom Israel must negotiate a Palestinian future. Israel has also recognized the role of the Palestinian Authority by way of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Answer 2

There are three different definitions of Palestine: a country (the recognized Palestinian Authority or the unrecognized Arab dream to replace Israel), a British Mandate (from 1922-1948), or a region. They are all generally in the same place although specific borders may differ.

In all three, Palestine is located in the Middle East, specifically the Southwest Levant.

Palestine for the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and various adjoining lands. Different geographic definitions of Palestine have been used over the millennia, and these definitions themselves are politically contentious. In recent times, the broadest definition of Palestine has been that adopted by the British Mandate of Palestine, which includes present-day Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The narrowest definition used in contemporary politics embraces only the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Other English names for this region include: Canaan, Land of Israel, and Holy Land.

[Please also see the Related Link dealing with Palestine's history.]

Answer 3

A:

During the middle of the first millennium BCE, Greek sailors began to visit the Levant. The people they met along the coast (at least to the south of what is now Tel Aviv) were the Philistines, but they were unaware of the kingdom of Judah that existed in the hinterland. Believing that the entire area was populated by Philistines, they named it after those inhabitants. This has become corrupted to 'Palestine'.

Answer 4

Palestine is its own name. If you are referring to the current nations that occupy the space previously occupied by the British Mandate of Palestine, those nations would be Israel and Palestine.

Answer 5

The question as put can mean two distinct things:

1) What does the name "Palestine" mean to Jews?
The name is seen by most Jews as an imposition on the territory from its Roman Occupiers who changed the name of the region from Judea to Syria-Palaestina following the Jewish Revolts in the First and Second Centuries C.E. It also conjures up, for many Jews, the current conflict with the Palestinians since they continue to refer to the territory, oftentimes including the current State of Israel, as Palestine.

2) What does the land of the southwest Levant (e.g. the region of Palestine or the Land of Israel) mean to Jews?
The Jews see this land as their homeland and ancestral territory. The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

Jews also argue that they have a connection to the land of Israel that is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

Answer 6

their home land since biblical times.................