Editing Palestinian identity (section)

{{Short description|Shift in implications of "Palestinian" over time}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2016}}
{{redirect|Definition of Palestine and Palestinian|the geographical definition of Palestine|Palestine (region)#Boundaries}}
{{Palestinians}}
Prior to the [[Rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire|rise of nationalism]] during the [[Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire|decline of the Ottoman Empire]], the term '''Palestinian''' referred to any person born in or living in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], regardless of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious affiliations. During [[Mandate for Palestine|the British Mandate for Palestine]], the term "Palestinian" referred to any person legally considered to be a citizen of [[Mandatory Palestine]] as defined in the [[Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925|1925 Citizenship Order]]. 

Starting from the late 19th-century, the Arabic-speaking people of Palestine have used the term "Palestinian" as one of the endonyms of self-identification, with other terms such as "Arab" and "Palestinian Arab" being more frequent and dominant in usage<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lockman |first=Zachary |title=Comrades and Enemies Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906–1948 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |pages=18 |quote=I generally use the terms “Palestinian Arab,” “the Arabs of Palestine,” or (where the meaning is clear) simply “Arab” to refer to the Arab community in Palestine during the mandate period. Adding the term “Arab” when referring to the people whom we would today simply call “the Palestinians” may seem redundant, but in fact it avoids an anachronism, for it was really only after 1948 that the Palestinian Arab people came to call themselves, and be called by others, simply Palestinians. During the mandate period most Palestinian organizations and institutions (in today's sense) officially called themselves “Arab,” sometimes with “Palestinian” as a modifier; hence the Arab Executive, the Arab Higher Committee, the Arab Workers' Congress, the Palestinian Arab Workers' Society, and so forth.}}</ref> until recent times.     

After the establishment of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] during the [[1948 Palestine war|1948 Palestine War]], [[Palestinian Jews|the Jews of Mandatory Palestine]] became known as "[[Israeli Jews]]", having developed a [[Jewish identity|national Jewish identity]] centered on a [[Homeland for the Jewish people|Jewish National Homeland]] in Palestine, derived from a political and ideological movement known as [[Zionism]]. By the mid-1950s, the term "Palestinian" has shifted to be a demonym that exclusively refers to the Arabs of former Mandatory Palestine who did not become [[Arab citizens of Israel|citizens of the State of Israel]], including their descendants, who had developed [[Palestinian nationalism|a distinctly Palestinian-Arab national identity.]]

In contemporary times, the term "Palestinian" is the national [[demonym]] of the [[Palestinians|Palestinian people]].