Editing Palestinian identity

{{Short description|Shift in implications of "Palestinian" over time}}
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{{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]].

==Types and definitions==
===Geographically  ===
"Palestinian" may be used as an adjective to describe persons or objects which are related to Palestine. Examples of such usages may include the "Palestinian Talmud", an alternative name for the [[Jerusalem Talmud]]. This was employed by historical authors such as [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]] describing [[Palmyrene Empire|Palmyrene]] troops who originated from Palestine in the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], [[Al-Maqdisi|Shams-Al-Din Al-Maqdisi]] as a term of self-identification in his travels, and [[Fulcher of Chartres]] describing the continuous settlement of the Frankish and Orthodox [[Crusades|Crusaders]]. 

===Legally===
During the [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate over Palestine]], a "Palestinian" could mean any person who was born in or hailed from the [[Palestine (region)|region of Palestine]] or was a citizen of the [[Mandatory Palestine]]. The term covered all the inhabitants of the region, including people from Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds, and all ethnicities, including [[Arabs]], the [[Dom people]], [[Samaritans]], [[Druze]], [[Bedouin]]s and the traditional [[Palestinian Jews|Jewish]] communities of Palestine, or [[Old Yishuv]], whose ancestors were already living there prior to the onset of [[Zionism|Zionist immigration]].

In the aftermath of the [[1948 Palestine war]] and the establishment of the [[Israel|State of Israel]], a "Palestinian" tends to refer to individuals from non-Jewish communities born in the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]], and citizens of the [[State of Palestine]], including the populations of [[Palestinian refugees]] living in the wide Middle East and other [[Palestinian diaspora]] populations worldwide.<ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/glossP.html Definition of Palestinian] ([[Jewish Virtual Library]])

"Although anyone with roots in the land that is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is technically a Palestinian, the term is now more commonly used to refer to non-Jew Arabs with such roots ... Most of the world's Palestinian population is concentrated in Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan, although many Palestinians live in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries."</ref>

Prior to the establishment of the [[State of Palestine]] then an interim government during the Oslo Accords in 1993: the remaining parts of Arab Palestine were occupied by Jordan and Egypt. The people of the West Bank became citizens of the [[Jordan|Kingdom of Jordan]] until its disengagement in 1988, as part of the annexation of the occupied parts which were later renamed as "[[West Bank|West Bank of the Jordan River]]", while the inhabitants of the Egyptian-occupied [[Gaza Strip]] were considered to be citizens of the internationally unrecognized client [[All-Palestine Government]]. The residents of the Gaza Strip became [[Statelessness|stateless]] after the dissolution of the All-Palestine government.    

In Israel, former [[Palestinian Jews]] that acquired [[Israeli citizenship]] became [[Israeli Jews]], while non-Jewish Palestinians that acquired Israeli citizenship came to be referred to as [[Israeli Arabs]].

====Palestinian refugees====

[[United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East|UNRWA]] defines the Palestinian refugees as those whose normal place of residence between June 1946 and May 1948 was in the land that is now Israel, but they went outside during the 1948 war. UNRWA, however, provides aid to Palestinian refugees defined as such, as well as the descendants of those Palestinians. UNRWA does define "Palestinian refugees" to include descendants of "refugees".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees|title=Palestine refugees|website=UNRWA}}</ref>

'''<big>Politically</big>'''  

The PLO's Palestinian National Covenant of 1964 defines a Palestinian as "the Arab citizens who were living permanently in Palestine until 1947, whether they were expelled from there or remained. Whoever is born to a Palestinian Arab father after this date, within Palestine or outside it, is a Palestinian".

===In Ethnography ===

The word "[[Palestinians|Palestinian]]" in Academia is occasionally used as a term rather than a demonym by ethnographers, linguists, theologians, and historians to denote a specific subculture in Palestine. In such context, it covers not only those who have a Palestinian Arab national identity or [[Palestinian Jews|Jews of Palestine]], but also those inhabitants of the Southern Levant as a whole, Including ethnic and religious minorities such as the [[Druze]], the [[Dom people|Dom]], the [[Circassians]], and the [[Samaritans]],<ref>[https://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/10/08/samaritans/ Amid conflict, Samaritans keep unique identity] by Dana Rosenblatt (CNN)</ref> while excluding the [[Bedouin]] (who culturally and linguistically group with the [[Arabian Peninsula]])

==Emergence of Palestinian nationality==
{{Main|Palestinian nationalism}}
The timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement. Some argue that it can be traced as far back as the [[peasants' revolt in Palestine]] in 1834 (or even as early as the 17th century), while others argue that it did not emerge until after the Mandatory Palestine period.<ref name="Likhovski" /><ref name="Sorek" /> Legal historian Assaf Likhovski states that the prevailing view is that Palestinian identity originated in the early decades of the 20th century,<ref name="Likhovski">{{cite book |last= Likhovski |first=Assaf |title=Law and identity in mandate Palestine |year=2006 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3017-8 |page=174 }}</ref> when an embryonic desire among Palestinians for self-government in the face of generalized fears that [[Zionism]] would lead to a [[Jewish state]] and the dispossession of the Arab majority crystallised among most editors, Christian and Muslim, of local newspapers.<ref>Rashid Khalidi,"Palestinian Identity", [https://books.google.com/books?id=YDPKFyZ38qsC&pg=PA143 pp.117ff, p.142].</ref> The term itself ''Filasṭīnī'' was first introduced by [[Khalil Beidas|Khalīl Beidas]] in a translation of a Russian work on the Holy Land into Arabic in 1898. After that, its usage gradually spread so that, by 1908, with the loosening of censorship controls under late Ottoman rule, a number of Muslim, Christian and Jewish correspondents writing for newspapers began to use the term with great frequency in referring to the 'Palestinian people'(''ahl/ahālī Filasṭīn''), 'Palestinians' (''al-Filasṭīnīyūn'') the 'sons of Palestine(''abnā’ Filasṭīn'') or to 'Palestinian society',(''al-mujtama' al-filasṭīnī'').<ref name="ZachBeška">Zachary J Foster, Emanuel Beška,[https://www.academia.edu/49925414/The_Origins_of_the_term_Palestinian_Filasṭīnī_in_late_Ottoman_Palestine_1898_1914?email_work_card=view-paper 'The Origins of the term “Palestinian” (“Filasṭīnī”) in late Ottoman Palestine, 1898–1914,'] ''Academic Letters 2021 pp.1-22''</ref>[[File:Coat of arms of Palestine.svg|thumb|upright|left|[[Saladin]]'s Falcon, the [[Coat of arms of Palestine|coat of arms]] and emblem of the [[Palestinian Authority]]]]
Whatever the differing viewpoints over the timing, causal mechanisms, and orientation of Palestinian nationalism, by the early 20th century strong opposition to Zionism and evidence of a burgeoning nationalistic Palestinian identity is found in the content of Arabic-language newspapers in Palestine, such as ''[[Al-Karmil (newspaper)|Al-Karmil]]'' (est. 1908) and ''[[Filastin (newspaper)|Filasteen]]'' (est. 1911).<ref name=Khalidip124>Khalidi, 1997, pp. 124–127.</ref> Filasteen initially focused its critique of Zionism around the failure of the Ottoman administration to control Jewish immigration and the large influx of foreigners, later exploring the impact of Zionist land-purchases on Palestinian peasants ({{langx|ar|فلاحين}}, ''[[fellahin]]''), expressing growing concern over land dispossession and its implications for the society at large.<ref name=Khalidip124/>

Historian [[Rashid Khalidi]]'s 1997 book ''Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness'' is considered a "foundational text" on the subject.<ref>[https://cup.columbia.edu/book/palestinian-identity/9780231150743 "Palestinian Identity – The ...."] ''Columbia University Press''. 10 December 2018.</ref> He notes that the archaeological strata that denote the history of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]&nbsp;– encompassing the [[Biblical]], [[Ancient Rome|Roman]], [[Byzantine]], [[Umayyad]], [[Abbasid]], [[Fatimid]], [[Crusade]]r, [[Ayyubid]], [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] and [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] periods&nbsp;– form part of the identity of the modern-day Palestinian people, as they have come to understand it over the last century.<ref name=Khalidip18>[[Rashid Khalidi]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=YDPKFyZ38qsC&pg=PA18 ''Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness,''] New York: Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 18.</ref> Noting that Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with "Arabism, religion, and local loyalties" playing an important role, Khalidi cautions against the efforts of some extreme advocates of Palestinian nationalism to "anachronistically" read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact "relatively modern".<ref>Khalidi, 2010, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YDPKFyZ38qsC&pg=PA149 p. 149].</ref><ref name=Khalidip19>Khalidi, 1997, pp. 19–21.</ref>

Khalidi argues that the modern national identity of Palestinians has its roots in [[nationalism|nationalist]] discourses that emerged among the peoples of the [[Ottoman empire]] in the late 19th century that sharpened following the demarcation of modern nation-state boundaries in the [[Middle East]] after [[World War I]].<ref name=Khalidip19/> Khalidi also states that although the challenge posed by [[Zionism]] played a role in shaping this identity, that "it is a serious mistake to suggest that Palestinian identity emerged mainly as a response to Zionism."<ref name=Khalidip19/>

[[File:Khalil Beidas 1898 use of the word Palestinians in the preface to his translation of Akim Olesnitsky's A Description of the Holy Land.png|left|thumb|[[Khalil Beidas]]'s 1898 use of the word "Palestinians" in the [[preface]] to his translation of [[w:ru:Олесницкий, Аким Алексеевич|Akim Olesnitsky's]] [[:File:Olesnitsky A. The Holy Land. Vol. 1 (Russian).djvu|A Description of the Holy Land]]<ref name="Fos">Zachary Foster, [http://blog.palestine-studies.org/2016/02/18/who-was-the-first-palestinian-in-modern-history "Who Was The First Palestinian in Modern History"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229164114/http://blog.palestine-studies.org/2016/02/18/who-was-the-first-palestinian-in-modern-history/ |date=29 February 2016 }} The Palestine Square 18 February 2016</ref>]]Conversely, historian [[James L. Gelvin]] argues that [[Palestinian nationalism]] was a direct reaction to Zionism. In his book ''The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War'' he states that "Palestinian nationalism emerged during the interwar period in response to [[Zionism|Zionist]] immigration and settlement."<ref name = "Gelvin 92">Gelvin, 2005, pp. 92–93.</ref> Gelvin argues that this fact does not make the Palestinian identity any less legitimate: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some 'other.' Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose."<ref name = "Gelvin 92" />

David Seddon writes that "[t]he creation of Palestinian identity in its contemporary sense was formed essentially during the 1960s, with the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization." He adds, however, that "the existence of a population with a recognizably similar name ('the Philistines') in Biblical times suggests a degree of continuity over a long historical period (much as 'the Israelites' of the Bible suggest a long historical continuity in the same region)."<ref>David Seddon (ed.)''A political and economic dictionary of the Middle East,'' Taylor & Francis, 2004. p. 532.</ref>

[[Baruch Kimmerling]] and Joel S. Migdal consider the 1834 [[Peasants' revolt in Palestine]] as constituting the first formative event of the Palestinian people. From 1516 to 1917, Palestine was ruled by the [[Ottoman Empire]] save a decade from the 1830s to the 1840s when an Egyptian vassal of the Ottomans, [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]], and his son [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]] successfully broke away from Ottoman leadership and, conquering territory spreading from Egypt to as far north as Damascus, asserted their own rule over the area. The so-called [[Peasants' Revolt of 1834 (Palestine)|Peasants' Revolt]] by Palestine's Arabs was precipitated by heavy demands for conscripts. The local leaders and urban notables were unhappy about the loss of traditional privileges, while the peasants were well aware that conscription was little more than a death sentence. Starting in May 1834 the rebels took many cities, among them [[Jerusalem]], [[Hebron]] and [[Nablus]] and Ibrahim Pasha's army was deployed, defeating the last rebels on 4 August in Hebron.<ref name=Kimmerling6>Kimmerling and Migdal, 2003, p. 6–11</ref> [[Benny Morris]] argues that the Arabs in Palestine nevertheless remained part of a larger national [[pan-Arab]] or, alternatively, pan-Islamist movement.<ref>[[Benny Morris]], ''Righteous Victims'', pp.40–42 in the French edition.</ref> [[Walid Khalidi]] argues otherwise, writing that Palestinians in [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] times were "[a]cutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history ..." and "[a]lthough proud of their Arab heritage and ancestry, the Palestinians considered themselves to be descended not only from Arab conquerors of the seventh century but also from [[indigenous peoples]] who had lived in the country since time immemorial, including the ancient [[Hebrews]] and the [[Canaanites]] before them."<ref name=WKhalidi32>Khalidi, W., 1984, p. 32</ref>

[[File:Palestine 1930.jpg|thumb|A 1930 protest in [[Jerusalem]] against the British Mandate by Palestinian women. The sign reads "No dialogue, no negotiations until termination [of the Mandate]"]]Zachary J. Foster argued in a 2015 ''Foreign Affairs'' article that "based on hundreds of manuscripts, Islamic court records, books, magazines, and newspapers from the Ottoman period (1516–1918), it seems that the first Arab to use the term "Palestinian" was Farid Georges Kassab, a Beirut-based Orthodox Christian." He explained further that Kassab's 1909 book ''Palestine, Hellenism, and Clericalism'' noted in passing that "the Orthodox Palestinian Ottomans call themselves Arabs, and are in fact Arabs," despite describing the Arabic speakers of Palestine as Palestinians throughout the rest of the book."<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2015-03-11/whats-palestinian|title=What's a Palestinian?|first=Zachary J.|last=Foster|date=6 October 2015|via=www.foreignaffairs.com}}</ref>

[[Bernard Lewis]] argues it was not as a Palestinian nation that the Arabs of Ottoman Palestine objected to Zionists, since the very concept of such a nation was unknown to the Arabs of the area at the time and did not come into being until very much later. Even the concept of Arab nationalism in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, "had not reached significant proportions before the outbreak of World War I."<ref name=Lewis>{{cite book |title=Semites and Anti-Semites, An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice |author= Bernard Lewis |publisher=W.W. Norton and Company |year=1999 |page=169 |isbn=978-0-393-31839-5}}</ref> Tamir Sorek, a [[sociologist]], submits that, "Although a distinct Palestinian identity can be traced back at least to the middle of the nineteenth century (Kimmerling and Migdal 1993; Khalidi 1997b), or even to the seventeenth century (Gerber 1998), it was not until after World War I that a broad range of optional ''political'' affiliations became relevant for the Arabs of Palestine."<ref name=Sorek>{{cite journal|title=The Orange and the Cross in the Crescent|journal=Nations and Nationalism|url= http://plaza.ufl.edu/tsorek/articles/orange.pdf|author=Tamir Sorek|volume=10|issue=3|year=2004|pages=269–291|doi=10.1111/j.1354-5078.2004.00167.x}}</ref>

Israeli historian [[Efraim Karsh]] takes the view that the Palestinian identity did not develop until after the [[Six-Day War|1967 war]] because the Palestinian exodus had fractured society so greatly that it was impossible to piece together a national identity. Between 1948 and 1967, the Jordanians and other Arab countries hosting Arab refugees from Palestine/Israel silenced any expression of Palestinian identity and occupied their lands until Israel's conquests of 1967. The formal annexation of the West Bank by Jordan in 1950, and the subsequent granting of its Palestinian residents Jordanian citizenship, further stunted the growth of a Palestinian national identity by integrating them into Jordanian society.<ref>[[Efraim Karsh|Karsh, Efraim]]. ''Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest''. New York: Grove Press, 2003. p. 43. "Upon occupying the West Bank during the 1948 war, [[Abdullah I of Jordan|King Abdallah]] moved quickly to erase all traces of corporate Palestinian identity."</ref>

The idea of a unique Palestinian state distinct from its Arab neighbors was at first rejected by Palestinian representatives. The [[Palestine Arab Congress|First Congress]] of [[Muslim-Christian Associations]] (in [[Jerusalem]], February 1919), which met for the purpose of selecting a Palestinian Arab representative for the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], adopted the following resolution: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, [[natural language|linguistic]], natural, economic and geographical bonds."<ref>{{cite book|title=Palestinian Arab National Movement: From Riots to Rebellion: 1929–1939, vol. 2|author=Yehoshua Porath|publisher=Frank Cass and Co., Ltd|year=1977|pages=81–82|author-link=Yehoshua Porath}}</ref>

==Denial of Palestinian identity==
{{further|A land without a people for a people without a land|l1="A land without a people for a people without a land"|There was no such thing as Palestinians|l2="There was no such thing as Palestinians"|Nakba denial|A History of the Palestinian People}}
Since the days of early [[Christian Zionism]], Palestinian identity has been the subject of dismissive rhetoric. The phrase "A land without a people for a people without a land" was used as early as 1843 by a [[Christian Zionism|Christian Restorationist]] clergyman, and the phrase continued to be used for almost a century predominantly by Christian Restorationists, and was later adopted as Jewish [[Zionist]] slogan, to an extent that historians dispute.<ref name="Muir">[[Diana Muir]], [http://www.meforum.org/article/1877 "A Land without a People for a People without a Land", ''Middle Eastern Quarterly'', Spring 2008, Vol. 15, No. 2]</ref><ref name="Jewcentricity">Garfinkle, Adam, ''Jewcentricity: Why the Jews Are Praised, Blamed, and Used to Explain Just About Everything'', John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p. 265.</ref><ref name=Shapira>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4K06WBjCrAC&dq=%22a+land+without+a+people%22++anita+shapira&pg=PA42|title=Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948|first=Anita|last=Shapira|date=28 February 1999|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=9780804737760 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

After the inception of the [[State of Israel]], a phrase that has similarly become oft repeated is [[Israeli Prime Minister]] [[Golda Meir]]'s remark that "There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either [[southern Syria]] before the First World War and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist." as part of an interview with [[Frank Giles]], then deputy editor of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' on June 15, 1969, to mark the second anniversary of the [[Six-Day War]]. It is considered to be the most famous example of Israeli denial of [[Palestinians|Palestinian identity]],<ref name=Waxman>{{cite book |last= Waxman |first= D. |title= The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation |page= 50 |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan US |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-1-4039-8347-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oUHIAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |access-date= 2021-11-22}}</ref> and has been frequently been used to illustrate the denial of Palestinian history and sum up the Palestinians' sense of invisibility to Israel.<ref name=Gelvin>{{cite book |last1= Gelvin |first1= J.L. |last2= Gelvin |first2= P.H.J.L. |title= The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War |publisher= Cambridge University Press |pages= 92–93 |year= 2005 |isbn= 978-0-521-85289-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wfIFVze1MqQC |access-date=2021-11-22}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Bezalel Smotrich]], the Minister of Finance in Israel's 2022 far-right coalition government, reiterated the denial of Palestinian identity.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/20/israeli-minister-condemned-claiming-no-such-thing-as-a-palestinian-people-bezalel-smotrich |title=
Israeli minister condemned for claiming ‘no such thing’ as a Palestinian people |date=20 March 2023 |work=Associated Press |publisher=The Guardian}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Palestinian nationalism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palestinian identity}}
[[Category:Palestinians| ]]
[[Category:Palestinian nationalism]]
[[Category:National identities]]