why do people claim that palestine doesn't exist?

Question

just because europeans never claimed that it existed that doesn't mean that there was no palestine. i am so tired of hearing about how things don't exist because the "world" aka europe and the US have not decided that they exist. why are they the judges of what is seen as right and wrong and what does and doesn't exist? i think that if there are a people then there must be a land, because if there are palestinians, then how could there not people a palestine?

i have many palestinian friends who, definitely say that they are palestinian, but i was just reading in the 'israel' section that palestine doesn't exist and that it never has and that palestians don't exist as well, and i am jsut wondering how this could be. are all of the people who claim they are palestinian crazy, or what?

Jdriven, they are from PALESTINE. one some are from Gaza, and others are from other parts of palestine, small towns i don't remember

ivri_anokhi, how do you explain the people who are palestinian, if it never existed? and palestinians are a mix of yemeni & saudi(that is where the arab is from) and phoenician, macedonian, assiryan, and other ethnic groups, but that doesn't change the fact that they exist, just because they are mixed. most israelis are not hebrew, they are mixed w/ european. which makes them white and white people are not native to the region.

duke of tudor, i know that hezbollah and hamas aren't doing much to help palestinians, but that doesn't mean that palestinians should be ignored. even if i were jewish i would still care about them because they are people too. and after jews left they inhabited that land so jews should care about them, whether some are terrorists or not. that is how i would feel if i were jewish

ultra, i NEVER denied israel's existence. so don't make any assumptions about me. and the name is "i <3 zidane", because he is a soccer player, but you wouldn't know that

Answer 1

Maybe it takes guilt away from stealing the land to claim that it never existed in the first place. Cheers!

Answer 2

It was the opinion of the Arabs up until World War I that the whole area was part Syria,
and that there was no such thing as Palestine -- since that was a term only associated with Jews throughout history.

For this reason, the Arabic newspaper published in Jerusalem was called "Southern Syria" but the Jewish newspaper published in Jerusalem was called "The Palestine Post"

According to the PLO:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."

-Zahir Muhsein, 1977

Answer 3

People have to wait until the State of Palestine comes into existence. Unfortunately, extremist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah make things much more difficult for everybody. They call for the destruction of the State of Israel. Every time they assault Israel, they cause much more damage to many innocent Palestinian and Lebanese people, than they do to Israel. You know this fact, don't you? What would you feel if you were an Israeli or a Jew instead of a Muslim?

EDIT: I didn't say that Palestinians should be ignored. But, sadly the Arab countries haven't done much to ease the sufferings of Palestinian people. See the link below for details . By the way, do you recognize the State of Israel's right to exist? Many Arab (except Egypt and Jordan) and Muslim countries do not.

Answer 4

Because it supports their cause.

Palestine has always existed.

How can all the former republics from Soviet Unions now exist? How did they decide which was which?

What about the new countries that were once Yugoslavia?

Why are these recognized and not Palestine?

Europeans and Americans (mostly of European descent) recognize only what they create.

They did not recognize the native people of North America or their cultural differences.

They drew arbitrary boundaries in Africa, again not recognizing the native people or their cultural difference.

The people who say Palestine never existed are just supporter of the European invaders. They do not respect anyone who is not white and thus feel it is okay to trample over them as if they never existed.

Answer 5

To be very specific, there isn't and never was an INDEPENDENT STATE of Palestine. Those two words in caps make all the difference yet are completely ignored by those who would pretend differently.

There was, past tense, a colony (or territory) of the British Empire called Palestine. Before that, it was a territory of the Ottoman Empire called Palestine. Since 1948, that territory ceased to exist and currently does not exist.

Now, I know some people do not like that, and presumably your friends are among them, but that doesn't change the facts that there is no Palestine.


As for Palestinians (distinct from the place), well, ethnically they are Arabs, religiously, mostly Muslim with some Christians. Before 1948, very few Arabs adopted the designation of Palestinian. It only gained popularity in the 1960s. As whether such a designation is accurate, well, I would have to say yes, since it specifically in today's time refers to "Arabs who live in the West Bank or Gaza who are not Jordanians or Israelis".

Answer 6

Gamla Joe - thank you for answering from Wikepedia, but since when is Wikipedia a credible source? From Encyclopedia Britanica, maybe.

And with all the comments like "Europeans and Americans (mostly of European descent) recognize only what they create" I think Lady Suri placed it very well above:

The trademarks of statehood:
1. Organized government
2. establishment of infrastructure
3. Presence of universities
plus a few more.


Is it me, or does the questioner need to read a bit more widely before asking a question?

Answer 7

A historical fact Palistinians are Jodanians. There is no Palistine . History also shows and proves the fact that the Israel at no time ever did it refere or belong to the Arab or Palistinians . For 400 years almost the entire Middle East was occupied by the Ottoman Empire ( Turkey) There was no Syria,Iraq,Lebanon Jordan, It was the European powers again because of the influence oil created these countries. In 1948 when the Jews were given back the land of their fore fathers without oil concessions the Arabs protested and attacked Israel , they all had a very short memory and purposely forgetting that they themselves were given land in the exact same way. It is a well known fact to all intelegent people around the world that the word Palistine is derived from the word Philistines.In fact all who lived there Jews,Christians,Arabs Greeks were all called Palistiniansa. There is no Palistinian nation. After conquering the land of Israel the Romans renamed it after the biblical enemies of the Jews. The Philistines who were never ever Arabs but Greek. Again a historical fact the British unlawfully violated the Mandate and instead of giving back the biblical land of Israel back to the Jews who had been living there for thousands of years. These are the historical facts known to all historians around the world. Hezbollah,Iran, Syria have been using the Palistinians for their own goals. No Arab or Islamic country cares what happens to them not now or in the future.

Answer 8

you have to define the word before you can say whether anyone fits the definition or not.

a palestinian used to be a jewish person from the region.
then all of a sudden a palestinian meant an arab from the region.
then all of a sudden it meant that that poor arab had his land stolen.

people say it doesn't exist because there was never a country called palestine in the history of the world, and the region called palestine was inhabited by arabs and jews. the region was split into 2 countries, one arab, jordan, and one jewish, israel. there is already an arab palestine, it's called jordan, and there is a jewish palestine, israel. the arabs living there didn't call themselves palestinian until after 1967. before then, they were occupied by jordan, but you didn't hear them complaining about that, now did you?

it's like asking if new amsterdam or constantinople exists. they don't, but it doesn't mean new york or istanbul stole their land.

Answer 9

To all people who declare that expert Israel human beings declare Palestine in no way existed ... perhaps you may learn heavily what the declare is first till now critizing it. the particular declare is : There in no way replaced into an self sustaining STATE stated as Palestine. And this declare is authentic.

Answer 10

Palestine and Israel both exist. In 1948 N.A.T.O. the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, developed the area called Trans Jordan. They appointed 77% of this land to Palestine and 23% to Israel, and the fighting has not stopped since. If these 2 countries could get along , peace could be close.

Answer 11

zidane those who deny the existence of Palestine are told at early age that Palestine did not exist. Most became aware that it was a lie but some refuse to face the truth. The Europeans and the Americans never denied the existence of Palestine and there were cites named Palestine by the early Americans.

Edit: Many countries around the world did not exist as governments in 1920s but there was a country that had a government called the Mandate government of Palestine not Israel. It had its own money and Parliament and it was ranked as group one in the mandate system. who told you there was no Palestinian government before 1948 they lied to you .