Palestine

Encyclopedia : P : PA : PAL : Palestine

Palestine (Hebrew: Eretz Yisrael (a Biblical term for a related concept) or פלשתינה Palestina, Arabic: ‎ Filastīn or Falastīn) is one of many historical names for the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the banks of the Jordan River, plus various adjoining lands to the east and south. Many different definitions of the region have been used in the past three millennia.

Contents

Boundaries and name

1759 map of "Terra Sancta sive Palæstina".

The portion of the land situated west of the Jordan River was also called "land of Canaan" during the period in which it fell under the control of Egyptian vassals traditionally descended from Canaan the son of Ham. After the split of the United Monarchy into two parts, the southern part became the Kingdom of Judah and the northern part the Kingdom of Israel.

The term "Palestine" comes from the word Philistine, the name of an ethnic group which lived in the southern coast of the region. The Philistines disappeared as a distinct group by the Assyrian period. The meaning of their ethnonym is uncertain but is sometimes understood in Hebrew to mean "invaders" from the root p-l-sh. What is possibly the earliest mention of them occurs in Egyptian texts which record a people called the P-r/l-s-t (conventionally Peleset), one of the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt in Ramesses III's reign. The Hebrew name פלשת (Pəléšeth or P(e)léshet, translated Philistia in English) is used in the Bible to denote the coastal region inhabited by the Philistines. The Assyrian emperor Sargon II called the region Palashtu in his Annals. The Greek form Palaistinêi from which English "Palestine" is ultimately derived, was first used in the 5th century BCE by Herodotus who wrote of the "district of Syria, called Palaistinêi". The boundaries of the area he referred to were not explicitly stated, but Josephus used the name only for Philistia. Ptolemy also used the term. In Latin, Pliny wrote of a region of Syria that was "formerly called Palaestina" when describing the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

History

Main articles: History of Palestine, History of ancient Israel and Judah, History of Israel.

Roman times

As a result of the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73), Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, leaving only the Western Wall. In 135, following the fall of a Jewish revolt led by Bar Kokhba in 132–135, the Roman emperor Hadrian expelled most Jews from Judea, leaving large Jewish populations in Samaria and the Galilee. He also changed the name of the Roman province of Judea (Israel) to Syria Palaestina named after the Philistines as an insult to the now conquered Jews. In what was considered a form of psychological warfare, the Romans also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had less staying power. Over time the name Syria Palaestina was shortened to Palaestina, which by then had become an administrative political unit within the Roman Empire.

Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) period

In approximately 390, Palaestina was further organised into three units: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia (First, Second, and Third Palestine). Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the coast, and Peraea with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Jordan — once part of Arabia — and most of Sinai with Petra the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris. This reorganization reduced Arabia to the northern Jordan east of Peraea. Byzantine administration of Palestine ended temporarily during the Persian occupation of 614–28, then permanently after the Arabs conquered the region beginning in 635.

A map of Palestine as described by the medieval Arab geographers, with the junds of Jordan and Filastin highlighted in grey

The new Arab rulers divided the province of ash-Sham (Arabic for Greater Syria) into five districts. Jund Filastin (Arabic جند فلسطين, literally "the army or military district of Palestine") was a region extending from the Sinai to south of the plain of Acre. At times it reached down into the Sinai. Major towns included Rafah, Caesarea, Gaza, Jaffa, Nablus, Jericho, Ramla and Jerusalem. Initially Ludd (Lydda) was the capital, but in 717 it was moved to the new city of ar-Ramlah (Ramla). (The capital was not moved to Jerusalem until much later, when the organization into Junds was already breaking down.) Jund al-Urdunn (literally "Jordan") was a region to the north and east of Filastin. Major towns included Tiberias, Legio, Acre, Beisan and Tyre. The capital was at Tiberias. Various political upheavals led to readjustments of the boundaries several times. After the 10th century, the division into Junds began to break down and the Turkish invasions of the 1070s, followed by the first Crusade, completed that process. From the 11th to the 19th centuries we have instances that Filasṭin did not refer to the land of Palestine but to its by then defunct capital ar-Ramla.
See also the [Mideastweb map of "Palestine Under the Caliphs"], showing Jund boundaries (external link).

Crusader period

See the articles on the Crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Mamluk period

After Muslim control over Palestine was reestablished in the 12th and 13th centuries, the division into districts was reinstated, with boundaries that were frequently redrawn. 1263/Jul 1291 the country was part of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

Around the end of the 13th century, Palestine comprised several of nine emirates of Syria, namely the "Kingdoms" of Gaza (including Ascalon and Hebron), Karak (including Jaffa and Legio), Safad (including Safad, Acre, Sidon and Tyre) and parts of the Kingdom of Damascus (sometimes extending as far south as Jerusalem).

By the middle of the 14th century, Syria had again been divided into five districts, of which Filastin included Jerusalem (its capital), Ramla, Ascalon, Hebron and Nablus, while Hauran included Tiberias (its capital).

Ottoman period

After the Ottoman conquest, the name disappeared as the official name of an administrative unit, as the Turks often called their (sub)provinces after the capital. Since its 1516 incorporation in the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the vilayet (province) of Damascus-Syria until 1660, next of the vilayet of Saida (seat in Lebanon), shortly interrupted by the 7 March 1799 - July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea. On 10 May 1832 it was one of the Turkish provinces annexed by Muhammad Ali's shortly imperialistic, Egypt (remained nominally Ottoman), but in November 1840 direct Ottoman rule was restored.

Still the old name remained in popular and semi-official use. Many examples of its usage in the 16th and 17th centuries have survived.Gerber, 1998. During the 19th century, the "Ottoman Government employed the term Arz-i Filistin (the 'Land of Palestine') in official correspondence, meaning for all intents and purposes the area to the west of the River Jordan which became 'Palestine' under the British in 1922". Mandel, 1976, p. xx. Amongst the educated Arab public, Filastin was a common concept, referring either to the whole of Palestine or to the Jerusalem sanjaq alone.Porath, 1974, pp. 8-9.

The Ottoman Sultan discouraged all large-scale immigration to Palestine, replying to a request by Rabbi Joseph Nantonek for permission to settle Jews in 1876 that "almost all lands in Palestine were occupied, and that the autonomy sought by Nantonek was incompatible with the administrative principles of the state" and decrees against mass settlement were issued by the Ottoman government in 1884, 1887 and 1888.Karpat, 2002, p. 794. Significant numbers of Jews began making Aliyah to the Holy Land in 1882Rogan, 2002, p. 71. to build collective farms and eventually established the new city of Tel Aviv in 1909.Schlor, 1999, p. 11. However, during 1891-1900 the total number of Jews in Palestine was never more than 60,000 people out of a total population of 500,000, which demonstrated that "the Ottoman policy of allowing individuals to immigrate and to settle, but prohibiting large groups from doing the same, was successful".Karpat, 2002, p. 799. When Ottoman control came to an end, following World War I, the number of Jews in Palestine had declined to 55,000.Porath, 1974, p. 17

The 19th and 20th centuries

In European usage up to World War I, "Palestine" was used informally for a region that extended in the north-south direction typically from Raphia (south-east of Gaza) to the Litani River (now in Lebanon). The western boundary was the sea, and the eastern boundary was the poorly-defined place where the Syrian desert began. In various European sources, the eastern boundary was placed anywhere from the Jordan River to slightly east of Amman. The Negev Desert was not included. [Biger]

Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, it was envisioned that most of Palestine, when freed by Ottoman control, would become an international zone not under direct French or British colonial control. Shortly thereafter, British foreign minister Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which laid plans for a Jewish homeland to be established in Palestine eventually.

The British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force, commanded by Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem on 9 December, 1917 and occupied the whole of the Levant following the defeat of Turkish forces in Palestine at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918.Hughes, 1999, p. 17; p. 97.

British Mandate (1920-1948)

Palestine and Transjordan were incorporated (under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the Mandate for Palestine issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29 September, 1923.

Formal use of the English word "Palestine" returned with the British Mandate. During this period, the name "Eretz Yisrael" (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל) was also part of the official name of the territory.

A stamp from Palestine under the British Mandate

In April 1920 the Allied Supreme Council (the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met at Sanremo and formal decisions were taken on the allocation of mandate territories. The United Kingdom accepted a mandate for Palestine, but the boundaries of the mandate and the conditions under which it was to be held were not decided. The Zionist Organization's representative at Sanremo, Chaim Weizmann, subsequently reported to his colleagues in London:

"There are still important details outstanding, such as the actual terms of the mandate and the question of the boundaries in Palestine. There is the delimitation of the boundary between French Syria and Palestine, which will constitute the northern frontier and the eastern line of demarcation, adjoining Arab Syria. The latter is not likely to be fixed until the Emir Feisal attends the Peace Conference, probably in Paris."'Zionist Aspirations: Dr Weizmann on the Future of Palestine', The Times, Saturday, 8 May, 1920; p. 15.

In July 1920, the French drove Faisal bin Husayn from Damascus ending his already negligible control over the region of Transjordan, where local chiefs traditionally resisted any central authority. The sheikhs, who had earlier pledged their loyalty to the Sharif, asked the British to undertake the region's administration. Herbert Samuel asked for the extension of the Palestine government's authority to Transjordan, but at meetings in Cairo and Jerusalem between Winston Churchill and Emir Abdullah in March 1921 it was agreed that Abdullah would administer the territory (initially for six months only) on behalf of the Palestine administration. In the summer of 1921 Transjordan was included within the Mandate, but excluded from the provisions for a Jewish National Home.Gelber, 1997, pp. 6-15. On 24 July, 1922 the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Transjordan. On 16 September the League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Transjordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlement.Sicker, 1999, p. 164. In reality, the British prevented Jews from settling in Transjordan, while Arabs could freely settle in Palestine. (See [Entry of Jews into Transjordan]).

The award of the mandates was delayed as a result of the United States' suspicions regarding Britain's colonial ambitions and similar reservations held by Italy about France's intentions. France in turn refused to reach a settlement over Palestine until its own mandate in Syria became final. According to Louis,

Together with the American protests against the issuance of mandates these triangular quarrels between the Italians, French, and British explain why the A mandates did not come into force until nearly four years after the signing of the Peace Treaty.... The British documents clearly reveal that Balfour's patient and skilful diplomacy contributed greatly to the final issuance of the A mandates for Syria and Palestine on September 29, 1923.Louis, 1969, p. 90.

Even before the Mandate came into legal effect in 1923 (), British terminology frequently used '"Palestine" for the part west of the Jordan River and "Trans-Jordan" (or Transjordania) for the part east of the Jordan River Ingrams, 1972. League of Nations (1921). [An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine] From about 1924 onwards, this terminology was applied consistently during the Mandate period and it is difficult to find any official documents that use any name other than "Palestine and Trans-Jordan" when referring to the whole area of the Mandate. Nevertheless, the claim that "Palestine" was once considered to include lands on the east side of the Jordan River continues even today to have significance in political discourse (see History of Palestine, History of Jordan).

In the years following World War II, Britain's position in Palestine gradually worsened. This was caused by a combination of factors, including:

The situation in Palestine itself rapidly deteriorated, due to the incessant attacks by Irgun and Lehi on British officials, armed forces, and strategic installations. This caused severe damage to British morale and prestige, as well as increasing opposition to the mandate in Britain itself, public opinion demanding to "bring the boys home".Colonel Archer-Cust, Chief Secretary of the British Government in Palestine, said in a lecture to the Royal Empire Society that "The hanging of the two British Sergeants [an Irgun retaliation to British executions] did more than anything to get us out [of Palestine]".

(The United Empire Journal, November-December 1949, taken from The Revolt, by Menachem Begin)

World public opinion turned against Britain as a result of the British policy of preventing the Jewish Holocaust survivors from reaching Palestine, sending them instead to refugee camps in Cyprus, or even back to Germany, as in the case of Exodus 1947.
The costs of maintaining an army of over 100,000 men in Palestine weighed heavily on a British economy suffering from post-war depression, and was another cause for British public opinion to demand an end to the Mandate.

Finally in early 1947 the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and passed the responsibility over Palestine to the United Nations.

UN Partition

The UN Partition Plan

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181), a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, with the Greater Jerusalem area (encompassing Bethlehem) coming under international control. Jewish leaders (including the Jewish Agency), accepted the plan, while Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it. Neighboring Arab and Muslim states also rejected the partition plan. As armed skirmishes between Arab and Jewish paramilitary forces in Palestine continued, the British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, the establishment of the State of Israel having been proclaimed the day before (see Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel). The neighboring Arab states immediately attacked Israel following its declaration of independence, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ensued. Consequently, the partition plan was never implemented.

Current status

West Bank

Gaza Strip

Map of the State of Israel today

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab states eliminated Palestine as a distinct territory. It was divided between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

In addition to the UN-partitioned area, Israel captured 26% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan river. Jordan captured and annexed about 21% of the Mandate territory. Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan taking the eastern parts, including the old city, and Israel taking the western parts. The Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt.

For a description of the massive population movements, Arab and Jewish, at the time of the 1948 war and over the following decades, see Palestinian exodus and Jewish exodus from Arab lands.

From the 1960s onward, the term "Palestine" was regularly used in political contexts. Various declarations, such as the 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine by the PLO referred to a country called Palestine, defining its borders with differing degrees of clarity, including the annexation of the whole of the State of Israel. Most recently, the Palestine draft constitution refers to borders based on the West Bank and Gaza Strip prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. This so-called Green Line follows the 1949 armistice line; the permanent borders are yet to be negotiated. Furthermore, since 1994, there has been a Palestinian Authority controlling varying portions of historic Palestine.

Demographics

Demographics during the Ottoman period

In 1900, Palestine (according to Ottoman statistics) had a population of about 600,000 of which 94% were Arabs.McCarthy, 1990.

The Question of Arab Immigration to Palestine

Whether there was significant Arab immigration into Palestine after the beginning of Jewish settlement there has been a matter of some controversy. Demographer Uziel Schmelz, in his analysis of Ottoman registration data for 1905 populations of Jerusalem and Hebron kazas, found that most Ottoman citizens living in these areas, comprising about one quarter of the population of Palestine, were living at the place where they were born. Specifically, of Muslims, 93.1% were born in their current locality of residence, 5.2% were born elsewhere in Palestine, and 1.6% were born outside Palestine. Of Christians, 93.4% were born in their current locality, 3.0% were born elsewhere in Palestine, and 3.6% were born outside Palestine. Of Jews (excluding the large fraction who were not Ottoman citizens), 59.0% were born in their current locality, 1.9% were born elsewhere in Palestine, and 39.0% were born outside Palestine. Schmelz, 1990, pp. 15-67.

American economist Gottheil considers that there was significant Arab immigration:

... there is every reason to believe that consequential immigration of Arabs into and within Palestine occurred during the Ottoman and British mandatory periods. Among the most compelling arguments in support of such immigration is the universally acknowledged and practiced linkage between regional economic disparities and migratory impulses.

The precise magnitude of Arab immigration into and within Palestine is, as Bachi noted, unknown. Lack of completeness in Ottoman registration lists and British Mandatory censuses, and the immeasurable illegal, unreported, and undetected immigration during both periods make any estimate a bold venture into creative analysis. In most cases, those venturing into the realm of Palestinian demography—or other demographic analyses based on very crude data—acknowledge its limitations and the tentativeness of the conclusions that may be drawn.Gottheil, 2003.

Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath believes that the notion of "large-scale immigration of Arabs from the neighboring countries" is a myth "proposed by Zionist writers". He writes:

As all the research by historians and geographers of modern Palestine shows, the Arab population began to grow again in the middle of the nineteenth century. That growth resulted from a new factor: the demographic revolution. Until the 1850s there was no "natural" increase of the population, but this began to change when modern medical treatment was introduced and modern hospitals were established, both by the Ottoman authorities and by the foreign Christian missionaries. The number of births remained steady but infant mortality decreased. This was the main reason for Arab population growth...

No one would doubt that some migrant workers came to Palestine from Syria and Trans-Jordan and remained there. But one has to add to this that there were migrations in the opposite direction as well. For example, a tradition developed in Hebron to go to study and work in Cairo, with the result that a permanent community of Hebronites had been living in Cairo since the fifteenth century. Trans-Jordan exported unskilled casual labor to Palestine; but before 1948 its civil service attracted a good many educated Palestinian Arabs who did not find work in Palestine itself. Demographically speaking, however, neither movement of population was significant in comparison to the decisive factor of natural increase. Porath, Y. (1986). [Mrs. Peters's Palestine]. New York Review of Books. 16 January, 32(21 & 22).

By 1948, the population had risen to 1,900,000, of whom 68% were Arabs, and 32% were Jews (UNSCOP report, including bedouin).

Footnotes

Bibliography

Avneri, Arieh (1984), The Claim of Dispossession, Tel Aviv: Hidekel Press
Bachi, Roberto (1974), The Population of Israel, Jerusalem: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University
Biger, Gideon (1981). Where was Palestine? Pre-World War I perception, AREA (Journal of the Institute of British Geographers) Vol 13, No. 2, pp. 153-160.
Doumani, Beshara (1995). Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus 1700-1900. UC Press. ISBN 0520203704
Gelber, Yoav (1997). Jewish-Transjordanian Relations 1921-48: Alliance of Bars Sinister. London: Routledge. ISBN 071464675X
Gerber, Haim (1998). "Palestine" and other territorial concepts in the 17th century, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol 30, pp. 563-572.
Gottheil, Fred M. (2003) [The Smoking Gun: Arab Immigration into Palestine, 1922-1931], Middle East Quarterly, X(1).
Hughes, Mark (1999). Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917-1919. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714649201
Ingrams, Doreen (1972). Palestine Papers 1917-1922. London: John Murray. ISBN 0807606480
Khalidid, Rashid (1997). Palestinian Identity. The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231105150
Karpat, Kemal H. (2002). Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History. Brill. ISBN 9004121013
Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel S. (1994). Palestinians: The Making of a People, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674652231
Le Strange, Guy (1965). Palestine under the Moslems (Originally published in 1890; reprinted by Khayats) ISBN 0404562884
J.P. Loftus (1948), Features of the demography of Palestine, Population Studies, Vol 2
Louis, Wm. Roger (1969). The United Kingdom and the Beginning of the Mandates System, 1919-1922. International Organization, 23(1), pp. 73-96.
McCarthy, Justin (1990). The Population of Palestine. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231071108.
Mandel, Neville J. (1976). The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I. University of California Press. ISBN 0520024664
Maniscalco, Fabio. (2005). Protection, conservation and valorisation of Palestinian Cultural Patrimony Massa Publisher. ISBN 8887835624.
Metzer, Jacob (1988), The divided economy of Mandatory Palestine, Cambridge University Press
Porath, Yehoshua (1974). The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement, 1918-1929. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0714629391
Rogan, Eugene L. (2002). Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521892236.
Schlor, Joachim (1999). Tel Aviv: From Dream to City. Reaktion Books. ISBN 1861890338
Shahin, Mariam (2005). Palestine: A Guide, Interlink Books. ISBN 156656557X
Schmelz, Uziel O. (1990) Population characteristics of Jerusalem and Hebron regions according to Ottoman Census of 1905, in Gar G. Gilbar, (ed.), Ottoman Palestine: 1800-1914. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9004077855
Sicker, Martin (1999). Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831-1922. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0275966399
UNSCOP [Report to the General Assembly]
Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte. ISBN 3075095206

External links

The Hope Simpson Report (London, 1930) [link]
Palestine Royal Commission Report (the Peel Report) (London, 1937) [link]
Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1928) [link]
Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1929) [link]
Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1934) [link]
Report to the Council of the League of Nations (1935) [link]
[www.mideastweb.org - A website with a wealth of statistics regarding population in Palestine]
[Coins and Banknotes of Palestine under the British Mandate]
[WorldStatesmen- mainly under Israel]

Maps

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.