Arab rioters in Jerusalem (illustration)
Arab rioters in Jerusalem (illustration)STR/Flash 90

Quick history lesson about the Israeli- "Palestinian" conflict. The Philistines were Greek people invading and settling on the coast of Israel more then (sic) 3000 years ago. They were disappeared more then 2500 years ago with the Assyrian occupation.

‎‏ 2000 years ago Israel was part of the Roman Empire and its official name was "province of Judea," with its capital Jerusalem.

Jesus was a Jew and in the top of the cross was a sign saying INRI-meaning "Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews."

‏The Jews rebelled several times against the Romans and in 70 ad they destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem.

‏On 120 ad there was the Bar Kokva revolt that gained Jewish Independence for 1 year. There Roman came back, crushed the revolt and changed the name of Judea to "Palestine" as a punishment, naming it after the long extinct Philistines Greek people.

‎‏Fast forward to modern times, every single American and European documentation of the Holy Land in the 19 century (that was just a part of the Ottoman Empire) describes an empty land. Mark Twain wrote a book about it after he traveled here in the mid 19 century. The land started to prosper because of Jewish pilgrims coming back to their homeland in the late 19 century.

The British then occupied the Holy Land and called it Palestine after the Roman name. The only people that called themselves Palestinians back then were Jews. For example the Zionist "Jerusalem Post" was named back then "Palestine Post." The Arabs only came less then a 100 years ago as labor immigrants for the Jews and British.

You can see that the most common last names in the PA (Palestinian Authority - ed.) is "al Masri" (Egyptian), "Halabi" (Alepo), "Hijazi" (Saudi Arabia) etc.

T‏he British and the whole international community agreed that the Mandate of Palestine (from the river to the sea) will be the Jewish homeland, in the San Remo accords in 1920, making it international law, British law and American law.

The Arabs here only started to call themselves Palestinians in 1964 When the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization - ed.) was created by the Soviets. Interesting to mention that when it was created all of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), east Jerusalem, and Gaza were in Arab hands. So which "Palestine" they wanted to liberate?