Nick, I was referring to a claim made in the Wikipedia entry on anti-Palestinianism. The point I found interesting was that it was described as originally directed towards Arabs and Jews. This leads me to suspect that the term was mainly used to refer to Jew-antipathy, not Arab-antipathy since Jews were more concentrated in Europe. If so, the current term co-opts an earlier term for antisemitism. All of this, however, is speculative since I'm feeding off of a Wikipedia entry. I did search for other entries on Google, but didn't find much to go on. If you have historical references to the term (not just Palestine, but anti-Palestinianism), please share them! This is a new area of inquiry for me.
I'm not sure what earlier European attitudes to Palestine were, it might be an interesting study.
I know that Europeans called the area Palestine.
They thought of it as Palestine.
I'm not sure they thought of people living there as Palestinians, though. More likely to define them as Jews, Christians, Arabs, Muslims etc. I think.
The Lebanese American Christian historian, Phillip Hitti, in 1946, is reported as having
"explained that there was actually no such entity as Palestine - never had been; it was historically part of Syria, and "the Sunday schools have done a great deal of harm to us because by smearing the walls of classrooms with maps of Palestine, they associate it with the Jews in the minds of the average American and Englishman.""
And I've read that initially Arabs refused the Palestinian identity because of its association with Jews.
Later it was taken on by very anti Jewish Arabs like Amin el Husseini.
But the fact that every time, until the PA was formed, that there's been an entity called "Palestine" it was ruled from a European capital (I'm including Byzantine Constantinople as a European capital) is telling, I think.
It's basically a European imperial idea.
Often people will say, "but Herodotus used the name". But Herodotus was a Greek historian. He was European too.
Whenever Ottomans did depict Palestine on maps, which was rarely, because they had no district by that name or of those borders, the maps show European influence, according to this Ottoman map specialist:
Where's the evidence for European anti-Palestinianism?
Under Roman rule Judea was renamed "Palaestina"
Under Byzantine rule it was named "Palaestina"
Under Arab and Ottoman rule the name was not used.
Under British rule it was named "Palestine".
When the Jordanians ruled the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the Egyptians ruled Gaza they didn't call these areas "Palestine".
It's an inversion of the truth. Europeans have always favoured "Palestine". They still do.
It's their favoured alternative to "Israel" or "Judea".
I'd be interested to see any evidence of this claimed "anti Palestinianism" from Europe.
They had issues with the climate, the social conditions etc. no doubt. But "erasure" is the opposite of the general European attitude.
Nick, I was referring to a claim made in the Wikipedia entry on anti-Palestinianism. The point I found interesting was that it was described as originally directed towards Arabs and Jews. This leads me to suspect that the term was mainly used to refer to Jew-antipathy, not Arab-antipathy since Jews were more concentrated in Europe. If so, the current term co-opts an earlier term for antisemitism. All of this, however, is speculative since I'm feeding off of a Wikipedia entry. I did search for other entries on Google, but didn't find much to go on. If you have historical references to the term (not just Palestine, but anti-Palestinianism), please share them! This is a new area of inquiry for me.
I'm not sure what earlier European attitudes to Palestine were, it might be an interesting study.
I know that Europeans called the area Palestine.
They thought of it as Palestine.
I'm not sure they thought of people living there as Palestinians, though. More likely to define them as Jews, Christians, Arabs, Muslims etc. I think.
The Lebanese American Christian historian, Phillip Hitti, in 1946, is reported as having
"explained that there was actually no such entity as Palestine - never had been; it was historically part of Syria, and "the Sunday schools have done a great deal of harm to us because by smearing the walls of classrooms with maps of Palestine, they associate it with the Jews in the minds of the average American and Englishman.""
And I've read that initially Arabs refused the Palestinian identity because of its association with Jews.
Later it was taken on by very anti Jewish Arabs like Amin el Husseini.
But the fact that every time, until the PA was formed, that there's been an entity called "Palestine" it was ruled from a European capital (I'm including Byzantine Constantinople as a European capital) is telling, I think.
It's basically a European imperial idea.
Often people will say, "but Herodotus used the name". But Herodotus was a Greek historian. He was European too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Hitti
Whenever Ottomans did depict Palestine on maps, which was rarely, because they had no district by that name or of those borders, the maps show European influence, according to this Ottoman map specialist:
http://www.midafternoonmap.com/2013/07/ottoman-and-arab-maps-of-palestine.html