The word "Palestine" is merely the English transliteration! You don't have to find the exact word to believe that the country by that name existed! It's like saying that before the Greeks coined the word "India", the area known by various other civilizations as "Hodu", "Hind", or "Aryavarta" did not exist!
There is no serious academic debate on this subject whatsoever-the region known as Palestine has existed since ancient times, and there can be no argument made about the non-existence of any "country" called Palestine, because "countries", i.e. "nation-states" themselves are a modern invention of just the past couple of centuries.
Hence "Palestine" did exist before the creation of the modern state of Israel.
You are being totally obtuse to facts, is palestine an ancient culture (by your own admission they are not a nation)? Is it a piece of land, yes, but with no distinction of being a specific ancient sect, culture or ethnicity. The word Palestine itself originates from the word
pilestine in the hebrew bible, referring to a tribe of people. People who did not carry their distinction any further in history. What are you then ranting about the existence of a Palestine region.
In 1916, Britain and France concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with "Palestine" as an international enclave.
Now, here is the history of Jewish migration to Palestine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah
Yeah, did I say anything to the contrary???
The Jews that were migrating to Palestine were European converts to Judaism. Essentially, they were foreigners to the region-they shared neither a common language nor a common ethnicity or culture with the existing Arab population. Demanding that a governing body be formed with equal share to the Jews is ridiculous. Imagine for a moment that the Roma, who have existed in Europe for over 2 millennia, but had originally immigrated from India, were settled back in India at the time of partition in 1947. Just like the Jews, the Roma had been subject to the Holocaust. So if the departing British had partitioned India not into 2, but three pieces, and set aside 1/3rd of the "country" of India to establish a Roma state, would you have supported it?
The splitting of Palestine to give justice to the Jews would have been like partitioning India a 2nd time to settle the Roma. Do you know what the word "externality" means?
Like you are an authority of european jewish converts!!!
About the roma people example, if the Roma people had been migrating to India in the centuries preceding independence, identifying with this land of their ancients, yes I am sure we would have welcomed them. Did we not welcome the Parsis and the minority islamic sects or even the scant jewish populations???
And if the british had asked the roma to come down and settle in the subcontinent, we would have welcomed them whole heartedly, no question about that. And if you doubt that, see how a majority muslim population that stayed behind in India were mostly integrated into the Indian society and not denied representation.
This is where the muslim arabs went wrong, when in 1919 the british setup a civillian control and a civilian council comprising of 8 muslim arabs, 2 christians and 2 jews was proposed, it was the arab muslims who turned it down saying they wanted a greater share in the council!!! With the significant jewish population in the area and the moderately high christian population, they never learnt to live together. Soon after the new mufti of the al-aqsa mosque unleashed his first terrorists on jewish farmers and villagers. This is what caused the zionists to press for the implementation of the Balfour Declaration.
Do you think the British are going to publish the most sensitive foreign policy documents for the whole world to see? What kind of a lalaland are you living in? If everything was so transparent and open, what was the need for Wikileaks?
Do you know that when the British left India, they spent the last few weeks and months doing nothing but destroying any and all paperwork and government files related to the administration during the Raj?
Guess you've never dealt with
'sarcasm'!!!
Oh, so I guess the Palestinians should be grateful that they were not to be subjected to genocide like the Jews?!! Again, why should the Arabs share their land with European Jewish converts who shared neither a common language nor a culture nor a religion nor even the same ethnicity!
If South Africans tomorrow decide in a democratic vote to kick out all the whites from that country, I will support them, will you? The whites have historically settled there by force, just like whites have settled in Israel by force!
Why shouldn't the arabs share the land with JEWS, remember, this problem arises because muslims are muslims and jews are jews, and not because some jews are blonde!!!
The jews have always lived there and after many centuries come back to their ancestral land. How would you feel if you leave your house in your native place only to learn that your ancestral house has been annexed by someone because you are not a local anymore!!!
I will not support the south africans if they mandated the expulsion of whites..... much the same way if the americans mandated the expulsion of blacks or if India decides to expel dogmatic commies like you..... if people have been living in a land for generations and a new breed comes along denying them existence in the land of their forefathers, it is the new breed that needs to be put down and not the people who are being expelled....
There you go with your lalaland history again. The British did not free a "barren piece of land"-are you implying that the holiest sites of the Abrahamic religions including Jerusalem were all "barren"? It was not up to the British to "allow" the natives of Palestine to rule their own land, nor to decide for them what kind of state it would be-this argument is totally nonsensical, and I'd really like to know what sources you're getting your points from.
Lastly, let me remind you-among all this Israeli and US propaganda-that the 1st and only Holocaust took place in Europe. That throughout their history, the Jews were never persecuted in Muslim lands the way they have been persecuted in Europe, that even the very first expulsion of Jews from Palestine was carried out by the Romans (modern day Italians), and not the Muslim Arabs. Christians throughout the ages have hated Jews and persecuted them far more than the Muslims because Christians hold the Jews directly responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. Jews were the religious enemies of the Christians, but for the Muslims, the Jews were never in that special category.
You are either ignorant or a liar....there is no basis for these claims in general...