Palestinian
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Different people use the word Palestinians to mean different things. Before the state of Jordan and the state of Israel were founded, Arabs and Jews of this region were citizens of the same state (see Ottoman Empire). This region of the former Ottoman Empire can be called (part of) Syria, or Palestine, Land of Israel, Canaan, or the Holy Land. During the time of the British Mandate all inhabitants were called "Palestinians". Today, however, most media use this term to refer only to Arabs who have ties to this region; others still use Palestinians to refer to all residents of this area. The meaning of this term may vary according to political preference.
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2 Palestinian refugees 3 Creation of the Palestinian nationality |
The Arab Palestinians comprise the Arab residents of Cisjordan and Transjordan, and Arabs who life outside of Palestine and who identify themselves to be Palestinians. Many thorny questions have been raised about nearly every aspect of Palestinians, especially their nationalistic strivings (see Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian territories, Palestinian homeland, Proposals for a Palestinian state). There is also considerable controversy over whether the (Arab) Palestinians really comprise a distinct ethnic group (compare Bedouins or Kurds, or other Arabs from other regions).
The Arab minority in Israel with Israeli citizenship is often not meant when referring to Palestinians, however, some of them may view themselves as Palestinians. The Jewish inhabitants of Palestine who were considered Palestinian before the creation of Israel and Jordan sometimes speak of themselves as Palestinians, too.
(Arab) Palestinians are often stateless because all Arab states except Jordan refuse to give them citizenship rights. On the other hand many of them also do not want to get Israeli citizenship because they consider Israel as unjust state and as enemy. Because of this situation there are today around 8 million Palestinian refugees, one part still living in refugee camps or settlements in West Bank and Gaza, or as stateless Arabs in neighbouring countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, or Kuwait (which even expelled around 500,000 Palestinians in 1991). The rest spread all over the world, living a life of diaspora. Most feel a strong sense of identity with their Palestinian nationality.
At one point European writers used the term "Palestinian" when referring to Jews. In the period shortly after the State of Israel came into existence, Arabs generally denied the existence of Palestinians who were distinct from other Arabs of the region. After his annexation of the West Bank, King Abdullah I of Jordan forbade the use of the term Palestine in Jordanian official documents. In Jordan today, there are still no official census data about how many of the inhabitants of Jordan are Palestinians (estimates come to values from 50% to 80%). Some political researchers attribute this to the Jordanian policy of not further widening the gap between the two main population groups in Jordan: its original Bedouin population that holds most of the administrative posts and the Palestinians who are predominant in the economy.
Until recently, no Arab nation or group recognized or claimed the existence of an independent Palestinian nationality or ethnicity. Arabs who happened to live in Palestine denied that they had a unique Palestinian identity. The First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations (in Jerusalem, February 1919) met for the purpose of selecting Palestinian Arab representative for the Paris Peace Conference. They adopted the following resolution: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds." (Yehoshua Porath, Palestinian Arab National Movement: From Riots to Rebellion: 1929-1939, vol. 2, London: Frank Cass and Co., Ltd., 1977, pp. 81-82.)
According to testimony in British Peel Commission, local Arabs in the 1930s still did not have any sense of Palestinian identity; rather, they saw themselves as Syrians. "There is no such country {as Palestine}! 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria." (comments by Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi to the Peel Commission, Jerusalem Post, November 2, 1991) Over time, however, the creation of a distinct Palestinian nationality was created because of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. The idea of an independent nationality for Palestinian Arabs crystallized after the 1967 Six Day War.
Because of this late creation of an Arab Palestinian identity, many Israelis did not accept the existence of an independent Palestinian people. See Golda Meir's statement: "There are no Palestinians," (see History of Palestine). Today the existence of a unique Palestinian nationality/identity is generally recognized ([1], [1]).
JSource, the Virtual Library defines Palestinians as: "Although anyone with roots in the land that is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is technically a Palestinian, the term is now more commonly used to refer to Arabs with such roots...Most of the world's Palestinian population is concentrated in Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan, although many Palestinians live in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries." This definition is the one most widely used in American and European popular media and newspapers.
JSource Virtual Library definition of Palestinian
What may seem the simplest or most objective definition of Palestinian is any person currently residing in Palestine, regardless of ethnicity or religion. This works well for geographers and historians, but fails for several political reasons.
There have indeed been Jewish residents of Palestine, and some people were even issued passports listing their nationality as Palestinian. However, very few Jews in the region today consider themselves "Palestinians" and most people who use the word "Palestinian" do not intend to include Palestinian Jews. Less objection has been raised to other non-Arab residents of Palestine being called "Palestinians."
Most articles discussing events in the Middle East use Palestinian exclusively for Arabs with some ties with the region formerly known as Cisjordan (=area westerly of Jordan river). Israeli Arabs are also sometimes considered "Palestinians"; their Israeli citizenship refers to political status and not to ethnic origin.
Those opposed to the creation of another Arab (Palestinian) state hold that there exist already a lot of Arab states and that this state will produce an even bigger threat to Israel. As such, people in this camp hold that if Arabs want to become citizens of a Palestinian nation, they should rather become citizens of Jordan and that Westbank and Gaza should simply be annexed by Israel [1].
Many Arabs currently living under PA rule have made clear that they will refuse to move to Jordan. They claim that they want their own state in all of the West Bank, all of the Gaza Strip, and in most or all of Jerusalem; but their actions doesn't seem to support that goal. A large percent of Palestinian Arabs demand that their state include all of Israel, too.
Some define a Palestinian as a person subject to the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority. This definition fails to satisfy, mainly because it leaves out too many people. In 1988 the international community recognized the PLO as the "only legitimate representation of the Palestinian people". Before that date the state of Jordan acted as this legitimate representation. There are also Arabs in Jordan who still have not aquired Jordanian citizenship. Those Palestinians themselves don't consider Jordan a Palestinian state.
What looks like the simplest definition of all is to ask people if they consider themselves to be "Palestinians" and if they say yes, that's what they are.
See: Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian exodus, British Mandate of PalestineDifficulty of defining the term
Palestinian refugees
Creation of the Palestinian nationality
Palestinians defined as residents in the region
Palestinians defined as Arab residents of Cisjordan
Palestinians and Palestinian Authority
Self-definition
