Palestine
Palestine is a name sometimes given to part of the land that generally comprises the Promised Land given to the Israelites in the Bible. It is not directly associated with the Jewish promise, as it is a geopolitical designation more than a religious one. Palestine was a later name for the province of Judea in the Roman Empire, who ruled the Jewish people at that time.[1]
Palestine (from Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשת Pleshet, פלשתינה Palestina; Arabic: فلسطين Filastīn, Falastīn) is one of many names for the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. Many different definitions of the region have been in usage in the past three thousand years.
Ancient
- Main Article: History of Israel
Modern History
The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after their defeat in World War I saw the region come under the control of Great Britain. While there was always a Jewish remnant who never left, Jewish re-emigration to the area increased under the tolerant eyes of the British. This increased after the atrocities of World War II and the areas were given their independence with Palestine being divided into separate Jewish and Arab nations, the Jewish nation being called Israel and the Arab Palestine. A war broke out in which the Jews expanded their borders and the Arab nation of Palestine was absorbed by Jordan. Hostility between the Arabs and Jews continued and in 1967 Israel conqured the West Bank from Jordan, taking the bulk of the Jewish land that had been the "Palestinian state". UN resolution 242 called for the Israeli removal from that land, but it did not occur. Attempts to hold Israel accountable were vetoed in the Security Council by the United States. Although the land was part of Jordan, Jordan relinquished its rights in the 1980s telling the Israelis to speak with the Palestinian Arabs directly.
The Palestinian Intifada from the late 1980s tried to regain Arab control of the West Bank region of Israel. While first clamping down harshly, Israel did sign an accord to grant the Palestinian Arabs autonomy in the West Band and the Gaza Strip, but not full independence. The borders of a future Palestinian state has been a stumbling block to a final solution with the Arabs wanting to control all of the area captured in the 1967 War and Israel claiming part of the land for the Jewish people. A continuing series of violent actions on the part of the Palestinian Arabs and an inability to find a comprise has prevented any type of permanent solution. The short term solution is bleak. With Hamas having the majority of the control in the Palestinian legislature, a terrorist entity that does not even recognize Israel's right to exist in it's own land, the government of Israel has refused to talk further.
Culture of Palestine
The dialect of Palestinian Arabs and their culture is essentially the same as that of Jordanian Arabs. The flag of the Palestinians is also almost identical to the Jordanians. To this day the second biggest concentration of Palestinian Arabs is in Jordan, partly due to their fleeing of Israel during the 1948 and 1967 wars.
See also
References
See also
External link
- Graduation Ceremony in a Hamas Kindergarten, Al-Aqsa TV (The Palestinian Authority), May 31 2007. Children vow to die for Allah.
- Christians warned: Accept Islamic law, 'New Hamas rule means real changes,' missionaries to be 'dealt with harshly', By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily.com, June 19, 2007.