Long before the Mandate...

Submitted by Turkcekonusanamerikali (United States), Dec 13, 2011 at 00:07

In the early 16'th century, recall , Sultan Selim conquered the Middle East. The Turks, of course, kept Selim's conquests until the Ottoman Empire fell apart in 1918. So the early (~1900) Jewish pioneers didn't colonize Palestine, since there was no Palestine. They actually colonized the southern part of the Ottoman province of SYRIA.

So one is left with the conundrum, are the Palestinians Syrians or Jordanians? Actually they are both (and more) since all three groups are culturally, linguistically, and probably genetically, identical. In other words they are Arabs.

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