The first Palestinians

Submitted by Carl (United States), Dec 22, 2011 at 01:30

Your comment that "no Arabic-speaking Muslims identified themselves as "Palestinians" until 1920," is worth questioning. The 1926 Encyclopedia Britannica, which contained about 50,000 words about "Palestine," did not mention anything about a Palestinian people. If anything, what they wrote was almost the opposite.

It stated that "the inhabitants of Palestine are composed of a large number of elements, differing widely in ethnological affinities, language and religion. . . . speaking no less than fifty different languages." The article emphasizes that "it is no easy task to write . . . on the ethnology of Palestine."

What they found was two distinct classes of population living in Palestine, the "nomadic and the sedentary." They also pointed out another "entirely independent, nomad race, the despised Nowar, who correspond to the gypsies or tinkers of European countries," and speak a Romani dialect. There was also a "fundamental Canaanite element in the population." In addition, "New elements no doubt came in under the Assyrian, Persian and Roman denominations, and in more recent times there has been much contamination. The spread of Islam introduced a very considerable Neo-Arabian infusion. Those from southern Arabia were known as the Yaman tribe, those from northern Arabia the Kais (Qais).

"These two divisions absorbed the previous peasant population, and still nominally exist. . . The two great clans were further subdivided into families, but these minor divisions are also being gradually broken down. In the 19th century the short-lived Egyptian government introduced into the population an element from that country which still persists in the villages. . . The extraordinary development of Jewish colonization has since 1870 effected a revolution in the balance of population in some parts of the country, notably in Jerusalem." The article goes into detail about the Turkish and Kurdish influence and large contingents from Armenia, Greece and Italy who were involved in trade.

As for the size of the population, they estimated it at 650,000: "two-thirds of this number are Moslems, the rest Christian of various sects, and Jews." There was obviously much more to the article, including land areas and history. But nowhere was there mention of a "Palestinian" people. It was obviously a term created recently not to help define a cultural identity but more as a political affiliation, possibly at the suggestion of Britain.

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