A response to Jens Bay's comments.

Submitted by John Reinders (Canada), Nov 19, 2002 at 14:02

Hi Daniel,

If you allow me just a quick comment on this idea that the original homeland of the Palestinians was Philistria. I think Jens is trying to tell us that the Palestinians are somehow the descendants of the Philistines. Talk about a stretch of the imagination.......

As I understand it from history, the Philistines were more closely related to the Greeks, not Arabs. They did not speak Arabic, and had no ethnic or historical connection with Arabia. From historical documentaries I have seen, the Philistine people are believed to be now extinct? Also, if you look at the time line here, Muhammed would not have been born for almost another 1000 years or so - how could they have converted to Islam and become Muslims??

Also lest we forget, this whole idea of a Palestinian people is a relatively new one and is politically motivated by Israel's Arab neighbours / Arafat as a means to an end. The eventual destruction of Israel......

Thanks, John

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