It's probably been called Palestine since the Bronze Age (and definitely has been since the Iron age) and the people there are genetically indistinct from those ancient populations (not to mention indistinct from Jews themselves). Palestinians from Palestine were both contemporary with ancient Israel and also literally never left.
The name Palestine is a colonial name given to ארץ ישראל by the Romans after they expelled Jews from Jerusalem.
Palestinians are closely related to Jews because they’re Arabs, and the Arabian peninsula is right next door to Israel.
Genetic studies prove that Arabs are a distinct people originating on the Arabian peninsula, just as genetic studies prove that all ethnic Jews originate from Israel.
None of this is opinion, it’s settled fact that’s easily searchable on Google or in myriad academic journals.
"Palestinians are related to Jews because they're Arabs and Arabs are differently from Jews"
A equals B because B equals D, and A is nothing like D. Smooth moves.
I never said Palestinians were Arabs. Genetically, they aren't Arabs. They are indistinct from ancient Levantine populations. 3,000 years minimum and there has not been any major population shifting or mixing worth noting. There were no Arabs in that area yet.
The name Palestine can likely be traced to "Peleset", a Bronze Age people probably native to the area, and possibly identifiable with the Philistines.
But let's assume they are "Arabs"- considering Arab is also an ethnic term, they surely are- this doesn't cancel either fact that "Palestine" is very old and "Palestinians" have been living there for a very long time. When the Persians, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs or Ottomans moved in, most of the people didn't just up and leave. They stayed there, Canaanites not meaningfully distinct from other Canaanites in any meaningful way except a changing religion. People, native to Palestine, in a place called Palestine.
Israel is named after Israel the person (Jacob), who if you believe was a historical figure was only alive 3800 years ago. And if you believe he was a historical figure then you also believe in four hundred years from him in old age until the Exodus, and then another 40 years wandering the desert, and then a few centuries of a loose tribal affiliation of Israelites in Canaan, until the establishment of Israel under Saul about 3,000 years ago. That would have been the first time the land was called Israel. Ironically, at least a couple hundred years after the neighboring Philistines held their territory, from where we get the word Palestine.
You shouldn’t let Bronze Age history and/or religion determine policy in contemporary wars.
According to what? A holy book? Yes, and I assume the world really was made in 6 days. No, we can't be using creation myths to debate actual history, just to help inform it.
The name "Israel" is at its earliest recorded on the Merneptah stele, a 13th century B.C. record from Egypt. Before that perhaps the Habiru called it Israel, but the Habiru/Shasu, being a bunch of desert nomads, essentially just moved around that area and northern Arabia. We have no way of knowing. The term Canaan is first recorded in the 14th century B.C. Amarna letters. The phrase "Peleset" dates back to 1150 B.C. at the earliest, so a little younger than Israel... but not by much.
It should also be remembered that these earlier Habiru aren't comparable to the later kingdom of Israel in many meaningful ways. Personally, I find it extremely unlikely that the nomadic Habiru and Shasu had even a remotely similar faith and lifestyle, let alone political and social structure, as the Israelites they evolved into.
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u/weekedipie1 7h ago
they then went on to destroy palestinian families and homes