With the random, point blank, ten round, gun shot murder in Washington DC on Thursday of a couple outside the Jewish Museum where the antisemitism and hate speech crossed the Rubicon and literally went from hate speech to hate action, followed by the brain dead, repetitive and nonsensical mantra, Free, Free Palestine, I thought it time for some clarification.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞?
First an understanding of the etymology of the word Palestine and the underlying concept and purpose of the name afforded it by the Romans.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐭𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞. The word, Palestine derives from the word Philistia, the name given by the Greeks writers to the land of the Philistines. The Philistines themselves weren’t indigenous the Middle East but to Crete and other islands in the Aegean Sea.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞, The land we known as Palestine was an early exercise in marketing and rebadging by the Romans and goes back to when after the Jewish insurrections, revolts and uprisings of 70AD and again in 135AD, in an endeavour to break the nexus and obliterate the link between the Jews and their land Judea, (today’s West Bank) the Romans renamed the land, 𝐒𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐚-𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚.
It was an early exercise in gaslighting and psy-ops long before psy-ops were a thing and designed to, overtime, erase any memory or connection.
To in effect, “de-Judaise” the region. What we would call today, a deliberate program of regional ethnic cleansing.
Apart from erasing the link between the Jews and Judea, the renaming served a second purpose and was designed to humiliate the Jews and rub salt into the wound by naming the area in the same name of their mortal enemy, the Philistines and give them (the Philistines) a posthumous victory as it were.
The Jews defeated the Philistines 700 years previously and they no longer existed as a people in 135AD.
Incidentally, Goliath of David and Goliath fame was a Philistine, and the Philistines were defeated by David 1000BC. The story of Samson and Delilah was another epic describing relations between the Jews and the Philistines.
The same Philistines as a people were eventually conquered once and for all by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 604 and absorbed.
They have been totally lost to history and ceased to exist ever since.
𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬.
Palestine the place and the people never actually existed. The name merely served a purpose.
It was the Roman’s, means to an end. The religion of Islam was still 600 years into the future.
𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚, “𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞, 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞” 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 𝐀 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚, 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.