Palestinians

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Palestinians
الفلسطينيون (
Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians and other Arabs[29]

Palestinians (

Arabic: الفلسطينيون, al-Filasṭīniyyūn; Hebrew: פָלַסְטִינִים, Fālasṭīnīm) or Palestinian people (الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs (العرب الفلسطينيون, al-ʿArab al-Filasṭīniyyūn), are an ethnonational group[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] descending from peoples who have inhabited the region of Palestine over the millennia, and who today are culturally and linguistically Arab.[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]

Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the territory of former Mandatory Palestine, now encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[46] In Israel proper, Palestinians constitute almost 21 percent of the population as part of its Arab citizens.[47] Many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip,[48] around 750,000 in the West Bank,[49] and around 250,000 in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, more than half are stateless, lacking legal citizenship in any country.[50] 2.1 million of the diaspora population are registered as refugees in neighboring Jordan, most of whom hold Jordanian citizenship;[51][52] over 1 million live between Syria and Lebanon, and about 750,000 live in Saudi Arabia, with Chile holding the largest Palestinian diaspora concentration (around half a million) outside of the Arab world.

In 1919,

Palestinian" is used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs from the late 19th century and in the pre-World War I period, while others assert the Palestinian identity encompasses the heritage of all eras from biblical times up to the Ottoman period.[43][44][59] After the Israeli Declaration of Independence, the 1948 Palestinian expulsion, and more so after the 1967 Palestinian exodus, the term "Palestinian" evolved into a sense of a shared future in the form of aspirations for a Palestinian state.[43]

Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an umbrella organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before international states.[60] The Palestinian National Authority, officially established in 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords, is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centres in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[61] Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. According to British historian Perry Anderson, it is estimated that half of the population in the Palestinian territories are refugees, and that they have collectively suffered approximately US$300 billion in property losses due to Israeli confiscations, at 2008–2009 prices.[62]

Etymology

The Greek toponym Palaistínē (Παλαιστίνη), which is the origin of the Arabic Filasṭīn (فلسطين), first occurs in the work of the 5th century BCE Greek historian Herodotus, where it denotes generally[63] the coastal land from Phoenicia down to Egypt.[64][65] Herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the "Syrians of Palestine" or "Palestinian-Syrians",[66] an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians.[67][68] Herodotus makes no distinction between the inhabitants of Palestine.[69]

A depiction of Syria and Palestine from CE 650 to 1500

The Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word which was used either as a

toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati[70] has been conjectured to refer to the "Sea Peoples", particularly the Philistines.[71][72] Among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu (variant Pilištu) is used of 7th-century Philistia and its, by then, four city states.[73] Biblical Hebrew's cognate word Plištim, is usually translated Philistines.[74]

When the

adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century.[82]

Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) was the first person to self-describe Palestine's Arabs as "Palestinians" in the preface of a book he translated in 1898.

In modern times, the first person to self-describe Palestine's Arabs as "Palestinians" was

Falastin, Al-Karmil and Al-Nafir newspapers, which used the term "Filastini" more than 170 times in 110 articles from 1908 to 1914. They also made references to a "Palestinian society", "Palestinian nation", and a "Palestinian diaspora". Article writers included Christian and Muslim Arab Palestinians, Palestinian emigrants, and non-Palestinian Arabs.[83][84] The Palestinian Arab Christian Falastin newspaper had addressed its readers as Palestinians since its inception in 1911 during the Ottoman period.[85][86]

During the Mandatory Palestine period, the term "Palestinian" was used to refer to all people residing there, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and those granted citizenship by the British Mandatory authorities were granted "Palestinian citizenship".[87] Other examples include the use of the term Palestine Regiment to refer to the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group of the British Army during World War II, and the term "Palestinian Talmud", which is an alternative name of the Jerusalem Talmud, used mainly in academic sources.

Falastin newspaper addressed its readers as "Palestinians" since its establishment in 1911.[85]

Following the 1948

The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. The term Arab Jews can include Jews with Palestinian heritage and Israeli citizenship, although some Arab Jews prefer to be called Mizrahi Jews. Non-Jewish Arab citizens of Israel with Palestinian heritage identify themselves as Arabs or Palestinians.[88] These non-Jewish Arab Israelis thus include those that are Palestinian by heritage but Israeli by citizenship.[89]

The

Zionist invasion." The Charter also states that "Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit."[90][91]

Origins