Newt Gingrich recently asserted that the Palestinians are “an invented people,” and that they are also “terrorists.” Gingrich then offered this alleged history:
“Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire,” Gingrich told The Jewish Channel in an interview released on Friday.
. . .
[The] American Task Force on Palestine spokesman Hussein Ibish was quick to point out that “there was no Israel and no such thing as an ‘Israeli people’ before 1948,” when the Jewish state was established.
Glenn Greenwald has pointed out that the most damaging words tend to be those words like “terrorism,” which have no clear meaning.
Invented? Versus the “American People”? Or what? Or versus the “Israeli People? Or take any other nation for that. Or even France. Or England. The oldest “modern” nations.”The” people of any nation are an idealistic concept.
The question is: Is Palestine a state? AFAIK, for a state you need a territory, people who live in that territory and some form of government that declares to represent the state (people and territory). Clearly defined borders and international recognition are optional but helpful.
Palestine isn’t part of Israel. The Israeli government would like to incorporate their territory, but not for the following. Even if it were, the Israeli government does not represent the Palestinians (the Israeli government doesn’t want to). Palestinians are not Israeli citizens (again, the Israeli government does not want them to).
So if the Palestinians declare a state, it is state. International recognition makes the difference between de jure and de facto statehood,
The only remaining problem with de facto statehood is the Israeli occupation.
And well, Americans were once considered terrorists as well. And while the British have made peace with your (you can stop bearing arms, that you keep just in case the British come back), in some considerable parts of the world (for decades already) Americans are regarded as terrorists.
Under Turkish rule, the region that includes modern day Israel, the Palestinian territories and parts of Jordan was referred to as Palestine. It was a place of relative peace where people of many religious backgrounds co-existed peacefully.
During the first world war, Britain negotiated with the Arab population and promised to help establish an autonomous Arab state in exchange for the Arab forces supporting the British against the Turks, who were allied with the Axis forces.
At the same time, Lord Balfour brokered a treaty with Jewish leaders to establish the region as a Jewish homeland. Obviously, you can give both groups the same piece of land and the hostilities began. This resulted in Palestine becoming a protectorate of the British Empire, with the Brits forming a “Peace Keeping” force.
Of course, none of this can be found in the history according to the Wingers, who subscribe to the idea that god promised the land to the Israelis.