Shared Name Does Not A Ruler Make: The Name-Driven Land Claim of Palestine

One of the most common claims made by many regarding the land rights of the Palestine region is one that essentially rests in the fact that the area that is now considered the modern state of Israel was called Palestine long before it's existence and therefore serves as historical proof that the land actually belongs to the current government of Palestine and its people who call themselves Palestinians.

The land in which modern day Israel sits was indeed known as Palestine prior to the establishment of Israel’s current government, but NOT as a formal nation-state. Rather, it was referred to as a region by the Romans as Syria Palaestina in the 2nd century CE, in part to minimize Jewish ties to the land following the Bar Kokhba revolt. Even earlier, the area was known as Peleshet by the Egyptians. The Ottoman Empire called it Filistin, and under British rule, it was known as the Palestine Mandate. All these terms are linguistic evolutions of one another, all essentially meaning “Land of the Philistines.”

It’s crucial to understand that Palestine was never the name of a sovereign government or city-state. It wasn’t designated by a self-governing populace with their own distinct national identity. Instead, it was the nomenclature for a region imposed by conquering or governing powers. This region, throughout history, included actual nation-states within its borders, Judah and Israel being two such examples.

Today, there indeed exists an officially recognized government representing individuals who identify as Palestinians, known as the Palestinian Authority, which officially formed in 1994. This technically this would include Gaza, the area currently ruled over by the terrorist group Hamas, following a 2006 - 2007 revolt against the Palestinian Authority. This was in part in retaliation for being willing to work with the international community to negotiate a two state solution with Israel and end decades of violent conflict.

Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas' rogue state in Gaza see themselves as the true representatives of a government made up of people who identify as Palestinians.

However, regardless of which ruling body you chose to recognize as legitimate, and regardless what each chooses to call their government, the truth remains the same; the shared name between the people and the region they inhabit does not validate exclusive rights or sovereignty any more than the fact that the inhabitants of my nation (most often referred to as America) are globally recognized as Americans implies a right to rule the entire continent in which we reside, historically known as North America.

I'm pretty certain Canada and Mexico would agree.