The Myth: Palestinians Are Indigenous!

The myth that Palestinians are indigenous has been the propaganda promulgated by Arabs ever since Jews were formally granted the right to reclaim the homeland they were driven from nearly two millennia ago. It was precisely because the territory was essentially an unpeopled land, ruled by a defeated Turkey, that the League of Nations, after WWI, saw fit to accord the country to the Jews, and handed a mandate to Britain to make it happen. It’s what happened afterward that is the real story.

Indeed, Arab leaders originally welcomed the idea hoping for economic benefits from a Jewish presence. The actual reality of the ethnic situation was: the native population in Palestine, before Jewish immigration became substantial, was actually made up primarily of the descendants of the many non-Arab mercenaries imported by rulers over the centuries. This fact has been ignored. Greeks, Turks, Africans, Tartars, Armenians, Sudanese, Egyptians, Persians, Ethiopians, and Ashiri, among others, were brought in, in their thousands, as soldiers and slaves. Many eventually settled in communities around the territory.

Palestine was the name given to the province by the Romans after about 70 A.D., a distortion of the name of the Philistines, Greek Islands occupants of Israel’s southern coast for 600 years, eliminated by King Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonia) in 603 B.C.

Developments in more recent times markedly changed the composition of the population in the area in question. The deteriorating position of many Jews in European countries revived the idea of a return to their homeland. Although it was a religious Jewish position that a return of the nation to its native land required the coming of the Messiah, more secular Jews urged personal action. Enthusiasm for this idea, and dreadful conditions in many places, led to the formation of the Zionist movement.

Some Jewish groups in Russia moved to realize this ambition by immigrating to the area called Palestine, ruled by Ottoman Turkey. Wealthy donors supported their efforts. A World Zionist Organization was established to collect funds from Jews around the globe to finance these efforts. Jews everywhere responded.

There was a Jewish National Fund coin box in nearly every home. These efforts led to the establishment of a number of Jewish settlements in the countryside, and Jewish enterprises in the cities, to provide employment for Jewish immigrants. A steady stream of Jewish arrivals appeared in Palestine.