By: djf

djf — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:58:41 +0000

The Philistines (p’lishtim in biblical Hebrew) were non-Semitic migrants to what is now Gaza; they came by sea from the Greek islands. By the time of the Second Temple, they had long since disappeared. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion in the Second Century CE, the Romans sought to completely destroy Jewish culture in what had been called Judea up till then and renamed the terriroty “Palestine,” deriving the made-up name from the name of the Israelites’ long-since vanished enemies of a thousand years before, as recorded in, e.g., Judges and Samuel. Thereafter, the name “Palestine” continued to be used, and was ultimately adopted by the Arabs of the land when they became nationally conscious in response to political Zionism in the early 20th century. But there is no historical connection between the Palestinian Arabs of today and the Philistines of circa 1000 BCE. That is not to say that today’s Palestinians are not connected to the land – clearly, they are (in fact, they are probably largely of Jewish descent) – but to say that today’s Israel/Palestinian conflict is a continuation of the Israelite/Philistine conflict of 3000 years ago (the historical facts of which are quite murky, needless to say) is just silly.

Comments on: What’s Old Is New

By: djf