Palestine (region)

• 1. Etymological Origins And Evolution

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  The earliest written record referring to Palestine as a geographical region appears in the Histories of Herodotus, published during the 5th century BCE. Herodotus called the area Palaistine, referencing territory previously held by Philistia, which existed from the 12th to the 7th century BCE. Modern archaeology has identified twelve ancient inscriptions from Egyptian and Assyrian records that likely contain cognates of Hebrew Pelesheth. The term Peleset is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. The first known mention occurs at the temple at Medinet Habu within Ramesses III's reign, while the last known reference dates three hundred years later on Padiiset's Statue. Seven known Assyrian inscriptions refer to the region of Palashtu or Pilistu, beginning with Adad-nirari III in the Nimrud Slab. Neither the Egyptian nor the Assyrian sources provided clear regional boundaries for the term. The first clear use of Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt appeared in 5th century BCE ancient Greece when Herodotus wrote about a district of Syria called Palaistinē. Aristotle used a similar definition for the region in Meteorology, including the Dead Sea. Later Greek writers such as Polemon and Pausanias also used the term to refer to the same region. Roman writers like Ovid, Tibullus, Pliny the Elder, and Dio Chrysostom followed this usage. Jewish writers Philo of Alexandria and Josephus also employed the name, though they often distinguished it from Judea.

• 2. Ancient Civilizations And Empires

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  The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation and agricultural communities during the late 4th millennium BCE. Permanent Egyptian settlement existed at Tell es-Sakan on the Mediterranean coast, which is the oldest known fortified Egyptian settlement. During the Bronze Age, independent Canaanite city-states were established and influenced by surrounding civilizations like ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Between 1550 and 1400BCE, these cities became vassals to the Egyptian New Kingdom until the 1178BCE Battle of Djahy. Three cities listed in the Egyptian Onomasticon of Amenope around 1100BCE are Gaza, Isdud, and Asqalan, associated with people named Peleshet. This marks the first indication for the emergence of the Philistine pentapolis, five city-states each ruled by a king. The Iron Age saw two related kingdoms emerge: Israel and Judah. The Kingdom of Israel emerged as an important local power by the 10th century BCE before falling to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 722BCE. The Kingdom of Judah emerged in the 8th or 9th century BCE and later became a client state of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587/6BCE, leading to the exile of Judeans to Babylon. In 539BCE, the Babylonian empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, allowing exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem under Persian governance. Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the region in the 330s BCE, changing hands several times during wars of the Diadochi. It ultimately fell to the Seleucid Empire between 219 and 200BCE, becoming heavily hellenized.

• 3. Religious Birthplace And Transformation

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  Palestine is generally considered the Cradle of Christianity, arising as a messianic sect from within Second Temple Judaism. Jesus of Nazareth's three-year Ministry culminated in his crucifixion, estimated to have occurred from 28 to 30CE. During the First Jewish-Roman War lasting from 66 to 73CE, Romans razed Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Jewish zealots at Masada reportedly preferred suicide over Roman captivity. Another rebellion erupted in 132CE known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, which took three years to suppress. The center of Jewish life moved to Galilee after this revolt. Roman authorities renamed the province of Judaea to Syria Palaestina around 135CE to sever ties between Jews and the province. Palestine became a center of Christianity attracting numerous monks and religious scholars following Constantine's mother Saint Helena visiting Jerusalem in 326. The majority of the population was Christian until the conquest of Saladin in 1187. Palestine was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 634CE. In 636, the Battle of Yarmouk marked the start of Muslim hegemony over the region. Muawiyah I became Caliph of the Islamic world after being crowned in Jerusalem in 661. The Dome of the Rock, completed in 691, was the world's first great work of Islamic architecture.

• 4. Ottoman Rule And Modernization

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  The Ottomans conquered Palestine in 1516 after hostilities broke out with the Mamluks in 1486. Between the mid-16th and 17th centuries, local dynasties like the Ridwans of Gaza governed on behalf of the Ottoman Porte. Daher al-Umar ruled large parts of Palestine autonomously during the 18th century, turning Acre into a major regional power. He monopolized cotton and olive oil trade from Palestine to Europe. Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar elevated Acre's dominance at the expense of Damascus. In 1830, the Porte transferred control of Jerusalem and Nablus to Abdullah Pasha, governor of Acre. Two years later, Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt but challenged in 1834 by a countrywide popular uprising against conscription. Britain intervened in 1840 and returned control to the Ottomans. Beginning in the 1860s, Palestine underwent acceleration in socio-economic development due to incorporation into global European economic patterns. Palestinian villagers developed distinctive methods of cultivating sandy dunefields known as mawāsi. These sunken-garden systems supported vineyards, figs, olives, and vegetables. From 1880 large-scale Jewish immigration began almost entirely from Europe based on an explicitly Zionist ideology. There was also a revival of Hebrew language and culture.

• 5. British Mandate And Partition

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  The British began their Sinai and Palestine Campaign in 1915, reaching southern Palestine in 1917. They secured Jerusalem in December 1917 and moved into the Jordan valley in 1918. The British were formally awarded the mandate to govern the region in 1922. Arab Palestinians rioted in 1920, 1921, 1929, and revolted in 1936. Following World War II and The Holocaust, the British Government announced its desire to terminate the Mandate in 1947. The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181(II) in November 1947 recommending partition into an Arab state, a Jewish state, and Special International Regime for Jerusalem. A civil war began immediately after the Resolution's adoption. The State of Israel was declared in May 1948. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel captured further territory while Jordan captured Judea and Samaria renaming it West Bank. Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt. Following the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight known as al-Nakba, 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from homes were not allowed to return following the Lausanne Conference of 1949.

• 6. Conflict And Contemporary Demographics

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  In the Six-Day War during June 1967, Israel captured the rest of Mandate Palestine from Jordan and Egypt. From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada took place including the Declaration of the State of Palestine in 1988. This ended with the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords and creation of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2000, the Second Intifada began and Israel built a separation barrier. In the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, Israel withdrew all settlers and military presence but maintained control over borders and air space. Israel's ongoing military occupation continues to be the world's longest in modern times. The total population of Israel reached 8.5 million people according to recent statistics, with 75% Jews and 21% Arabs. The Palestinian population of West Bank was approximately 2.9 million and Gaza Strip 1.8 million in 2015. Both Israeli and Palestinian statistics include Arab residents of East Jerusalem. Total population in region stands approximately 12.8 million. In November 2012, status of Palestinian delegation upgraded to non-member observer state as State of Palestine.