Remember that it was Yasir "that's my baby" Arafat who concocted the entire Palestinian identity for the residents of Gaza. I also remember that no Arab country wants the so-called "Palestinians" whatever and King Hussein drove the PLO out of Jordan in 1970 because, if memory serves, they wanted to take over Jordan and the King and his army fought them and sent them packing with considerable losses to the Arafat forces. Today with Hamas running the Strip Israel has yet another dagger attempting to destroy Éretz Yisra'él.
The common story, which you cite, traces the name Palaistina to Peleshet. But there are some problems with that idea. The name Palaistina first appears in Herodotus’s “History,” written about six centuries before the Romans applied it to Judea. The derivation requires a few steps, and assumes that Herodotus would have named the region for a people which had vanished a couple of centuries earlier, conquered by the Assyrians. It also ignores the existing name for the region Philistia, which the Greeks would have known.
Further, it turns out that there is a Greek word, Palaistas, which matches the first seven letters of Palaistina letter for letter. It seems much more reasonable to have based the name on that. And what does that word mean? Wrestler. That is, he called it “the land of the wrestlers.”
Sorry, no sale. At least for now. I had seen James Cooper's TOI blog post three years ago (which you cite above). It was a not-uninteresting read then, and now --- though, it answered very few questions.
Here's one of those that remain to this day:
If "Palaistina" was the name used for the land by everybody EXCEPT the Jews from the 5th century BCE onward. . . .
. . . . then why are not these commemorative coins, which were minted for some 25-50 years by the Flavian emperors (Vespasian, Titus, Domition), and first struck in AD 71 --- in celebration of their victory over the Jews in the First Judean-Roman War AD 66-71 --- inscribed with the words:
“Writing in the 5th century BC, Herodotus was the first historian to describe vividly a multifaith country located naturally (geographically) between Phoenicia and Egypt, and to denote a geographical region he called Palaistī́nē (Παλαιστῑ́νη) which was larger than ancient Philistia. He also reported that Palestine was deeply polytheistic. Today the findings of archaeology, including recent archaeological excavations in Philistia, which are central to the ways in which the ancient history and heritage of Palestine are understood and taught in Western universities and schools, confirm Herodotus’ account of polytheistic Palestine and contradict the grand narrative of the Old Testament.” p.22 Nur Masalha’s 'Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History'
So you were wrong to assert pre-Roman usage to merely Philistia.
A good, and serious take on the project of Palestinianizing the world. For those who need a laugh, here's my satirical take on Jesus as a Palestinian: https://ruthvanita452091.substack.com/p/what-i-learnt-last-year
Remember that it was Yasir "that's my baby" Arafat who concocted the entire Palestinian identity for the residents of Gaza. I also remember that no Arab country wants the so-called "Palestinians" whatever and King Hussein drove the PLO out of Jordan in 1970 because, if memory serves, they wanted to take over Jordan and the King and his army fought them and sent them packing with considerable losses to the Arafat forces. Today with Hamas running the Strip Israel has yet another dagger attempting to destroy Éretz Yisra'él.
The common story, which you cite, traces the name Palaistina to Peleshet. But there are some problems with that idea. The name Palaistina first appears in Herodotus’s “History,” written about six centuries before the Romans applied it to Judea. The derivation requires a few steps, and assumes that Herodotus would have named the region for a people which had vanished a couple of centuries earlier, conquered by the Assyrians. It also ignores the existing name for the region Philistia, which the Greeks would have known.
Further, it turns out that there is a Greek word, Palaistas, which matches the first seven letters of Palaistina letter for letter. It seems much more reasonable to have based the name on that. And what does that word mean? Wrestler. That is, he called it “the land of the wrestlers.”
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-palestine-the-ancient-greek-name-for-the-children-of-israel/
Sorry, no sale. At least for now. I had seen James Cooper's TOI blog post three years ago (which you cite above). It was a not-uninteresting read then, and now --- though, it answered very few questions.
Here's one of those that remain to this day:
If "Palaistina" was the name used for the land by everybody EXCEPT the Jews from the 5th century BCE onward. . . .
. . . . then why are not these commemorative coins, which were minted for some 25-50 years by the Flavian emperors (Vespasian, Titus, Domition), and first struck in AD 71 --- in celebration of their victory over the Jews in the First Judean-Roman War AD 66-71 --- inscribed with the words:
"IUDEA CAPTA"?
https://www.salom.com.tr/uploads/images/23620207C6dTuN5uq3nO0hp.png
https://www.salom.com.tr/uploads/images/2362020RJQyTBrBGKMjvpla.png
Why do they not, instead, read:
'PALAISTINA CAPTA'?
“Writing in the 5th century BC, Herodotus was the first historian to describe vividly a multifaith country located naturally (geographically) between Phoenicia and Egypt, and to denote a geographical region he called Palaistī́nē (Παλαιστῑ́νη) which was larger than ancient Philistia. He also reported that Palestine was deeply polytheistic. Today the findings of archaeology, including recent archaeological excavations in Philistia, which are central to the ways in which the ancient history and heritage of Palestine are understood and taught in Western universities and schools, confirm Herodotus’ account of polytheistic Palestine and contradict the grand narrative of the Old Testament.” p.22 Nur Masalha’s 'Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History'
So you were wrong to assert pre-Roman usage to merely Philistia.