(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Michael Curtis - The concept of Palestinian identity and nationalism is a recent invention. Today, however, it is clear that Palestinian nationalism has emerged and become a political factor. Historically, Arabs living in the area now known as Palestine were regarded not as a separate entity but as part of the general Arab people. No independent Palestinian state has ever existed. The first Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations in the area that met in February 1919 to consider the future of the territory formerly ruled by the Ottoman Empire declared: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria." Palestinian spokesperson Ahmad Shuqeiri told the UN Security Council in 1956 that Palestine was nothing more than southern Syria. The head of the Military Operations Department of the PLO, Zuheir Muhsein, declared on March 31, 1977, "Only for political reasons do we carefully underline our Palestinian identity....The existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there for tactical reasons." Only after the State of Israel was established in May 1948 did the term "Palestinian" become exclusively used in referring to Arabs in the area. The writer is a distinguished professor emeritus of political science at Rutgers University.
2011-12-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive