"The dispute surrounding the name Palestine has been part of Israel's denying the Palestinian's right continue to occupy the area [Wrong]they have done for millenia - it is immaterial one way or the other."
"It's official use to identifya part of the Arab lands dates back at least to the 7th century [Further back]- in anybody's book, thirteen centuries is long enough to give the right of a claim to live in the area, except the Israelis, it would appear.[Opinion not factual]" [-] = mine.
Jim Carroll
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Palestine is the term given to the whole area by the Romans after quelling two Jewish attempts to remove Roman control of Judea (75CE and 135CE). They chose that name, as a form of irony, to de-Judaiize the area politically, in naming it for the main Israelite/Judean enemy, the Philistines--who had, incidentally disappeared as a polity centuries before.

The Philistines had never controlled the area as a whole. At their peak their control was mainly five cities in the southwest of what is now Israel, abutting Sinai Peninsula, one of which was Gaza. The Philistines were not Arab, nor were they Semites. They came from Mediterranean islands, such as Cypress and Sardinia.

After 135, some Jewish presence throughout Palestine. In the early 7th century CE Palestine was part of the Persian Sassinid empire. Jews were allowed local autonomy for about ten years, until the Arab Muslim conquest of Palestine. And there still continued to be a Jewish population there, no matter who controlled the area. And such there was forever into the 20th century.

Following WWI, the victors, the League of Nations, divided up the Middle East in to what eventually became Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan (split off from the original Palestine Mandate). The remainder of the Palestine Mandate remained in limbo from 1923 on owing to the fecklessness of the British Government. From 1923 Arabs (Muslim and Christian), and Jews (native born or immigrants) considered themselves Palestinean (or at least acknowledging they lived in Mandated Palestine). Area Jews ceased considering themselves Palestinian with the declaration of the State of Israel.
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Jim, Greg F. or whomever: do not ask for sources; I am not writing a term paper, nor am I quoting a source directly. You guys do not usually provide sources either for you posts. You can get sources,as I did, simply by googling or yahooing, or searching your favorite search engine. You can get documents and books from libraries as I have. You can get sources on both sides, as I have.