Co-opting the term “Palestinian”
In the mid-to-late 19th century, Jewish pioneers began returning in larger numbers and improving the land of Israel through agriculture, drainage of swamps, modern farming, and economic development. This attracted Arab migrants from other parts of the Ottoman Empire, including areas in modern-day Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and elsewhere, seeking better opportunities.
When Jews finally regained sovereignty in 1948 and re-established the State of Israel, they restored the name of the land to its historical name, Israel, finally shedding the name given to it by Roman occupation. They also naturally returned to call themselves by their ancient name — Israelis. At that point, the remaining Arab population from the former Ottoman era, along with their leaders, adopted and co-opted the term “Palestinian” for political purposes.
By claiming the name “Palestinian,” they sought to present themselves as the rightful heirs to the land shown on old Roman or British maps. This word game has been effective in swaying people unfamiliar with the deeper history. In reality, the term “Palestinian” was for centuries associated with Jews and their connection to the land, long before it took on its modern political meaning.
The Ottoman Empire and Modern “Palestinian” Identity
The Ottoman Empire controlled the Levant (including modern Israel), and many other countries. Many Arabs in the Levant were subjects of this Turkish-led empire from 1517 until 1917.
The Arabs who today call themselves “Palestinians” are, in large part, the descendants of people who lived under Ottoman rule — many of them relatively recent arrivals or descendants of settlers and migrants who came during Ottoman colonization of the region. In many ways, they are the cultural and demographic remnants of the Ottoman Empire itself. Calling themselves “indigenous Palestinians” while rejecting the name “Ottoman” is historically inconsistent. They were subjects and, in some cases, beneficiaries of Ottoman Turkish colonization for centuries.
A striking feature of modern discourse is how many accusations leveled against Israel are actually projections of the Ottoman Empire’s own history and practices:
- Accusations of “settler-colonialism” against Jews returning to their ancestral land ignore that the Arab population in the region was significantly shaped by Ottoman colonization and later Arab migration attracted by Jewish development.
- Claims of “apartheid” or ethnic supremacy ring hollow coming from inheritors of an empire built on Islamic Turkish dominance over Arabs, Jews, Christians, Kurds, and Armenians.
- Narratives of dispossession often overlook how Ottoman policies, land ownership systems, and later Arab leadership contributed to the displacement and marginalization of local Jewish communities for centuries.
In reality, the modern State of Israel represents the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in their indigenous homeland after centuries of foreign rule, including 400 years of Ottoman control. The descendants of Ottoman subjects who now claim exclusive “Palestinian” indigeneity are engaging in a historical reversal — projecting the sins of their former imperial rulers onto the Jewish people who simply returned home.
Conclusion
By reclaiming their ancient and indigenous name — Israel — the Jewish people rejected the foreign-imposed label “Palestine,” a name originally forced upon them by the Romans as an act of cultural erasure and psychological punishment. Yet this rejected name did not disappear. Instead, it was co-opted by segments of the Arab population who had arrived under Ottoman-Turkish or British rule. What began as a Roman tool to erase Jewish history has now become a modern political instrument used to undermine the Jewish people’s connection to their ancestral homeland.
This appropriation is not merely semantic. It is a strategic attempt to rewrite history by presenting Arabs as the original “Palestinians,” while portraying the Jewish people as foreign interlopers in their own land. By building upon the very name the Romans invented to humiliate the Jews, today’s usage seeks to complete what the Romans started: the erasure of the Jewish people’s deep historical, cultural, and religious ties to the Land of Israel.
The irony is profound. The Jewish people, after two thousand years of exile and persecution, finally restored their ancient sovereignty and name. In response, others have taken the discarded Roman label and turned it into a political weapon. True history, however, cannot be erased by slogans or rebranding. The land’s original and authentic name remains Israel, and its indigenous people remain the Jewish people.