Why are they called “Palestinians”? Does it come from the Bible or Islam?

Why are Palestinians called Palestinians? Where did the name Palestine come from? Is it from the Bible, or is it an Islamic or Arab word? The roots of the word Palestine reveals much about the regions polytheistic past.

According to both secular and biblical scholars, the land that is now today called Israel was once called Canaan. Prior to the appearance of the Jewish religion and the bible, Canaan was populated by many different pagan tribes who had lived on the land for generations. It was these pagan tribes who invented the language and writing system today known as Hebrew. At some point in time, these pagan tribes were replaced by biblical Judaism through a series of civilizational conflicts between the new monotheist religion and the original polytheists. Both secular and religious scholars agree that the transformation of the region from Canaan to Israel was not peaceful, though they may disagree on how exactly the transformation took place. What we do know is that the monotheists eventually won and established a theocracy which drove out, killed or enslaved all of the original inhabitants.

One of these original pagan tribes that were invaded and eventually expelled by the monotheists were called the “Philistines”. According to the bible, the Philistines inhabited the cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath; some of these names you may recognize from the modern Israel/Palestine conflict. Secular archaeology reveals that the Philistine cities were carefully planned and included industrial zones. Yet all of this was lost to the monotheists after they took the land by force and instituted the laws of the bible which drove out or enslaved the Philistine people.

Because of their bible based aggression and expansionism, the monotheists acquired many enemies in the region, including Egypt, Babylon and Rome. The nation of Israel was attacked and destroyed by pagan Babylon in 605 BC. However, the monotheists were eventually returned to the land they had had taken from the Canaanites after Persia defeated Babylon some 70 years later. The region today know as Israel became part of the Roman Empire 63 BC, when it was annex after the Third Mithridatic War. When the pagan Romans annexed Israel they called it by it’s monotheist name of “Judea”. But after several conflicts with the monotheists, the Romans completely destroyed their holy city of Jerusalem in 70 AD and sent many of the monotheists out into the diaspora. After winning against the biblical monotheists, the Roman renamed the province its pagan name, “Palestine”. Palestine is the Roman word for “Philistine”, one of the original pagan tribes which inhabited the region.

Contrary to popular belief, the word “Palestinian” has nothing to do with Islam or Arabianism. Islam did not even enter the region until almost 600 years after Rome had defeated the monotheists and renamed the region Palestine. Eventually pagan Rome was replaced by the Christian Byzantine Empire. When Muslims invaded the land today known as Israel, it was owned not by Jews but by Christians who had left it’s name as Palestine. The district of Palestine eventually fell to the British. In the 1917, the British signed the Balfour Declaration which gave this region back to the monotheists who had conquered the land first, today known as Jews. The Jews who had not owned the land for more than 2,000 years were given a deed to Palestine because it was believed to be their biblical birthright. However, the land of Palestine which originally belonged to the pagan Philistines was now populated primarily by Muslim Arabs and the British called these people the “Palestinians”. And so now you know why they are called “Palestinians”