Newt Gingrich and the “Invented” Palestinian People
by Daniel Pipes
December 10, 2011
Cross-posted from National Review Online
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/12/newt-gingrich-and-the-invented-palestinian-people
The former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and current Republican presidential candidate said yesterday that “there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places.”
Everyone from the PLO to a Mitt Romney spokesman jumped on Gingrich for this assertion, but he happens to be absolutely correct: no Arabic-speaking Muslims identified themselves as “Palestinian” until 1920, when, in rapid order this appellation and identity was adopted by the Muslim Arabs living in the British mandate of Palestine.
For details, see a long article of mine from 1989 on the topic or a short one from 2000. (December 10, 2011)
1 st time to any comment, buton JDL. Newt Gingrich, I think he is one of the very few politicians that have studied ancient middle eastern history. I know difinently you don’t want Romney to win the GOP, he’s a mormon and the book of mormon truly distorts who the Jewish people are! Great for Mr. Gingrich to call it as it is a fact! Always good news worthly articles keep it up JDL, God Bless and Happy Hanukkah!!
-Frederick of Alberta
TO Frederick of Alberta,
Thank you for taking the time to comment and to extend good wishes to JDL.
And may the story of Haunkkah continue to inspire.
With Love of Israel,
Blog Administrator.
[...] Newt Gingrich and the “Invented” Palestinian People by Daniel Pipes December 10, 2011 Cross-posted from National Review Online [...]