Facts. Historical Facts… and inconvenient truths. Pesky Things:
1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.
2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.
4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.
5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Crusader Frankish and the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.
6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there were the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.
7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state.
8. there was the Sassanid-Persian Empire before the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
9. Before the Sassanid-Persian Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire again, not a Palestinian state.
10. Before the Byzantine Empire there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
[PF: It was the Romans who named the area “Palestine”, referring to the Jews who lived there. It was meant as a pejorative, a form of “philistine”. See Life of Brian!]
11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Jewish Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.
12. Before the Jewish Hasmonean state was the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, not a Palestinian state.
13. Before the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, there was Alexander the Great's empire, not a Palestinian state.
14. Before Alexander the Great, there was the Persian Empire, not a Palestinian state
15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.
16. Before the Babylonian Empire, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were not Palestinian states.
17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
18. Before the Kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
There have been many governments there, but never a Palestine.
(Khan Fatima on X)
Peter Forsythe: By the way, Israel is mentioned a dozen times in the Quran. As are the Jews’ presence on that land of Israel. Muslims are almost always confounded by this info. Which they are not taught, but cannot deny. It does rather destroy their “ Settler-colonial” narrative.
If today’s Muslim Palestinians want to play the game of “go back in history” it’s clear who’s always going to be the winner of “the furthest back”. It’s always the Jews, and it’s not even close.
