Foster Strikes Again

A battle wages over the name "Palestine", a name that should have been a relic of history irrelevant to contemporary times. https://www.israeldiaries.com/russia-created-palestinian-identity-before-arafat-born/ The website, academia.edu has a new feature. Bypassing rigourous peer reviews, they publish short articles with the intention of generating debate and discussion on their site, relying on recommendations by other members of the site who may not be expert in the particular subject matter. https://www.academia.edu/49925414/The_Origins_of_the_term_Palestinian_Filas%E1%B9%AD%C4%ABn%C4%AB_in_late_Ottoman_Palestine_1898_1914

This is not really in my area of expertise, but as an interested outsider the letter strikes me as impressive in its scholarship and politically important, especially these days. Although this is not stated explicitly, the letter is clearly meant to address the nonsensical claim that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people." Theoretically the letter corresponds with Benedict Anderson's famous thesis about the role of the print media in crystallizing national identity. Overall, this is a timely and thoughtful contribution to an ongoing scholarly and political debate. It should definitely be published

I find it interesting that Peled refers to himself as an "interested outsider". As an Israeli, discussion of this topic is most important as Israel is within the context of the discussion, not outside of it. While Jews reserve the right to say what and who a Jew is, Palestinians have the right, of course, to define themselves.

This is a short and fascinating article that is crucial to the study of Palestine and Palestinians in the late Ottoman era. I certainly look forward to its publication. By providing such a expansive documentation of the word "Palestinian" it offers an important contribution to the field and will be used by many scholars in the future.

aaa In Foster's thesis page 43:

Historians were not exempt from the madness, as we saw. They joined the frontlines as soldiers in the propaganda war, eager to prove or disprove the people did or did not use the words “Palestine” and “Palestinians.” Those sympathetic to the Palestinians traced their history as far back as possible—the 1880s, 1830s or 1701—while those hostile to the Palestinians claimed the Palestinians were a recent and artificial invention whose very raison d'être was to undermine the millennia long struggle for Jewish freedom from tyranny

aaa https://www.academia.edu/63693212/How_the_West_Invented_the_Palestinians   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Syria www.mansaf.org/En-Greek-Society.htm http://www.mansaf.org/En-index.htm https://www-ippo-ru.translate.goog/old/history/school/s/2/index.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc