Why did Arab refugees begin to call themselves "Palestinians" in 1967, two decades after... ?

“The Zionist” were a group of Socialist Jews who started purchasing wasted lands from the Ottoman Empire starting about 1882. They sought to create a Jewish community in their native homeland and by 1913 (pre-World War I) had amassed more that 90% of what is today Israel.

In some cases they paid much more for the land than it was worth. In two separate documents, the Ottoman’s Vilayets and the Sanjak of Jerusalem, the general condition of the land is described as “empty,” a “place of ruin” and a place of “desolation”.

After World War I, the British and French wound up with a Mandates of Lands through the League of Nations. The Balfour Declaration called for the creation of a “national homeland for the Jewish people”. There are hundreds of pre-statehood documents and articles where Arabs’ “welcomed the Jews and “Zionist” back to their home land!” The small population of Arabs located in the area welcomed the opportunity of employment, better access to health care and food. The British coined the term ‘Palestinian’ as “the native inhabitants of Palestine” during the mandate period of 1918 to 1948, whether their religion was Christian, Judaism or Muslim.

The English word “Palestine” is derived from the Hebrew word Philistia, meaning “foreign invader” as written in the Torah and the Bible ‘Book of Genesis’ which indicates these people were in the area roughly 1200 BC. In Arabic, Filasteen (فلسطين) has been the name of the region since the earliest medieval Arab geographers (1200AD) an, adopted from the then-current Greek term Palaestina (Παλαιστινη), first used by Herodotus, itself derived ultimately from the name of the Philistines in about 450BC.

The summer of 1929 was one of unrest in Palestine. Jewish-Arab tensions were spurred on by the agitation of Haj Al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem.A Just one day prior to the start of the Hebron massacre, three Jews and three Arabs were killed in Jerusalem when fighting broke out after a Muslim prayer service on the Temple Mount. Arabs spread false rumors throughout their communities, saying that Jews were carrying out "wholesale killings of Arabs." Meanwhile, Jewish immigrants were arriving in Palestine in increasing numbers, further exacerbating the Israel-Arab conflict B

The League of Arab Nations attacked Israel shortly after statehood was granted, causing the “War of Independence” which you fail to mention. The nation of Israel defended itself then, as it does today. The Arabs of Israel were given an option to “live in Peace” or relocate to the newly gifted nation of Trans-Jordon, but found no welcome. The League of Arab Nations wanted nothing to do with these “Palestinian Arabs.”

The British, French and US governments have the blood of innocents on their hands by not demanding the Arabs of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Trans-Jordon honor their side of the Mandates of Lands agreement! The nations of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq were carved out of the Mandates of Land agreements. If Israel does not have the right to exist, then neither do any of the others.

One thing that you conveniently fail to mention is that those Arabs who were ethnically cleansed in 1948 have no right to return where as any Jewish person can claim citizenship. The only rational conclusion is that Israel is a racially based state- arguably the only one to exist in the modern world other than Nazi Germany or possibly aparthied era South Africa.

'The 1992 'Basic Law: The Knesset' stops participation in the elections if a platform implies the "denial of the existence of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people". So a party platform calling for full and complete equality between Jews and Arabs in a state for all its citizens can be – and has been - disqualified. In no other democratic state in the world could a party calling for equality for all be disenfranchised.'

I had a bible that was 100 years old and the land was called Palestine and the people Palestinians. Jews were living all over the world and after World War II many looked for a place to settle. The British, Romans, Russians and others controlled the land. It was not a Jewish state until 1948. Arabs from various religions including Christians and Muslims were living on this land for thousands of years.

They called themselves Palestinians long before Israel came along. Some became refugees during the period of Jewish terrorism and ethnic cleansing in the 1940s. Some became refugees during the 1948/49 war and some became refugees in subsequent wars.

Because prior to 1948 the land now known as Israel was called Palestine.

Because that is what their land was called before the British "gave" Palestine to Israelis.

We didn't call "Indians" "Native Americans" for almost a century after we took their land.

Thick heads maybe