Palestinians: An invented people?

Finally, a major American politician has spoken the truth about the Palestinians, said Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said last week that the Palestinians are an “invented people” and questioned their right to nationhood. His comments triggered an international furor, but Gingrich is right. As he explained, “there was no Palestinian Arab state or political entity under the Ottoman Empire or any previous ruler.” Even 50 years ago, the people now known as Palestinians didn’t regard themselves as distinct from other Arabs. It was only after the 1967 war, when Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza, “that the absence of a Palestinian state was deemed intolerable.” Even the Palestinians have admitted this, said Aaron Goldstein in The American Spectator. A top Palestinian Liberation Organization official said in 1977 that Palestinians are no different from other Arabs, and that “the creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel.”

So what if Palestinian nationalism is a recent phenomenon? asked the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger in an editorial. Iraq and Jordan were created in the last century out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. “Would Gingrich also insult those nations by suggesting their relatively recent births mean their drives for statehood are somehow less legitimate?” His reckless comments can only serve to further damage America’s standing in the Arab world, and its ability to act as a peace negotiator in the Middle East. But the Republican front-runner doesn’t care about “tarnishing America’s reputation,” said Jacob Heilbrunn in NationalInterest.org. He cares only about winning the votes of pro-Israel evangelicals. A true friend of Israel wouldn’t create more tension in a region that’s already “a powder keg.’’

Gingrich is actually half right, said Michael Kinsley in the Los Angeles Times, but it doesn’t matter. History has repeatedly shown that when a people come together to create a nationalistic identity, the world accepts their self-definition—and their desire for self-rule. Just ask the Israelis. “Modern Jewish nationalism only goes back to 1896,” when the Hungarian-born journalist Theodor Herzl published his book The Jewish State. Fifty-two years later, Israel was created. If Palestinian nationalism was indeed born in 1967, the idea will mark its 52nd anniversary in 2019. The countdown to Palestinian nationhood is ticking.

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