What is Palestine?

Republican Presidential Candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich lit up a firestorm when he told The Jewish Channel in a recent interview the Palestinians were an "invented" people. But what is the real story of Palestine and the "Palestinian" people?

Former Israeli Ambassador Yoram Ettinger published this article called,"What is Palestine?"

In it he lays out a brief history of Palestine that undermines the claim Palestinians have made that they have been here for thousands of years or "since time immemorial." Here's an excerpt:

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the geographic term "Palestine” was predominantly associated – from biblical times until the 1948 establishment of Israel- with the Jewish people, Jewish history and Jewish geography. It was the crux of Jewish national aspirations, the Jewish Homeland.

In 135 AD, Judaea was renamed "Palestina,” by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, following the suppression of the Jewish uprising, in order to eradicate Jewish nationhood and to uproot the inherent Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel. Similarly, Jerusalem was renamed "Aelia Capitolina,” in honor of Aelius Hadrian and the Roman Capitol, in an attempt to obliterate Jewish association with the spiritual and physical core of Judaism.

Since 1949, and increasingly since 1967, the term "Palestine” has been employed, by Israel's enemies, in order to delegitimize the existence of the Jewish State. In April 1950, Judea and Samaria were renamed "the West Bank,” by the Jordanian occupation, in order to assert Jordanian rule, and expunge Jewish connection to the cradle of Jewish history. Until 1950, all official Ottoman, British and prior records referred to "Judea and Samaria" and not to the "West Bank.”

You can read Ettinger's full article here.