Newt Gingrich ha dichiarato che non esiste nessun popolo palestinese, che si tratta di un'invenzione. Sia Daniel Pipes sia Eli Hertz, nei commenti riportati in questa pagina, specificano come l'affermazione di Gingrich sia basata sulla realtà. Come scrive Pipes, è solo a partire dagli anni '20, con la caduta dell'impero turco, che si è iniziato a parlare di 'Palestina', termine che, per altro, come specifica Eli Hertz, rappresenta un'area geografica e non una nazionalità. Non è mai esistito uno Stato palestinese spodestato da Israele, ne consegue che nemmeno il fantomatico popolo palestinese è mai esistito.
Sullo stesso argomento, invitiamo a leggere la Cartolina da Eurabia di Ugo Volli, pubblicata in altra pagina della rassegna.

Riportiamo da IT.DANIELPIPES.ORG il breve commento di Daniel Pipes dal titolo "Newt Gingrich and the 'Invented' Palestinian People ". Eccola, seguita dal commento di Eli Hertz dal titolo " Palestine is a Geographical Area, Not a Nationality ".

IT.DANIELPIPES.ORG - Daniel Pipes : " Newt Gingrich and the 'Invented' Palestinian People "

Daniel Pipes

The former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and current Republican presidential candidate said yesterday that "there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places."

Everyone from the PLO to a Mitt Romney spokesman jumped on Gingrich for this assertion, but he happens to be absolutely correct: no Arabic-speaking Muslims identified themselves as "Palestinian" until 1920, when, in rapid order this appellation and identity was adopted by the Muslim Arabs living in the British mandate of Palestine.

For details, see a long article of mine from 1989 on the topic or a short one from 2000.

Eli Hertz - " Palestine is a Geographical Area, Not a Nationality "

Eli Hertz

In an interview with Republican Presidential Primary front-runner and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a former Professor and Historian, he explains his position on the Arab-Israeli conflict and states that the Palestinians are "an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs."

It is time to tell the truth that is based on facts:

Until the Jews began returning to the Land of Israel in increasing numbers from the late 19th century to the turn of the 20th, the area called Palestine was a deserted waste land that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey.

'Palestinianism' in and of itself lacks any substance of its own. Arab society on the West Bank and Gaza suffer from a deep social cleavage created by a host of rivalries based on divergent geographic, historical, sociological and familial allegiances.

What glues Palestinians together is a carefully nurtured hatred of Israel and the rejection of Jewish nationhood.

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