Isn’t it true that Palestinians never had either a state nor any distinct culture or language of their own?

For the moment, let’s assume that the Palestinian people should not have a country of their own because they never had a state, then why should the peoples of Salvador, Guatemala, Congo, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan… have the right of self-determination?

It should be noted that none of these countries had a state before gaining independence, nor a distinct language or culture that set them apart from their neighboring states.

In other words, even if it’s true that the Palestinian people had neither a state nor a distinct culture or language:

Is that a good reason to confiscate their homes, farms, and businesses?

Is that a good reason to block their return to their homes?

Is that a good reason to nullify their citizenship in the country in which they were born?

Palestine was ruled and inhabited in the past by ancient Egyptians, Hittites, Philistines, Israelites, Assyrians, Qedarites and Nabateans (Northern Arabian tribes,8th century BCE -106 AD), Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Muslim Arabs, and non-Arabs.

Palestinian language, culture, and traditions were the by-product of all the previous civilizations.

Since the 7th century, long before British and Zionist colonialism, the official language was Arabic, with several Palestinian dialects specific to various areas, cities, or villages.

A distinct culture was present, albeit with similarities to the rest of the Levant, conquered by the same powers; It was all part of the caliphates and Greater Syria/ Bilad Al-Sham.

The concept of states posed by the question is a modern term that came from the West and cannot be applied to MENA historic wise.

Its implication came after national declarations of independence in the region from western colonial powers in the 20th century.

Palestinian culture is influenced by the many diverse cultures and religions which have existed in historical Palestine, from the early Canaanite period onward. Cultural contributions to the fields of art, literature, music, costume and cuisine express the Palestinian identity despite the geographical separation between the Palestinians from the Palestinian territories, Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the diaspora.

(Ismail Elmokadem ,”Book records Palestinian art history”.)

(Danny Moran. “Manchester Festival of Palestinian Literature”.)

The culture consists of food, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of Palestinian culture. The folklorist revival among Palestinian intellectuals such as Nimr Sirhan, Musa Allush, Salim Mubayyid, and the emphasized pre-Islamic (and pre-Hebraic) cultural roots, re-constructing Palestinian identity with a focus on Canaanite and Jebusite cultures. Such efforts seem to have borne fruit as evidenced in the organization of celebrations like the Qabatiya Canaanite festival and the annual Music Festival of Yabus by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.

(Salim Tamari (Winter 2004).”Lepers, Lunatics, and Saints: The Nativist Ethnography of Tawfiq Canaan and His Jerusalem Circle”)

Ali Qleibo, a Palestinian anthropologist, has critiqued Muslim historiography for assigning the beginning of Palestinian cultural identity to the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In describing the effect of such historiography, he writes:

Pagan origins are disavowed. As such the peoples who populated Palestine throughout history have discursively rescinded their history and religion as they adopted the religion, language, and culture of Islam.

That the peasant culture of the large fellahin class showed features of cultures other than Islam was a conclusion arrived at by some Western scholars and explorers who mapped and surveyed Palestine during the latter half of the 19th century, and these ideas were to influence 20th-century debates on Palestinian identity by local and international ethnographers. The contributions of the ‘nativist’ ethnographies produced by Tawfiq Canaan and other Palestinian writers and published in The Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society (1920–48) were driven by the concern that the “native culture of Palestine”, and in particular peasant society, was being undermined by the forces of modernity. Salim Tamari writes that:

Implicit in their scholarship (and made explicit by Canaan himself) was another theme, namely that the peasants of Palestine represent—through their folk norms … the living heritage of all the accumulated ancient cultures that had appeared in Palestine (principally the Canaanite, Philistine, Hebraic, Nabatean, Syrio-Aramaic and Arab).

(Ali Qleibo.” Palestinian Cave Dwellers and Holy Shrines: The Passing of Traditional Society)

(Parkes, 1970, pp.209–210)

(Salim Tamari . “Lepers, Lunatics, and Saints: The Nativist Ethnography of Tawfiq Canaan and his Jerusalem Circle”)

Palestinian heritage will always remain the most important spring. It is the inexhaustible well for the various Palestinian literature and arts, for its significance affirming the Palestinian identity and embedding the Palestinians’ unity with all its religious and ethnic sects. Belonging to such heritage, supporting and reviving it, one generation after the other, is a holy cultural mission, around which all arts and literature are gathered, surpassing its spatial boundaries to the wider global spheres.

In this manner, the Palestinian heritage is one of the major indestructible resilience for the Palestinians in their journey of struggle that spanned for more than seven decades until today, towards retrieving the historical rights that were deprived of them by the Israeli occupation.

Since the middle of the 20th century and even before that, the culture of Palestinian lands was exposed to tireless attempts to obliterate its identity that is as eternal as its holy lands, as persistent as its ancient alleys. Nevertheless, the innovations of Palestinians – even those deceased – remain as resilient as a frim wall against these attempts. Wherein the writings of Ghassan Kannafani are still inspiring a lot of intellectuals across the Arab world, let alone Palestine’s intellectuals. Poems of Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim are also still echoing in official and public cultural gatherings. And the caricature character “Handala” of the famous cartoonist Naji al-Ali is still adorning the necks of young people of different ages. Those and others have contributed to affirming the Palestinian heritage and reviving its aesthetics, in the context of forming the collective cultural awareness unifying the Palestinians.

Also, the bagpipe played with the Palestinian Dabke (a traditional group dance), alongside Oud and Qanun, are still some of the preserving means of the Palestinian culture, by clinging to its first melodies, which are plunged deep into Palestinian history.

In the fashion world, the distinctive hand-embroidered Palestinian dress sparkles with great craftsmanship, which can be found in every Palestinian house, In addition to men’s keffiyehs and Agal that are considered means of preserving the Palestinian culture alongside all forms of artistic and literary creativity.

Poster art is one of the arts Aesthetic and symbolic innovations that the Palestinians achieved, affirming their national beliefs through significant symbols like the Palestinian flag, the olive tree, and Dome of the Rock, to promote values of belonging, faith, national unity, and bonding with the land.

Palestinian Cultural Heritage:

The archaeological history of Palestine is very rich, with approximately 12,000 sites in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. As home to three monotheistic faiths that consider the city of Jerusalem a holy city, Palestine is the site of many holy shrines and unique architecture.

Palestinian Christians attend the weekly mass at Byzantine-era Saint George Orthodox Church in the West Bank village of Burqin near Jenin on December 16, 2011. AFP PHOTO/SAIF DAHLAH

Palestine has been influenced by various cultures which left their mark on the region since prehistoric times. Its cultural heritage goes back to the 4th century CE and beyond, when in the Eastern Roman Empire ancient churches such as Burqin and Abud arose in the West Bank.

The Umayyad period (661-750) brought early examples of Islamic architecture. This period heavily influenced the entire Levant region in terms of its political and tribal powers’ luxurious standard of living. This standard is to be found in the designs of complex palaces containing auditories, baths, mosques, courtyards, and gardens.

During the Mamluk period (1250-1517) various types of buildings, especially religious institutions, left their mark on the Palestinian architectural landscape. The holy city of Jerusalem flourished, with madrassas (Islamic schools) and zawiyas (buildings especially for Sufis, the mystic school of Islam) being promoted. Public facilities, such as khans (roadside inns where travelers could eat and rest), souks (markets), and hammams (baths), were also part of the urban planning of the city.

Under Ottoman rule (1517-1917) a significant human settlement took place in the region, as more villages emerged influenced by Ottoman culture.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the British Mandate to Palestine, a department of antiquities was established in the 1920s to implement excavations and archaeological surveys. In 1929, the British government enforced the Antiquities Law; most of the work was done by British specialists as Palestinians did not possess the required skills for research.

After the collapse of Palestinian society in 1948 and the establishment of the State of Israel, Palestinians saw a full-scale destruction of their cultural heritage in the aftermath of the Nakba. Israel’s attempts to acquire a political, historical and cultural legitimacy in Palestine resulted in the exploitation, destruction, and manipulation of the Palestinian cultural heritage. Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians were prevented from carrying out local excavations, and archaeological evidence from periods succeeding those of interest to the Israelis – classical, Byzantine, Islamic – was often neglected. Hundreds of archaeological sites have been looted and plundered during the years of occupation, and there has been an active illegal trade in cultural property.

In the 1970s, national interest in re-affirming ‘Palestinian national identity’ was rekindled and Palestinians began to safeguard what remained of the local heritage: i.e. historical buildings, monuments, archaeological sites, artifacts, and art objects. Following the Palestinian-Israeli agreement in 1993, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities was created, which sought to invigorate research. The Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage (DACH) was established under complex circumstances. Despite its lack of archaeological records and inadequate logistical support and equipment, the department sought to preserve some of the most endangered archaeological sites and historic buildings.

A Palestinian worker inspects the ancient archaeological site of Anthedon Harbour, also know as “al-Blakhiyah”, in Gaza City on April 25, 2013. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED

Architecture of Palestine:

The architecture of Palestine covers a vast historical time frame and several different styles and influences over the ages. The urban architecture of Palestine prior to 1850 was relatively sophisticated. While it belonged to the greater geographical and cultural context of the Levant and the Arab world, it constituted a distinct tradition, “significantly different from the traditions of Syria, Lebanon or Egypt.” Nonetheless, the Palestinian townhouse shared in the same basic conceptions regarding the arrangement of living space and apartment types commonly seen throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The rich diversity and underlying unity of the architectural culture of this wider region stretching from the Balkans to North Africa was a function of the exchange fostered by the caravans of the trade routes, and the extension of Ottoman rule over most of this area, beginning in the early 16th century through until the end of World War I.(Ron Fuchs in Necipoğlu, 1998, p.173)

Of the architecture of Palestine, now divided between Israel and the occupied territories, Andrew Petersen distinguishes between the architecture of Israel and the architecture of the people of the West Bank and Gaza. The latter is described as,

“Mostly the indigenous inhabitants of the country, whose architecture has developed within the landscape for at least the last two thousand years,” while the architecture of Israel, established in 1948 with a largely immigrant population, is described as “[…] alien to the region.”(Petersen, 2002,p.229.)

Ancient Architecture:

Archaeological artifacts imparting information as to the nature of monumental construction, such as city walls, palaces, tomb, and cult centers, in ancient Palestine are abundant. The paucity of written records, and the incompleteness of archaeological remains of ancient Palestinian housing available to early scholars, resulted in biblical archaeologists often looking to modern Palestinian houses to determine how ancient housing in Palestine was constructed. Beebe notes that a full account of the architectural details of ancient Palestinian housing is rarely possible, but that written records and archaeological findings available to scholars at his time of writing (1968), provide “A quite reliable picture of houses in the common life of ancient Palestine.”

Excavations in Beidha in modern-day Jordan indicate that the earliest Palestinian houses were constructed about 9,000 years ago. Consisting of stone foundations with a superstructure made of mud-brick, they were simple structures, most often not more than one room with a single doorway, and likely without windows. Four different floor plans preserved from this time period have been identified: multagonal circular, true circular, square, and rectangular. Roofs were normally made of wooden supports upon which woven reed mats or brush were laid atop of which were added layers of clay mortar, rolled smooth to make an impermeable surface. Many of these early houses contained burial chambers beneath the floor. Food was prepared outside the house where the storage silos were also located. Houses were grouped closely together, and sometimes shared a back or side wall in common.

Among the foundations discovered in the Beidha excavations were those of a six-sided, one-room house dated to 6800 B.C. Circular house foundations in Beidha dating to about 6000 B.C. resembled those found at pre-Pottery Neolithic A Jericho. The floors of the Jericho round houses differed in that they were sunken beneath ground level, with wooden steps leading down into the house. This sunken feature is interpreted as a sign of continuous occupation of these houses over a long time. By 5,000 B.C., the houses in Jericho were rectangular, with more than one room. These rooms had straight walls, but with rounded corners that may be a remnant of the prior roundhouse building tradition. Some of the doorframes were reinforced by timber, perhaps to reduce the wear and tear to the mud-brick structure that would be incurred from constant human contact. The floors were covered with hard lime plaster, extending up the walls. By this time, water and grain storage had moved to house interiors, while thick layers of charcoal uncovered in house courtyards indicate that food preparations were carried out there.

(H. Keith Beebe (May 1968).”Ancient Palestinian Dwellings”.)

Classical Antiquity:

Five types of housing are seen in the Roman-Byzantine period. Two of these, the simple house and the courtyard house, typify the domestic architecture of Palestine for some three millennia into the modern age. The other three, seen as characteristic of the Roman-Byzantine period, are the big mansion (domus), the farmhouse, and the shophouse.

The relatively high number of domus structures dated to the late Hellenistic and Roman periods reveal the extent of Greco-Roman influence on domestic architecture in Palestine at that time. The oldest known examples of this kind of structure in Galilee were situated in Philoteria/Bet Yerah and date to the late Hellenistic period. Examples of the farmhouse type found thus far date exclusively to the Herodian period.

(Moxnes,1997,p.49-53)

Architectural remains from the early Christian period are scant in Palestine. Scholars like Walter E. Rast attribute this to the relative powerlessness of the early Christian communities prior to the institutionalization of the Christian church. The earliest known building from this period, a church built in octagonal form, dates to the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE. While there is evidence that Christians venerated a number of sites associated with Jesus at this early time, very few structures have been found that were constructed at this time. One notable exception is evidence of a pre-4th century CE structure that was found under the mosaics of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.(Rast,1992, p.179)

Arab caliphate period (640-1099):

Major changes to the monumental architecture of Palestine followed the Arab Islamic conquest of the region in 637 CE. The Roman and Byzantine churches, predominant features in many towns and villages in Palestine over the previous six centuries, were quickly joined by mosques, though the construction of churches continued. Much of the construction in this period was centered in Jerusalem. One of the most famous early monuments expressing the new role of Islam in the region was the Dome of the Rock (Qabbat as-Sakhra). Dedicated in 692 CE, the structure was built over the rock where Islamic tradition holds Abraham acceded to God’s request that he sacrifice his son. The Al-Aqsa mosque, built shortly thereafter, was reconstructed many times since with its form today deriving from a renovation carried out during the Crusader period in Palestine. While these buildings and the construction of the Royal Palace established Jerusalem as a religious and cultural center of Islam, the administrative capital of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates was Ramla, a new town established in the years following the Arab conquest. (Rast,1992, pp.195 – 196.) and (Petersen,2002,p.230.)

Dome of the Rock viewed through the Old City’s Cotton Gate (Bab al-Qattanin)

The minaret of the White Mosque. The White Mosque was built in Ramla by the caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-717 and was completed by his successor Umar II by 720. (“White Mosque”. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.) and (Pringle, 1998,pp.182-185)

Archaeological finds indicate that the major cities of the Byzantine period (Lydda, Bisan, Tiberias, Gaza, Caesarea, and Acre continued to be occupied in this period and a number of new settlements were built outside the cities and in the Negev as well. Of these, some were agricultural centres while others were palaces or summer resorts for the elite. Examples include the palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, also known locally as Hisham’s Palace, outside Jericho and Khirbat al-Minya near Tiberias. (Petersen,2002,p.230.)

Khirbat al-Mafjar is described as, ” the most elaborate palace of the period […] in the state of Palestine.” A statue of the Caliph al-Walid II, who likely commissioned its construction between 743–748, stands at the entrance to the palatial baths. The architectural form and detailing exhibit a melange of Sassanian and Syrian styles. (Fletcher,1996, p.584)

An Arabic Umayyad mosaic from Khirbat al-Mafjar in Jericho

One of the earliest Umayyad palaces was known as Al-Sinnabra and served as a winter resort to Mu’awiya, Marwan I, and other caliphs in Umayyad-era Palestine (c. 650-704 AD).

The ruins of al-Sinnabra were initially misidentified as belonging to the Byzantine-Roman period; it and other sites in the process of being similarly re-dated are said by archaeologists to indicate an architectural continuity between the Roman and early Arab empires.

(Whitcomb in Szuchman, 2009, p.241)

(“Ruins thought to be synagogue was Umayyad palace: 7th-century Arab palace identified in Israel”. Al-Arabiya.)

(“Ancient Muslim Ruins Found in Israel … Again”. Fox News.)

Monumental construction was rarer during the later Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties due to increasing political fragmentation. Two large monuments that can be dated to the 10th and 11th centuries are fortified structures designed to guard against Byzantine invasion. The ruins of Kfar Lam, a fort made up of rectangular enclosures built of thin slabs of kurkar stone with solid corner towers and semi-circular buttresses, can still be seen today, though the village of the same name was depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. Another fort at Ashdod is of the same basic construction but includes a line of marble columns in the center that was taken from a nearby Classical site. Just outside that fort lie the remains of a building topped with a dome that had holes cut into it to let in the light which is thought to have served as a bathhouse.(Petersen,2002,p.231.)

The ruins of the fort at Kfar Lam

Crusader period (1099-1291)

The most well-known architectural legacy left by the Crusaders were the fortified castles built in prominent positions throughout Palestine. A typical Crusader castle consisted of a square or rectangular tower surrounded by irregular enclosure walls that followed the shape of the land and famous castles include those of Belvoir and Monfort.

Kawkab al-Hawa or Belvoir fortress

Another major focus of the Crusader building effort were churches. Hundreds of churches were constructed during the Crusader period in Palestine, with 60 built-in Jerusalem alone. Some of these were built on the ruins of earlier Byzantine churches; in other cases, mosques were transformed into churches.

The Dome of the Rock was converted into a church given in the care of the Augustinians, while the Al-Aqsa mosque was transformed into a palace by Baldwin I. Fine carved capitals and sculptures were a feature of the Crusader churches. After Jerusalem was reconquered by the Ayyubids in 1187, the Crusader presence in Palestine shrank to be centered around Acre where some of the finest Crusader architecture was built until their final defeat by the Mamluks there in 1291.

The influence of Crusader architecture on the Islamic architecture of Palestine that followed was both direct and indirect. The direct influence can be seen in the cushion-shaped voussoirs and folded cross-vaults that were adapted for use in the Mamluk buildings of Jerusalem. Additionally, Arab castles constructed following the Crusades, like the later phases of the Ajlun Castle (Qa’lat Rabad) and Nimrod Castle (Qa’lat Namrud), adopted the irregular shapes introduced by the Crusaders. The influence could even be seen in religious architecture, such that the minaret of the Great Mosque in Ramla bears a striking resemblance to a Crusader tower. The indirect influence manifested in the development of the counter-Crusade which saw propaganda incorporated into the architecture, specifically via the use of monumental inscriptions and carved elements. For example, on the Baybars Bridge outside Lod, the lion of Baybars, the famous Mamluk leader and warrior, can be seen catching a mouse.

(Petersen, 2002, p.231.)

Mamluk period (1250-1517):

The Mamluks focused on revitalizing the road network, which was essential to their postal system in Palestine. Numerous bridges and khans were built, some of which constituted larger compounds complete with a mosque and minaret. An impressive example of one of these larger khan compounds can be seen in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. Some of the Mamluk bridges also remain standing, such as Jisr Jindas (“Jindas Bridge”) which is flanked by two lions and sports Arabic inscriptions.

Also under Mamluk rule, the construction of religious buildings such as madrassas, mosques, khanqas and commemorative mausoleums proliferated in Palestine and these constitute some the finest examples of medieval architecture in the Middle East. Mamluk architecture in Jerusalem was characterized by the use of joggled voussoirs, ablaq masonry, muqarnas mouldings, and multi-coloured marble inlay.

In Ramla, the Crusader church was converted into a mosque and the Great Mosque there was rebuilt. One of the most beautiful Mamluk era structures is the tomb of Abu Hurayra in Yibna. With a triple-domed portico, the central area is also covered with a dome set on squinches. Decoration is restricted to the mihrab and doorway which are covered in inlaid marble and inscriptions.

(Petersen, 2002, p.232.)

Mausoleum of Abu Huraira, in Yibna

Ottoman period (1516-1918):

New architectural techniques introduced by the Ottoman rulers were gradually adopted, though not universally. Jerusalem was redeveloped under Ottoman rule, its walls rebuilt, the Dome of the Rock retiled and the water system renovated. Acre also underwent a massive renovation during this time and it is the best example of urban Ottoman architecture in Palestine with several khans, two bathhouses, three main souqs, at least ten mosques, and a citadel. The el-Jazzar Mosque is particularly impressive with its pencil-like minaret and large central dome. Hammam al-Basha features fine decorative detailing in the form of Armenian tilework and inlaid marble floors. Houses in Acre built during this period range between two and four stories and many have wooden ceilings decorated with paintwork. Other important cities during the period of Ottoman rule include Hebron, Nablus, Ramla, Jaffa, Safad, and Tiberias. Most of these cities were surrounded by fortifications, and the best surviving example from this period is the wall re-constructed around Tiberias by Zahir al-Umar. A Palestinian Arab ruler in the mid-18th century.

Entrance to the el-Jazzar Mosque, with the sabil to the right of the steps

Entrance to the el-Jazzar Mosque, with the sabil to the right of the steps

Housing varied by region, with mud-brick houses common along the coast, of which there are few surviving examples today. Predominant features of stone houses were the domed roofs which in the 18th century were often decorated with swirls, rosettes, and semi-circles formed of carved plaster. Roofs in the Galilee region differed in their use of transverse stone arches that supported short beams over which the roof was laid.

Ottoman fortresses that served as garrisons for the Janissaries (Ottoman troops) were abundant outside of Jerusalem. These large square or rectangular structures with square corner towers can still be seen at Ras al-Ain near Northern Jaffa (Tel Aviv), Khan al-Tujjar near Kafr Kanna, and Qal’at Burak south of Jerusalem.

(Petersen,2002, p.232.)

British Mandate period (1918-1948)

The British sent a succession of six town planners to Mandate Palestine to try to manage intercommunal tensions that were a feature of this period. One of these was Charles Robert Ashbee, a prominent British Arts and Crafts designer, who served as Civic Adviser to the City of Jerusalem (1919-1922) and as a professional adviser to the Town Planning Commission. Described as “the most pro-Arab and anti-Zionist” of the six planners, Ashbee’s view of Jerusalem, “was colored by a romantic sense of the vernacular.” Aiming to protect this Palestinian vernacular and the city’s secular and traditional fabric, Ashbee personally oversaw conservation and repair work in the city and revived the craft industry there to repair the damaged Dome of the Rock.

(King, 2004,p.168)

Building materials and techniques:

Two types of houses predominated in Palestine from the second millennium BCE through to the modern era: the simple house found commonly in rural areas and the courtyard house found mostly in urban centers. Simple houses could be made from stone or excavated in the rock, but most of the houses of this form common to the peasants of Palestine were likely made from sand-dried brick. Much of the traditional domestic architecture of modern Palestine, particularly in rural areas, was constructed using sun-dried brick, rather than stone. According to Tawfiq Canaan, this building tradition, in use at the beginning of the 20th century, was the same as that used by peasants in the 1st century who lived in sun-dried brick houses covered with tree branches; the upper floor serving as the family’s living quarters, with the first floor used to house livestock.

Interior of the house of a Palestinian Christian family in Jerusalem, portrayed in a print by W. H. Bartlett, c.1850

The most characteristic type of domestic building in Palestine, according to Halvor Moxnes, was the courtyard house, consisting of several houses enclosed by a surrounding wall that shared a common courtyard to which there was one entrance. Members of the same or related families who are assumed to have enjoyed a good economic situation lived in such structures which generally spanned an area of 200 to 300 meters. Each would have had access to two or more rooms and used the courtyard for domestic tasks, such as the preparation of food, the making and washing of clothes, along with other agrarian and occupational tasks.

Old Palestinian houses

Petersen identified the main building materials used in Palestine in modern times as stone and unbaked brick, noting that wood and baked brick are hardly ever used. He describes some of the main types of stone used in the architecture of Palestine, which varied by region. For example, kurkar, a silicious limestone, was used in building along the Mediterranean coast while basalt blocks were used in the northern part of the Jordan Rift Valley and the Sea of Galilee, often in conjunction with limestone for architectural detailing. Limestone of various colors ranging from white to pink was used in Ramla, Hebron, and Jerusalem, with the latter also making use of various types of marble. Dolomite, a hard limestone with magnesium, was used primarily in Galilee. Mud-brick structures tended to be more common in the Jordan Valley and coastal plain where the stone was not readily available, and the best surviving examples of mud-brick architecture can be found today in Jericho.

Unique to the architecture of Palestine was the use of masonry cross-vaulting that was covered in mud over a center supported wood formwork to create domical square spaces. The use of vaulting in construction was often due to a shortage of wood, but it was also preferred because of its permanence. Whereas in other places in the Arab world, vaulting was reserved for monumental structures, such as palaces, mosques, and tombs, or below-ground storage areas, in Palestine, it was also used in the construction of homes. Another type of vaulting, groin vaults made of stone that are slightly parabolic in section, are said by Frederich Ragette to be a standard unit of construction in Palestine.

(Moxnes,1997, pp.49-51),(Petersen,2002,p.230.), and (Ragette,2003,pp.41-42)

Vernacular architecture:

The writings of Tawfiq Canaan which describe and survey Palestinian Arab folk traditions have provided much material for studies of Palestinian Arab vernacular architecture. Characteristic of this architecture is the harmony between site and structure, noted and celebrated by many other Western and Arab writers, and which also emerges as a theme in Canaan’s work. For example, Canaan’s 1930 report on a Palestinian house reads:

Those who traveled in the country observe the main characteristic which marks the construction of the majority of the Palestinian houses, namely the preference for straight lines, manifest in the walls, the doors, the windows, and most roofs. Owing to this characteristic, as well as to its simple square form and its greyish color, the Palestinian peasant’s house harmonizes excellently with the landscape and is more pleasing than most of the modern, occidental houses found in the modern colonies which have recently sprung up in Palestine. The fellah dwelling is also more suited to the climate of the country.(Slyomovics, 1998,p.84)

The sense of “rootedness” and “unmediated connectedness” which characterized Palestinian Arab vernacular architecture was also admired by Yoram Segal in his essay on “The Traditional House in the Arab Villages of the Galilee”, published in the Israeli journal Tvai. Describing the relationship of the fellah to his house, which he builds and maintains with his own hands, Segal places emphasis on the sense “of belonging, of identification, and of strong emotional attachment.” According to Sandra Sufian and Mark Levine, sabra architects who searched for a sense of nativeness in which to root their work, emulated this local style, appropriating the native as their own. Further, in order to Israelize this Palestinian Arab vernacular style, it was depicted “As biblical architecture, as an uncontaminated primitive origin of architecture, or simply as Mediterranean.”

(Sufian and Levine,2007,pp.226 – 228)

Palestinian village house:

The Palestinian village house is the best known house type to Western scholars. It is described and documented in travelogues, essays and photographs from the 17th century onward. The house was divided into two areas: a lower level known as qa’ al-bayt near or at the entrance of the home and an elevated area known as the mastaba used for living and eating.

The size and uses of the lower level vary from house to house. In some cases, it was a small area near the door, only 10-15 centimeters lower than the rest of the floor where visitors would take off their shoes before entering the house. In other cases, it would be large area housing animals with an elevated gallery that allowed for use of the space below with space above used for storage.

They had a farm on their roof because vegetables were cheap and easy and they cooked outside to let the heat out.

(Ron Fuchs in Necipoğlu, 1998, p.158)

Masterbuilders/Mu’allim Al-Bina:

In Palestinian villages prior to 1948, there was at least one al-banna (expert stonemason and builder). When his skills would take him to work outside his village, he would be called mu’allim al -bina’ (master-builder). His building skills were recognized by his society, whose labor would contribute to the construction of a stone house. Susan Slyomovics writes of one master-builder from the Abu El-Haija clan who constructed most of the stone houses in Ayn Hawd. Muhammed ‘Abd al-Qadir, born in 1916, apprenticed with a masterbuilder in Haifa beginning at the age of eight. Over his long career, he built over 75 houses in Ayn Hawd, and several schoolhouses in neighboring villages, and was among a “limited number of individuals […] sought for their building skills and aesthetic expressiveness.”

Some master-builders were commissioned to work beyond the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine. Abu Fawaz al-Malkawi from the village of Umm Qays on the east side of the Lake of Tiberias recalls that his father commissioned work from two master-builders from Safad, Abu Salim and Ali Safadi, to build a guesthouse and mosque in the 1930s. Ali Safadi was renowned for his skill in vaulted architecture and with materials imported from Safad by donkey, he constructed a two-story summer guesthouse with four separate ‘aqd (vaulted rooms), one for each of the client’s wives.

(Slyomovics,1998, pp.91- 95.)

Palestinian costumes

Foreign travelers to Palestine in the 19th and early 20th centuries often commented on the rich variety of the costumes worn, particularly by the fellaheen or village women. Many of the handcrafted garments were richly embroidered and the creation and maintenance of these items played a significant role in the lives of the region’s women.

Old Palestinian woman from Jaffa, 1889

Though experts in the field trace the origins of Palestinian costumes to ancient times, there are no surviving clothing artifacts from this early period against which the modern items might be definitively compared. Influences from the various empires to have ruled Palestine, such as Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and the Byzantine empire, among others, have been documented by scholars largely based on the depictions in art and descriptions in the literature of costumes produced during these times.

Until the 1940s, traditional Palestinian costumes reflected a woman’s economic and marital status and her town or district of origin, with knowledgeable observers discerning this information from the fabric, colors, cut, and embroidery motifs (or lack thereof) used in the apparel.

(Jane Waldron Grutz (January–February 1991). “Woven Legacy, Woven Language”)

Old photo for a Palestinian woman, 1890, Palestine

Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum, notes that Palestinian clothing from the early 19th century to World War I show “traces of similar styles of clothing represented in art over 3,000 years ago.”

Hanan Munayyer, collector and researcher of Palestinian clothing, sees examples of proto-Palestinian attire in artifacts from the Canaanite period (1500 BCE) and Israelite period such as Egyptian paintings depicting Canaanites and Israelites in A-shaped garments. Munayyer says that from 1200 BC to 1940 AD, all Palestinian dresses were cut from natural fabrics in a similar A-line shape with triangular sleeves. This shape is known to archaeologists as the “Syrian tunic” and appears in artifacts such as an ivory engraving from Megiddo dating to 1200 BC.

The shift from woven to embroidered designs was made possible by the artisanal manufacture of fine needles in Damascus in the 8th century. Embroidered dress sections, like the square chest piece (qabbeh) and decorated back panel (shinyar) prevalent in Palestinian dresses, are also found in costumes from 13th century Andalusia. Each village in Palestine had motifs that served as identifying markers for local women. Common patterns included the eight-pointed star, the moon, birds, palm leaves, stairs, and diamonds or triangles used as amulets to ward off the Evil eye.

(Palestinian women used clothes to make more than a fashion statement”. University of Chicago News Office.)

(Pat McDonnell Twair (October 2006). “Sovereign Threads”. Palestine Heritage Foundation).

(Denise O’Neal (September–October 2005). “Threads of Tradition: An Exhibition of Palestinian Folk Dress at Antiochian Village”. Palestine Heritage Association.)

Palestinian woman from Bethlehem/Palestine,1898

In Palestine: Ancient and Modern (1949) produced by the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Winifred Needler writes that:

No actual clothing from ancient Palestine has survived and detailed descriptions are lacking in the ancient literature. In their length, fullness, and use of pattern these modern garments bear a general resemblance to the costumes of West Asiatic people seen in ancient Egyptian and Assyrian monuments. The dress of the daughters of Zion mentioned in Isaiah 3:22-24, with ‘changeable suits of apparel,’ ‘mantles,’ ‘wimples,’ ‘hoods,’ ‘vails,’ and ‘girdles’, suggests that feminine city fashions of Isaiah’s day may have resembled modern Palestinian country dress.

Needler also cites well-preserved costume artifacts from late Roman-Egyptian times consisting of “loose linen garments with patterned woven bands of wool, shoes and sandals and linen caps,” as comparable to modern Palestinian costumes.

(Needler,1949 & p.87)

Palestinian women from Bethlehem ,1869

Palestinian women, Jerusalem/Palestine,1910

Palestinian girl of Bethlehem in costume, Holy Land, between 1890 and 1900

Social and gender variations:

Traditionally, Palestinian society has been divided into three groups: villagers, townspeople, and Bedouins. Palestinian costumes reflected differences in the physical and social mobility enjoyed by men and women in these different groups in Palestinian society.

The villagers, referred to in Arabic as fallaheen, lived in relative isolation, so that the older, more traditional costume designs were found most frequently in the dress of village women. The specificity of local village designs was such that,“A Palestinian woman’s village could be deduced from the embroidery on her dress.”(Weir,1989,p.68.)

Townspeople, (Arabic: baladin) had increased access to news and an openness to outside influences that were naturally also reflected in the costumes, with town fashions exhibiting a more impermanent nature than those of the village. By the early 20th century, well-to-do women (and men) in the cities had mostly adopted a Western style of dress. Typically, Ghada Karmi recalls in her autobiography how in the 1940s in the wealthy Arab district of Katamon, Jerusalem, only the maids, who were local village women, donned traditional Palestinian dresses.

Due to their nomadic lifestyle, the Bedouin costume reflected tribal affiliations, rather than their affiliations to a localized geographic area.

As in most of the Middle East, clothing for men had a more uniform style than women’s clothing.

Weaving and fabrics:

Woolen fabrics for everyday use were produced by weavers in Majdal, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. The wool could be from sheep, goats, or camels. Weaving among the Bedouins was and is still traditionally carried out by women to create domestic items, such as tents, rugs, and pillow covers. Thread is spun from sheep’s wool, colored with natural dyes, and woven into a strong fabric using a ground loom.

Linen woven on hand-looms and cotton were mainstay fabrics for embroidered garments, though cotton was not widely used until the end of the 19th century when it began to be imported from Europe. Fabrics could be left uncolored or dyed in various colors, the most popular being deep blue using indigo, others being black, red, and green. In 1870 there were ten dyeing workshops in the Murestan quarter of Jerusalem, employing around 100 men.

According to Shelagh Weir, the colour produced by indigo (nileh) was believed to ward off the evil eye, and frequently used for coats in the Galilee and dresses in southern Palestine.Indigo dyed heavy cotton was also used to make sirwals or shirwals, cotton trousers worn by men and women that were baggy from the waist down but tailored tight around the calves or ankles. The wealthier the region, the darker the blue produced; cloth could be dipped in the vat and left to set as many as nine times. Dresses with the heaviest and most intricate embroidery, often described as ‘black’, were made of heavy cotton or linen of a very dark blue. Travellers to Palestine in the 19th and 20th centuries represented pastoral scenes of peasant women donned in blue going about their daily tasks, in art and literature.

Because of the hot climate and for reasons of prestige, dresses were cut voluminously, particularly in the south, often running twice the length of the human body with the excess being wrapped up into a belt. For more festive dresses in southern Palestine, silks where imported from Syria with some from Egypt. For example, a fashion of the Bethlehem area was to interlay stripes of indigo-blue linen with those of silk.

Fashions in towns followed those in Damascus, Syria. Some producers in Aleppo, Hama, and Damascus produced styles specifically for the Palestinian market. Weavers in Homs produced belts and some shawls exclusively for export to Nablus and Jerusalem.

The production of cloth for traditional Palestinian costumes and export throughout the Arab world was a key industry of the destroyed village of Majdal. Majdalawi fabric was produced by a male weaver on a single treadle loom using black and indigo cotton threads combined with fuchsia and turquoise silk threads. While the village no longer exists today, the craft of Majdalawi weaving continues as part of a cultural preservation project run by the Atfaluna Crafts organization and the Arts and Crafts Village in Gaza City.

(Gillow, John (2010) Textiles of the Islamic World. Thames and Hudson.p.110-112)

(Kawar, Widad Kamel (2011) Threads of Identity.p.41-42,185)

(“Craft traditions from Palestine”. Sunbula.)

(Balfour-Paul,1997,p.143-144)

*(Baldensperger,1903,p.164)

(Weir, Palestinian Costumes.p.26.)

Majdali weaving.Gaza 1950’s

Palestinian woman from Ramla/Palestine ,1920

Palestinian women from the city of lod/Palestine,1920

Diverse motifs were favored in Palestinian embroidery and costume as Palestine’s long history and position on the international trade routes exposed it to multiple influences. Before the appearance of synthetically dyed threads, the colors used were determined by the materials available for the production of natural dyes: “reds” from insects and pomegranate, “dark blues” from the indigo plant: “yellow” from saffron flowers, soil and vine leaves, “brown” from oak bark, and “purple” from crushed murex shells.Shahin writes that the use of red, purple, indigo blue, and saffron reflected the ancient color schemes of the Canaanite and Philistine coast, and that Islamic green and Byzantine black were more recent additions to the traditional palette. Shelagh Weir, author of Palestinian costume (1989) and Palestinian embroidery (1970), writes that cross-stitch motifs may have been derived from oriental carpets, and that couching motifs may have origins in the vestments of Christian priests or the gold thread work of Byzantium. Simple and stylized versions of the cypress tree (saru) motif are found throughout Palestine.

Palestinian Village woman, circa 1900

Longstanding traditions of embroidery were found in the Upper and Lower Galilee, in the Judean Hills and on the coastal plain.Research by Weir on embroidery distribution patterns in Palestine indicates there was little history of embroidery in the area from the coast to the Jordan River that lay to the south of Mount Carmel and the Sea of Galilee and to the north of Jaffa and from Nablus to the north. Decorative elements on women’s clothing in this area consisted primarily of braidwork and appliqué. “Embroidery signifies a lack of work,” an Arab proverb recorded by Gustaf Dalman in this area in 1937 has been put forward as a possible explanation for this regional variation.

Village women embroidering in locally-distinctive styles was a tradition that was at its height in Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Women would sew in items to represent their heritage, ancestry, and affiliations. Motifs were derived from basic geometric forms such as squares and rosettes.Triangles, used as amulets, were often incorporated to ward off the “evil eye”, a common superstition in the Middle East. Large blocks of intricate embroidery were used on the chest panel to protect the vulnerable chest area from the evil eye, bad luck and illness. To avoid potential jinxes from other women, an imperfection was stitched in each garment to distract the focus of those looking.

Girls would begin producing embroidered garments, a skill generally passed to them by their grandmothers, beginning at the age of seven. Before the 20th century, most young girls were not sent to school, and much of their time outside of household chores was spent creating clothes, often for their marriage trousseau (or jhaz) which included everything they would need in terms of apparel, encompassing everyday and ceremonial dresses, jewelry, veils, headdresses, undergarments, kerchiefs, belts and footwear.

Girls in Bethlehem costume pre-1918, Bonfils Portrait

Palestinian woman with beautiful jewelries from Jerusalem/Palestine,1889

In the late 1930s, new influences introduced by European pattern books and magazines promoted the appearance of curvilinear motifs, like flowers, vines or leaf arrangements, and introduced the paired bird motif which became very popular in central Palestinian regions. John Whitting, who put together parts of the MOIFA collection, has argued that “anything later than 1918 was not indigenous Palestinian design, but had input from foreign pattern books brought in by foreign nuns and Swiss nannies”. Others say that the changes did not set in before the late 1930s, up to which time embroidery motifs local to certain villages could still be found. Geometric motifs remained popular in the Galilee and southern regions, like the Sinai Desert.

(“Palestinian costume: Background”. Palestine Costume Archive.)

(“Palestinian Embroidery”. USAID)

(Shahin,2005,p.71-73)

(Weir,1970, pp.13-14.)

(“Palestinian women used clothes to make more than a fashion statement”. University of Chicago)

(Stillman,1979,p.ix)

Old Palestinian dress embroidered from the Galilee region/Palestine, 1932

In rural areas, women’s dress is traditionally richly adorned with embroidery. There can be differences per region or even per village. The basic cloth is coloured black or white. The embroidery is made up of threaded cross-stitches, the colours varying per region: red (Ramallah), ochre (Hebron), lilac (Gaza) and blue (Sinai). However, the geometric embroidery motifs display large variations: the palm tree leaf (Ramallah), the cypress in various styles (Ramallah, Jaffa, Hebron), a pendant (Gaza), an amulet (Jaffa), or the ‘pasha’s tent’ (Hebron). Recently married women wear bright colours, widows in mourning dark colours. Embroidery is a living art, subject to changes in motifs and use of colours.

Palestinian women from Nazareth/Palestine , 1900

With the rise of Palestinian nationalism, the production of traditional Palestinian clothing migrated from the rural areas to the cities. Far away from home, in the refugee camps outside of Palestine, women continue to uphold this traditional skill, meticulously using the same colour and embroidery motifs of their region of origin.

Today, the older women still wear traditional embroidered dresses in everyday life. Young women, however, generally regard them as party dresses. In homes, numerous items such as cushions, address books, and tissue boxes are also adorned with embroidered covers. The tables are covered with embroidered cloths and framed examples of fine embroidery sometimes hang on the walls. Christians often depict Biblical scenes in their embroidery.

In the past decades, numerous centres have been founded in Palestine and the refugee camps dedicated to preserving the art of embroidery. Nationalist motives especially played a role here since these centres assist in the preservation of the Palestinian identity in dire circumstances. Moreover, the production of embroidery has become a source of income for women whose husbands are unemployed or in prison.

In contrast to Christians, Muslim women wear a hijab (headscarf) or a large veil outdoors or in the presence of those other than their direct family. This applies especially to women in rural areas and women who have migrated from rural areas to the cities. Many women wear a dress (jilbab) reaching from the shoulders to the ankles, sometimes topped with a vest or jacket. It is uncommon for women to wear the niqab (veil) in the streets (although Bedouin women do wear a veil). Young females, however, usually wear western clothing now.

Palestinian women collecting water in Haifa/Palestine,1933

Palestinian family from Jaffa/Palestine,1880

Men’s clothing:

The traditional dress of men in Palestine and elsewhere in the Bilad al-Sham is the jalabiya, a loose-fitting cotton garment reaching from the shoulders to the ankles. In the evenings and during the autumn and winter, a woollen mantle, the abaya, is worn on top. The head is covered with a turban, made of a long strip of cotton cloth. The higher the social position, the higher the turban.

Bedouin men traditionally cover their heads with a keffiyeh or kufiya, a square piece of cotton. This was folded diagonally and then coiled around the head to protect the face from the sun and gusting desert sand winds. The keffiyeh is either white, or black and white checkered, and is held in place by a tightly knotted black band, the agal, when it is worn on the head.

In the course of the 20th century, the keffiyeh and the agal became the symbol of Palestinian nationalism, with non-Bedouins also starting to wear them. It was the trademark of the late Yasser Arafat.

During the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the urban elite replaced the turban with the tarbush, a red felt hat in the form of a flower pot, topped by a black tassel. Western dress fashions also started to be adopted, resulting in mixed styles, such as wearing a jacket over the jalabiya (which can still be viewed in rural areas and in the cities).

Some professions, such as the Jaffa boatmen, had their own unique uniforms. The horse or mule drivers (mukaaris), widely used between the towns in an age before proper roads, wore a short embroidered jacket with long sleeves slit open on the inside, red shoes and a small yellow woolen cap with a tight turban.

(Baldensperger.1903.p.340)

During the British Mandate, western fashion became more influential. Today, men in both the cities and in rural areas predominantly wear western clothes. This especially applies to young men.

Palestinian child from Jerusalem/Palestine,1898

Palestinian men in Jericho/Palestine,1935

Palestinian men in Sea cafe /Haifa/Palestine,1933

Palestinian child selling Palestine newspaper in Haifa,1921

Palestinian man and his son, Jerusalem/Palestine,1930

The 1948 Palestinian exodus led to a disruption in traditional modes of dress and customs, as many women who had been displaced could no longer afford the time or money to invest in complex embroidered garments. Widad Kawar was among the first to recognize the new styles developing after the Nakba.

Front of dress (qabbeh) sold as cushion cover, Ramallah, 2000.

New styles began to appear in the 1960s. For example, the “six-branched dress” is named after the six wide bands of embroidery running down from the waist. These styles came from the refugee camps, particularly after 1967. Individual village styles were lost and replaced by an identifiable “Palestinian” style.

The shawal, a style popular in the West Bank and Jordan before the First Intifada, probably evolved from one of the many welfare embroidery projects in the refugee camps. It was a shorter and narrower fashion, with a western cut.

Income-generating projects in the refugee camps and the Occupied Territories began to use embroidery motifs on non-clothing items such as accessories, bags, and purses. With the evolution of the different groups, distinct styles are beginning to appear. Sulafa the UNRWA project in the Gaza Strip has exhibited work at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Atfaluna, also from Gaza, working with deaf people, sells its products through the internet. West Bank groups include the Bethlehem Arabs Women’s Union, Surif Women’s Cooperative, Idna, the Melkite Embroidery Project (Ramallah). In Lebanon Al-Badia, working in the Refugee Camps is known for high-quality embroidery in silk thread on dresses made of linen. The Jerusalem-based Fair Trade organization Sunbula is working to improve the quality and presentation of items so that they can be sold in European, American, and Japanese markets.

(Saca, Iman (2006). Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing.)

(Weir, Shelagh (1989) Palestinian Costume.pp.88,113)

(Skinner, Margarita (2007) PALESTINIAN EMBROIDERY MOTIVES. A Treasury of Stitches 1850-1950.p.21.)

Geography:

• Jerusalem: The Jerusalem elite followed Damascus fashions which in turn were influenced by those of the Ottoman court in Istanbul. Fabrics were imported from Syria with several specialist shops on the Mamilla Road. Wedding dresses were ordered from Aleppo and Turkey. From the beginning of the 20th century, the upper classes began to wear European styles.(Kawar, Widad Kamel (2011) Threads of Identity.pp. 41,177,179,191.)
• Galilee: Collections reveal that there was a distinct Galilee women’s style from at least the middle of the 19th century. The standard form was a coat (Jillayeh), tunic, and trousers. Cross-stitch was not used much, the women preferring patchwork patterns of diamond and rectangular shapes, as well as other embroidery techniques. In the 1860s, H.B. Tristram described costumes in the villages of El Bussah and Isfia as being either “plain, patched or embroidered in the most fantastic and grotesque shapes”. Towards the beginning of the 20th century, Turkish/Ottoman fashions began to dominate: such as baggy trousers and cord edging. Materials, particularly silks, were brought from Damascus. Before the arrival of European color-fast dyes, the Galilee was an important area for the growing of indigo and sumac which were used for creating blue and red dyes.

(Weir, Sheilagh (2006) Embroidery from Palestine.pp. 17,18,24,80.)

(Kawar.p.274,284,287.)

(Skinner, Margarita (2007) Palestinian Embroidery Motives. A Treasury of Stitches.p.14.)

(Weir, Sheilagh (1989) Palestinian Costume.p.145.)

-Nablus: Women’s dresses from villages in the Nablus area were the least ornate in the whole of Palestine.

-Bethlehem: Wadad Kawar describes Bethlehem as having been “the Paris of Central Palestine”. Both it and neighboring Bayt Jalla were known for their fine Couching Stitchwork. This technique was used extensively in the panels for Malak (queen) wedding dresses. The Malak dress was popular amongst brides from the villages around Jerusalem. So much so that the panels began to be produced commercially in Bethlehem and Bayt Jalla. Amongst the wealthier families, it was the fashion for the groom to pay for the wedding dress so the work often became a display of status.

Modern couching stitch from Bayt Jalla traditionally used on panels of malak wedding dress.

-Ramallah: great variety of very distinguishable finely executed patterns.

-Lifta (near Jerusalem), and Bayt Dajan (near Jaffa) were known as being among the wealthiest communities in their areas, and their embroideresses among the most artistic.

-Majdal (today a part of Ashkelon) was a center for weaving.

(Skinner.pp14)

(Graham-Brown, Sarah (1980) Palestinians and their Society. 1880-1946.p.63.)

(Kawar.p.10,207)

(Gillow.p.118.)

Doll in wedding-dress typical of Ramallah area popular before 1948. Made by YWCA project in Jalazone RC. c. 2000.

Garment types

Basic dress:

• Thob, loose-fitting robe with sleeves, the actual cut of the garment varied by region.
• Qabbeh; the square chest panel of the Thob, is often decorated.
• Diyal; brocaded back hem panel on the Bethlehem dress.
• Shinyar; the lower back panel of the dress, is decorated in some regions.
• Libas; pants.
• Taqsireh ; short embroidered jacket worn by the women of Bethlehem on festive occasions. The gold couching of the jackets often matched the dress. Simpler jackets were used over everyday dresses. The name is derived from the Arabic verb “to shorten”, (Stillmann,p.36).
• Jubbeh; jacket, worn by men and women.
• Jillayeh; embroidered jubbeh, often the embroidered outer garment of a wedding costume.
• Shambar; large veil, common to the Hebron area and southern Palestine.

Headdress:

The women in each region had their distinctive headdress. The women embellished their headdresses with gold and silver coins from their bridewealth money. The more coins, the greater the wealth and prestige of the owner (Stillman,p.38).

• Shaṭweh, a distinctive conical hat, “shaped rather like an upturned flower pot”, only carried by married women. Used mainly in Bethlehem, also in Lifta and Ain Karm, (in the District of Jerusalem), and Beit Jala and Beit Sahur (both near Bethlehem)(Stillman p.37)
• Smadeh , used in Ramallah, consists of an embroidered cap, with a stiff padded rim. A row of coins, tightly placed against another, is placed around the top of the rim. Additional coins might be sown to the upper part or attached to narrow, embroidered bands. As with the other women’s head-dresses, the smadeh represented the wearers bridal wealth, and acted as an important cash reserve. One observer wrote in 1935:

“Sometimes you see a gap in the row of coins and you guess that that a doctor’s bill has had to be paid, or the husband in America has failed to send money”(Stillman,p.53.)

• Araqiyyeh, used in Hebron. The words araqiyyeh and taqiyyeh have been used since the Middle Ages in the Arab world to denote small, close-fitting head-caps, usually of cotton, which were used by both sexes. The original purpose was to absorb sweat (Arab: “araq”). In the whole of Palestine the word taqiyyeh continued to be used about the simple scull-cap used nearest to the hair. In the Hebron area, however, the word araqiyyeh came to denote the embroidered cap with a pointed top a married woman would wear over her taqiyyeh. During her engagement period a woman of the Hebron area would sow and embroider her araqiyyeh, and embellish the rim with coins from her bridal money. The first time she would wear her araqiyyeh would be on her wedding day.(Stillman,p.61)

The styles of headwear for men have always been an important indicator of a man’s civil and religious status as well as his political affiliation: A turban being worn by a townsman and a kufiya by a countryman. A white turban signifying an Islamic judge qadi. In the 1790s, the Ottoman authorities instructed the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hassan al-Husayni, to put a stop to the fashion of wearing green and white turbans which they regarded as the prerogative of officially appointed judges. In the 19th century, white turbans were also worn by supporters of the Yaman political faction, while the opposing Qais faction wore red.In 1912, the Palestine Exploration Fund reported that Muslim men from Jerusalem usually wore white linen turbans, called shash. In Hebron, it would be of red and yellow silk, in Nablus red and white cotton. Men in Jaffa wore white and gold turbans, similar to the style in Damascus. A green turban indicated a descendant of Muhammed.

A Palestinian man from Jerusalem/Palestine,1890

Palestinian brothers,1898

From 1880 the Ottoman style of tarboosh or fez began to replace the turban amongst the effendi class. The tarboosh had been preceded by a rounder version with blue tassel which originated from the Maghreb. The arrival of the more vertical Young Turk version was emancipating for the Christian communities since it was worn by all civil and military officials regardless of religion. The exception being the Armenians who adopted a black style. The European style, Franjy hat (burneiTah), was not adopted.

Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari from Jerusalem/Palestine,1920

Palestinian family Al-Tamarie, Jaffa/Palestine,1920

Palestinian family Shahwan,Beit Jala/Palestine,1939

Edward said and his sister,Palestine,1940

The black and white Palestinian kufiya worn by Palestinian men of any rank, became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s and replaced the tarbush. Originally it was worn by the fellaheen in the countryside to protect them from the sun in the summer and to keep them warm in the winter.

(Pappe, Illan (2010) The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty. The Husaynis 1700-1968.p.43.)

(Weir, 1989, p. 66, citing p.141 of C. T. Wilson (1906) Peasant Life in the Holy Land.)

(Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement for 1912. Page 11.)

(Baldensperger, Philip G. (1905) The Immovable East. Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Report.p.51.)

(Weir Shelagh Palestinian Costume p.64.)

(Baldensperger,1903,p.342)

(Kawar,p.213.)

Abd Al-Qadir Al-Husayni wearing the Palestinian Kufiya

A woman wearing the Palestinian Kufiya, Paris

Dance:

Dabke (Arabic: دبكة‎ also spelled Dabka, Dubki, Dabkeh, plural Dabkaat) is a native Levantine folk dance. Most popular in Palestine. Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions. The line forms from right to left and the leader of the dabke heads the line, alternating between facing the audience and the other dancers

Dabke is derived from the Levantine Arabic word dabaka (Arabic: دبكة‎) meaning “stamping of the feet” or “to make a noise”.

It may have developed from Canaanite fertility rites wherein communities joined in the energetic foot stomping dance to scare away malicious spirits, clearing the way for healthy and secure growth of their seedlings.

Amongst Palestinians, two common types of dabke are the shamaliyya and sha’rawiyya – which have six measure phrases – and the karaadiyya which has square phrases (of four or eight measures). Another type is the dabke niswaniyyah, danced specifically by women. Each type of dabke dance has its own corresponding set of songs, the theme of which is often love.

(“Turns out the dabke is an Israeli dance, according to The New York Times”. Mondoweiss. 4 August 2013.)

(Cohen, Dalia; Katz, Ruth (2006). Palestinian Arab Music: A Maqam Tradition in Practice.)

(Kaschl,Elke (2003).Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine: Performing the Nation.Brill.p.82.)

(“Dabke”. Canadian Palestinian Association in Manitoba.)

Music:

Some of the musical instruments which are used among others in the dabke performances are the ud, a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped wooden soundbox, the darbuka, a bowl-shaped drum, the ney, a plain flute, and the mijwiz, a double-pipe, single-reed woodwind instrument. Another important musical instrument is the qanun, a stringed instrument with a flat sound box, in the form of a small harp, which is strummed in a horizontal position. These instruments are known to have been present in the Bilad al-Sham (and in its wide vicinity) for thousands of years.

Palestinian oud performer in Jerusalem,1859

(Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, No. 182, 1 March 1927, pp131–134.)

(Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, No. 193, 16 August 1927, pp590–592.)

(Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, No. 196, 1 October 1927, p679.)

(Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, No. 205, 16 February 1928, p94, and No. 206, 1 March 1928, p114.)

(Palestine Currency Board, Report for the period ending 1st March 1928)

(Howard M. Berlin (2015). The Coins and Banknotes of Palestine Under the British Mandate, 1927-1947.McFarland. p. 22,85.)

Palestinian Literature, science, poetry, sports, and agriculture evolved through the course of many centuries and all play a role in strengthening the Palestinian identity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Palestine

According to historical facts, Zionism, as an ideology, evolved in response to the rise of Europe’s nationalism and anti-Semitism in the late 19th century, especially in Tsarist Russia (Pale States), France during the Dreyfus affair, and Germany after WWI.

Similarly, Palestinian Identity and nationalism as well evolved mainly and not initially (The birth of such concepts could be seen in the Ottomans period, check the replied comment above for the origins of Palestinian Nationalism) in response to the presence of the British and the Zionist colonial movement in Palestine, most importantly because of the British intention to turn Palestine into a “Jewish National Home,” (Balfour Declaration)

[Check origins of Palestinian Nationalism]

These central facts were well articulated by David Ben-Gurion (Israel’s 1st Prime Minister) and Moshe Sharett (Israel’s 1st Foreign Minister) on many occasions. For example:

As early as 1914, Ben-Gurion admitted the existence of Palestinian nationalism, at least among the working masses. He explained that Palestinians hatred of Zionism was based on their fear of being dispossessed. Ben-Gurion analyzed this hatred and stated:

“This hatred originates with the [Palestinian] Arab workers in Jewish settlements. Like any worker, the [Palestinian] Arab worker detests his taskmaster and exploiter. But because this class conflict overlaps a national difference between farmers and workers, this hatred takes a national form. Indeed, the national overwhelms the class aspect of the conflict in the minds of the [Palestinian] Arab working masses, and inflames an intense hatred toward the Jews.”(Shabtai Teveth,p.18-19)

A few months before the peace conference convened at Versailles in early 1919, Ben Gurion expressed his opinion of future Jewish and Arab relations:

“Everybody sees the problem in the relations between the Jews and the [Palestinian] Arabs. But not everybody sees that there’s no solution to it. There is no solution! . . . The conflict between the interests of the Jews and the interests of the [Palestinian] Arabs in Palestine cannot be resolved by sophisms. I don’t know any Arabs who would agree to Palestine being ours—even if we learn Arabic . . .and I have no need to learn Arabic. On the other hand, I don’t see why ‘Mustafa’ should learn Hebrew. . . . There’s a national question here. We want the country to be ours. The Arabs want the country to be theirs.” (One Palestine Complete, p.116)

Many Zionist leaders acknowledged that Zionism was the primary motive behind the Palestinian nationalist movement, however, publicly they always stated that the movement was organized by a few who did not represent the political aims of the ordinary Palestinian. Kalvaryski, a Zionist Official, put it in May 1921:

“It is pointless to consider this [referring to the Palestinian national movement] a question only of effendis [land owners]. . . This may be fine as a tactic, but, between ourselves, we should realize that we have to reckon with an [Palestinian] Arab national movement. We ourselves—our own [movement]—are speeding the development of the [Palestinian] Arab movement.”(Righteous Victims,p.104)

In July 1922, after the Palestinian Arab commercial strike, Ben Gurion acknowledged privately that a Palestinian national movement is evolving. He wrote in his diary:

“The success of the [Palestinian] Arabs in organizing the closure of shops shows that we are dealing here with a national movement. For the [Palestinian] Arabs, this is an important education step.” (Shabtai Teveth, p.80)

In 1923, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the father of the Israeli political Right wrote of how Palestinians felt about their attachment to Palestine:

“They [Palestinians] look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true favor that Aztecs looked upon Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. Palestine will remain for the Palestinians, not a borderland, but their birthplace, the center, and basis of their own national existence.”(Righteous Victims p.36)

Similarly, Ze’ev Jabotinsky also wrote in 1923:

“The [Palestinian] Arabs loved their country as much as the Jews did. Instinctively, they understood Zionist aspirations very well, and their decision to resist them was only natural ….. There was not misunderstanding between Jew and Arab, but a natural conflict. …. No Agreement was possible with the Palestinian Arab; they would accept Zionism only when they found themselves up against an ‘iron wall,’ when they realize they had no alternative but to accept Jewish settlement.”(America And The Founding Of Israel,p.90)

In the context of the 1929 disturbance, Ben Gurion spoke of the emerging Palestinian nationalism and the main goal of Zionism (where Palestine’s population becomes a “Jewish majority”) to the secretariat of the major Zionist groupings. He said:

“The debate as to whether or not an Arab national movement exists is a pointless verbal exercise; the main thing for us is that the movement attracts the masses. We do not regard it as a resurgence movement and its moral worth is dubious. But politically speaking it is a national movement . . . . The Arab must not and cannot be a Zionist. He could never wish the Jews to become a majority. This is the true antagonism between us and the Arabs. We both want to be the majority.”(Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p.18)

It should be noted that Palestinians were already the majority, and owned most of Palestine.The only way for Zionism to be fulfilled was through the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as of what occurred.

In 1929, Ben Gurion also wrote about the Palestinian political national movement:

“It is true that the Arab national movement has no positive content. The leaders of the movement are unconcerned with betterment of the people and provision of their essential needs. They do not aid the fellah; to the contrary, the leaders suck his blood and exploit the popular awakening for private gain. But we err if we measure the [Palestinian] Arabs and their movement by our standards. Every people is worthy of its national movement. The obvious characteristic of a political movement is that it knows how to mobilize the masses. From this prospective there is no doubt that we are facing a political movement, and we should not underestimate it.”

“A national movement mobilizes masses, and that is the main thing. The [Palestinian] Arab is not one of revival, and its moral value is dubious. But in a political sense, this is a national movement.” (Shabtai Teveth, p.83)

In the early 1930’s, Ben-Gurion finally admitted the mistake of trying to bribe or buy the Palestinian national movement, rather than working with it, he stated in a Mapai forum:

“We have erred for ten years now . . . the crux is not cooperation with the English, but with the [Palestinian] Arabs.” By this, he meant not merely a relationship of friendship and mutual aid, but political cooperation, which he called the “cornerstone” of the “Arab-Jewish-English rule in Palestine. Let’s not deceive ourselves and think that when we approach the [Palestinian] Arabs and tell them ‘We’ll build schools and better your economic conditions,’ that we have succeeded. Let’s not think that the [Palestinian] Arabs by nature are different from us.”

In the heat of the argument, Ben Gurion said to one of his critics and asked:

“Do you think that, by extending economic favors to the [Palestinian] Arabs, you can make them forget their political rights in Palestine?” Did Mapai believe that by aiding the Palestinian Arabs to secure decent housing and grow bumper crops they could persuade the Palestinian Arabs to regard themselves” as complete strangers in the land which is theirs?”(Shabtai Teveth, p.114)

In a book Ben-Gurion published in 1931 (titled: We and Our Neighbors), he admitted that Palestinian Arabs had the same rights as Jews to exist in Palestine. He stated:

“The Arab community in Palestine is an organic, inseparable part of the landscape. It is embedded in the country. The [Palestinian] Arabs work the land, and will remain.”

Ben-Gurion even held that the Palestinian Arabs had full rights in Palestine, ” since the only right by which a people can claim to possess a land indefinitely is the right conferred by willingness to work.” They had the same opportunity to establish that right as the Zionists did. (Shabtai Teveth,p.5-6)

On May 27, 1931, Ben Gurion recognized that the “Arab question” is a:

“Tragic question of fate” that arose only as a consequence of Zionism, and so was a “question of Zionist fulfillment in the light of Arab reality.” In other words, this was a Zionist rather than an Arab question, posed to Zionists who were perplexed about how they could fulfill their aspirations in a land already inhabited by a Palestinian Arab majority. (Shabtai Teveth, p.xii, Preface)

As the number of Jews in Palestine (Yishuv) doubled between 1931-1935,the Palestinian people became threatened with being dispossessed and for Jews becoming their masters. The Palestinian political movement was becoming more vocal and organized, which surprised Ben Gurion. In his opinion, the demonstrations represented a “turning point” important enough to warrant Zionist concern. As he told Mapai comrades:

“. . . They [referring to Palestinians] showed new power and remarkable discipline. Many of them were killed . . . this time not murderers and rioters, but political demonstrators. Despite the tremendous unrest, **the order not to harm Jews was obeyed. This shows exceptional political discipline. There is no doubt that these events will leave a profound imprint on the [Palestinian] Arab movement. This time we have seen a political movement that must evoke the respect of the world. (Shabtai Teveth, p. 126)

For Ben-Gurion as for others, the Palestinians were not a distinct people but merely “ Arabs”-the “Arab population’‘or “Arab community” that happened to reside in the country, and he denied their political rights. As a justification, Ben-Gurion stated in 1936:

“There is no conflict between Jewish and Arab nationalism because the Jewish nation is not in Palestine and the Palestinians are not a nation.” (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 19)

Ben-Gurion was impressed by Izz al-Din al-Qassam’s heroism in the mid-1930s, and he predicted Qassam’s example would have a far-reaching effect on the Palestinian national movement. Ben-Gurion stated two weeks after Qassam’s fateful battle with the British occupation nearby Ya’bad-Jenin:

“This is the event’s importance. We would have educated our youth without Tel-Hai [an encounter with Palestinians in the Galilee in the early 1920s] because we have other important values, but the [Palestinian] Arab organizers have had less to work with. The [Palestinian] Arabs have no respect for any leader. They know that every single one is prepared to sell out the Arab people for his personal gain, and so the Arabs have no self-esteem. Now, for the first time, the [Palestinian] Arabs have seen someone offer his life for the cause. This will give the [Palestinian] Arabs the moral strength which they lack.”

Ben-Gurion also stressed that:

“This is not Nashashibi and not the Mufti. This is not the motivation out of career or greed. In Shaykh Qassam, we have a fanatic figure prepared to sacrifice his life in martyrdom. Now there are not one but dozens, hundreds, if not thousands like him. And the **Arab people stand behind them.” (Shabtai Teveth, p. 126)

After Ben-Gurion’s encounter with George Antonius in May 1936, he was willing to concede the existence of a conflict, between the Palestinian Arabs and Jewish nationalism, for the first time in public. He stated:

“There is a conflict, a great conflict.” not in the economic but the political realm. “There is a fundamental conflict. We and they want the same thing: We both want Palestine. And that is the fundamental conflict.” (Shabtai Teveth, p. 166)

“I now say something which contradicts the theory which once had on this question. At one time, I thought an agreement [with Palestinians] was possible.”

Ben-Gurion attached some reservations to this statement. A settlement might be possible between both peoples in the widest sense, between the entire “Jewish people” and the entire Arab people. But such an agreement could be achieved ” once they despair of preventing a Jewish Palestine.” (Shabtai Teveth,p. 171)

It should be noted that this statement signaled a shift in Ben-Gurion’s mindset. Ironically, his conclusion is in complete agreement with Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s IRON WALL doctrine. When Jabotinsky first came out with his famous doctrine in the early 1920s, Ben Gurion and many other Zionists in the Labor movement branded him as a“racist”. As the previous quote demonstrates, Ben-Gurion finally recognized that Zionism had to rely on the IRON WALL doctrine for it to become a reality.

Unfortunately for the Palestinian people, according to Ben-Gurion that was a matter of “life or death” for Zionism and Jews.

Over no issue was the conflict so severe as the question of immigration:

“Arab leaders see no value in the economic dimension of the country’s development, and while they will concede that our immigration has brought material blessings to Palestine [where exclusively Jewish labor was always the rule], they nevertheless contend—and from the [Palestinian] Arab point of view, they are right—that they want neither the honey nor the bee sting.” (Shabtai Teveth, p.166)

In 1936 (soon after the outbreak of the First Palestinian Intifada/Great Palestinian revolt, not to be confused with the 1st intifada that started in 1987), Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary:

“The [Palestinian] Arabs fear of our power is intensifying, [Palestinian Arabs] see exactly the opposite of what we see. It doesn’t matter whether or not their view is correct…. They see [Jewish] immigration on a giant scale …. they see the Jews fortify themselves economically .. They see the best lands passing into our hands. They see England identify with Zionism. ….. [Palestinian Arabs are] fighting dispossession … The fear is not of losing the land, but of losing the homeland of the Arab people, which others want to turn into the homeland of the Jewish people. There is a fundamental conflict. We and they want the same thing: We both want Palestine ….. By our very presence and progress here, [we] have matured the [Arab] movement.” (Righteous Victims, p. 136)

He also stated in a meeting with his Mapai party:

” …. the [Palestinian Arabs] fear is not of losing land, but of losing the homeland of the Arab people, which others want to turn into the homeland of the Jewish people. The [Palestinian] Arab is fighting a war that cannot be ignored. He goes out on strike, he is killed, he makes great sacrifices.” (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 18)

In 1936, Moshe Sharett spoke in a similar vein:

“Fear is the main factor in [Palestinian] Arab politics. . . . There is no Arab who is not harmed by Jews’ entry into Palestine.”(Righteous Victims, p.136)

As the first Intifada erupted/Palestinian Arab revolt in 1936, many Zionists complained that the British Mandate was not doing enough to stop Palestinian resistance (which often was referred to by “terror”). In that regard, Ben-Gurion argued:

“No government in the world can prevent individual terror. . . when a people is fighting for its land, it is not easy to prevent such acts.”

Nor did he criticize the so-called British display of leniency:

“I see why the government feels the need to show leniency towards the [Palestinian] Arabs . . . it is not easy to suppress a popular movement strictly by the use of force.” (Shabtai Teveth, p. 166)

The leniency of the British colonialism Ben-Gurion talked about, paved the way for the rise and dominion of Zionist colonialism.

Of all the services Britain provided to the Zionist movement before 1939, perhaps the most valuable was the armed suppression of Palestinian resistance in the form of the revolt. The bloody war waged against the country’s majority, which left 10 percent of the adult male Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled,(Walid Khalidi, From haven to conquest), was the best illustration of the unvarnished truths uttered by Jabotinsky about the necessity of the use of force for the Zionist project to succeed. To quash the uprising, the British Empire brought in two additional divisions of troops, squadrons of bombers, and all the paraphernalia of repression that it had perfected over many decades of colonial wars.(The banality of brutality: British armed forces and the repression of the Arab revolt in Palestine,1936-39)

The refinements of callousness and cruelty employed went well beyond summary executions.For possession of a single bullet, Shaykh Farhan al-Sa‘di, an eighty-one-year-old rebel leader, was put to death in 1937. Under the martial law in force at the time, that single bullet was sufficient to merit capital punishment, particularly for an accomplished guerrilla fighter like al-Sa‘di.(The Palestinian people, A History,p.119)

Well over a hundred such sentences of execution were handed down after summary trials by military tribunals, with many more Palestinians executed on the spot by British troops.(One Palestine complete,492-32)

Infuriated by rebels ambushing their convoys and blowing up their trains, the British resorted to tying Palestinian prisoners to the front of armored cars and locomotives to prevent rebel attack, a tactic they had pioneered in a futile effort to crush resistance of the Irish during their war of independence from 1919 to 1921 by using them as human shields.(one Palestine complete,425-26)

Collective punishment and demolition of the homes of imprisoned or executed rebels, or of presumed rebels or their relatives, was routine, another tactic borrowed from the British playbook developed in Ireland. Two other imperial practices employed extensively in repressing the Palestinians were the detention of thousands without trial and the exile of troublesome leaders. Some were confined, generally without trial, in more than a dozen of what the British themselves called “concentration camps,” most notably that in Sarafand.(The Hundred Years‘ War on PALESTINE, P….)

IN SPITE OF the sacrifices made—which can be gauged from the very large numbers of Palestinians who were killed, wounded, jailed, or exiled—and the revolt’s momentary success, the consequences for the Palestinians were almost entirely negative. The savage British repression, the death and exile of so many leaders, and the conflict within their ranks left the Palestinians divided, without direction, and with their economy debilitated by the time the revolt was crushed in the summer of 1939. This put the Palestinians in a very weak position to confront the now invigorated Zionist movement, which had gone from strength to strength during the revolt, obtaining lavish amounts of arms and extensive training from the British to help them suppress the uprising.(For details on how sweeping the collaboration was between the British and the Zionists during the revolt, see Segev, One Palestine Complete,381,426-32)

The official Israeli narrative or foundational mythology refuses to allow the Palestinians even a modicum of moral right to resist the Jewish colonization of their homeland that began in 1882. From the very beginning, Palestinian resistance was depicted as motivated by hate for Jews. It was accused of promoting a protean anti-Semitic campaign of terror that began when the first settlers arrived and continued until the creation of the state of Israel. [Paraphrase completely]

Zionist leaders referred to Palestinian nationalism, especially as of the mid-1930s during the Palestinian Arab revolt, as German Nazism. Thus Yitzhak Tabenkin, one of the most important Labor leaders of the Yishuv and a leading ideologue of the kibbutz movement, described the Palestinian national movement in his May Day speech of 1936 as a “Nazi” movement, with which there was no possibility of compromise.(Yitzhak Tabenkin, Deuarim [Speeches], Vol. 2 (Tel Aviv: 1972), p.264.)

A few months later. Berl Katznelson, one of the three most important Labor leaders of the Yishuv (along with Ben-Gurion and Tabenkin) referred to Palestinian nationalism in a speech to Mapai members as “Nazism,” and spoke of “typical Arab bloodlust. (“Berl Katznelson, “Self-restraint and Defense,” a speech dated 28 August 1936, in Ketauim [Writings], Vol. 8 (Tel Aviv: 1948), pp.209-26.)

On another occasion, in January 1937, he spoke of “Arab fascism and imperialism and Arab Hitlerism.“ (A speech at the Mapai Council, Haifa, 23 January 1937, cited in Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-/948, p.253.)

In February 1937, Ben Gurion was on the brink of a far-reaching conclusion, that the Arabs of Palestine were a separate people, distinct from other Arabs and deserving of self-determination. He stated:

“The right which the Arabs in Palestine have is one due to the inhabitants of any country . . . because they live here, and not because they are Arabs . . . The Arab inhabitants of Palestine should enjoy all the rights of citizens and all political rights, not only as individuals but as a national community, just like the Jews.”(Shabtai Teveth, p.170)

Peculiarly, Ben-Gurion empathized with the Palestinian people. He stated in a letter to Moshe Sharett in 1937:

“Were I an Arab, and Arab with nationalist political consciousness . . . I would rise up against an immigration liable in the future to hand the country and all of its [Palestinian] Arab inhabitants over to Jewish rule. What [Palestinian] Arab cannot do his math and understand what [Jewish] immigration at the rate of 60,000 a year means a Jewish state in all of Palestine.” (Shabtai Teveth, p.171-172)

In 1938, Ben-Gurion also stated against the backdrop of the First Palestinian Intifada:

“When we say that the Arabs are the aggressors and we defend ourselves —- that is ONLY half the truth. As regards our security and life we defend ourselves. . . . But the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict, which is in its essence a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.”(Righteous Victims,p.652)

So if the causes of Zionism had not risen, meaning European anti-Semitism, then Palestinian nationalism probably might not have evolved into what it is today. It’s worth noting that the Palestinian people, prior to WWI, always identified themselves as being part of “Greater Syria” (Suriya al-Kubra), however, that drastically changed when Britain intended to turn Palestine into a “Jewish National Home” / Balfour Declaration, which states:

Foreign Office

2nd November 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild: I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty’s Government the following declaration of our sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour

– Britain, as an imperial power, was, in a sense, the sponsor of Zionist aspirations. Britain felt empowered to bestow the Jews’ right to a national home in Palestine without the approval of an Arab entity or representation of Palestinians living in Palestine. This declaration, which was made to the Zionist Movement in 1917, signaled the future dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people because it did not address their political rights. On the other hand, the declaration recognized the political rights of the “Jewish people” around the world, despite the fact that the Jews in Palestine were under 8% of the total population as of 1914 (Righteous Victims, p.83).

In that respect, Lord Balfour, who was the British Foreign Secretary and a self-professed Christian Zionist, stated in 1919:

“Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder importance than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 [Palestinian] Arabs who now inhabit the ancient land.”(Righteous Victims, p.75)

Ironically, Zionists did not feel particularly grateful or beholden to Britain. Ze’ev Jabotinsky and the revisionist movement felt betrayed by Britain when, in 1922 as part of a special article included in the British Mandate it formally barred Jews from settling in Transjordan (what is now Jordan), even though Transjordan was technically a part of Palestine.

By what right did the British gave Palestine to the Zionist movement ?!

In response to this declaration, the Palestinian people started to collectively oppose the British Mandate, Jewish immigration, and land sales to the Zionist movement.

Rather than dealing directly with the issues, sadly many Israelis and Zionists have chosen to ignore the existence of the Palestinians as a people. It should be emphasized that the hawk of all Israeli hawks, Ariel Sharon, has accepted the existence of a Palestinian state, in principle, in a portion of historic Palestine. Whether Israelis and Zionists like it or not, Palestine now exists as a state, a postal code, international calling code, internet domain name, …etc. In the heart of “Eretz Yisrael”. The 13.5 million Palestinians are not going to vanish from the world, and the sooner Israelis and Zionists understand this simple message, the faster they shall start dealing with core issues of the conflict in a pragmatic way.

Finally, applying such logic is very dangerous since it would eliminate half United Nations’ members overnight. This concocted Myth was employed in all Zionist sectors to suppress the historical, political, economic, and civil rights of the indigenous Palestinian people by claiming that they never previously had a state, distinct language, and distinct culture. Ironically, the Zionist movement has been encouraging Jews from all corners of the world to emigrate to “Eretz Yisrael”, so that there is no real common denominator between all of these immigrants such as a common language, culture, country of origin, or even a unified interpretation of “who is a Jew?”.

Related Links and references:

1. Palestinian Culture by cultural atlas
2. Palestinian Social Customs and Traditions by IMEU
3. The History of the Palestinian Dabka and National Roof Over Your Head Day by Paliroots
4. Palestinian Thobe – Identity in art by Palestine in a box
5. THE HISTORY OF KEFFIYEH: A TRADITIONAL SCARF FROM PALESTINE
6. Here’s why Palestinians object to the term ‘Israeli food’: It erases us from history by Reem Kassis
7. Israel’s obsession with hummus is about more than stealing Palestine’s food
8. Palestinian Sports: Decades before and after the Nakba by Issam Khalidi
9. Stop the culture theft: First hummus now embroidery? By Mohammed Arafat
10. 15 Quick Facts About Palestine by Paliroots
11. Israeli designer eroticizes the Palestinian keffiyeh by Philip Weiss
12. Stealing Palestine: A study of historical and cultural theft by Roger Sheety
13. Food of Palestine
14. 10 Middle Eastern dishes Israel claims to have invented,Food theft too? By Nourhan Nassar
15. Farming Palestine for Freedom by Samer Abdelnour, Alaa Tartir, Rami Zurayk
16. Palestine before 1948

The video contains pictures of different Palestinian cities during the 1920’s and 1930’s, before the creation of the state of israel by the zionists in 1948.