(1646) Evening all, running late. Running this, then a separate post on 15 till close of play.
Philistia, Israel, Arabs, “Palestine”
This is written from a British “middle-of-society” perspective, not the Jewish, not the Muslim. To try to be at least partly fair, the long pro-Palestine comment, leaving out the atrocities upon the Jews, the Druze and upon each other, shall stay up in the comments thread … but so also will the screenshots in this post below.
When I speak of the “British” perspective … the British had a presence in the area from at least the late 1800s, there are photos of the time, how the land was, plus various commentaries, including histories back to ancient times.
That area called Gaza was part of Philistia. One account which ggl runs with: “The Philistines originated from the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. They were a civilization known for being voyagers who then migrated to the Holy Land sometime during the twelfth century BCE, during the collapse of the Late Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age.”
Clearly, that will be disputed by other parties who, for example, do not accept David and Goliath.
The question still remains … why do other Muslim nations not allow the “Philistines” within their borders? There must be a reason.