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| Filastin newspaper masthead, 1912 |
The word “Palestinian” gained acceptance as a description of Palestine’s Arabic speakers during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. Khalīl Baydas first used the term in 1898, followed by Salīm Qub‘ayn and Najīb Naṣṣār in 1902. Then, after the 1908 Ottoman Constitutional Revolution eased press censorship laws, dozens of periodicals appeared in Palestine, and the term “Palestinian” exploded in usage as result.I knew that the term was barely used before the 1910s, but here we see (assuming the paper is correct) that the term "Palestinians" wasn't used by Arab residents of Palestine at all before 1898.
Most scholars understand that Palestinian nationalism was not organic, but a response to Jewish nationalism. Here is another piece of evidence that proves it to be true. After all, if there were a Palestinian people that lived in the land for centuries or millennia - what did they call themselves?
