WINNIPEG – For decades, a central myth has shaped international discourse on Israel: that a fully formed Palestinian nation existed for centuries, only to be displaced by Zionism. This narrative is emotionally powerful. It is also historically false.
The documented record shows that what is today called Palestinian national identity emerged primarily in the 20th century, and largely in reaction to Zionist nation-building, not as a continuation of an ancient, sovereign Palestinian people.
This is not an insult. It is how modern national movements form. But acknowledging this reality is essential if the conflict is to be understood honestly.
Before Zionism, There Was No Palestinian Nation
Before the 20th century, the Arabic-speaking population of British Mandate Palestine did not identify as a separate nation called “Palestinians.” Their identities were local, religious, tribal, or broadly Arab, and politically tied to the Ottoman Empire.
When Arab leaders gathered in Jerusalem in 1919, they declared plainly that Palestine was part of Greater Syria, not a separate national homeland. This was not an anomaly. It was the consensus view of the time.
Even scholars critical of Israel acknowledge this timeline. Historian James L. Gelvin notes that Palestinian nationalism emerged during the interwar period in response to Zionist immigration and settlement. The keyword is response.
Zionism did not arrive in a vacuum. It arrived in a region without a sovereign Arab state, without Palestinian national institutions, and without a self-defined Palestinian people seeking independence.
Zionism Built. Opposition Followed.
Zionism was not merely an ideology. It was a nation-building project.
Jews returned to their ancestral homeland. They purchased land legally. They drained swamps. They built farms, cities, universities, and civic institutions. Hebrew was revived as a living language. A society took shape.
That success triggered resistance.
Palestinian Arab identity crystallized not around statehood or self-governance, but around opposition to Jewish sovereignty. The defining cause was not “Palestinian independence” but stopping Zionism.
Even the political organizations of the British Mandate period reflected this reality. They called themselves Arab institutions, not Palestinian ones. The term “Palestinian” was used broadly by the British and even by Jews; the Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper.
It was only after 1948, and more clearly after 1967, that “Palestinian” became a primary national label.
As Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir bluntly stated in 1969, “There was no such thing as Palestinians… They did not exist.” Her phrasing was harsh, but the historical point remains: there was no prior Palestinian nation displaced by Israel.
The Nakba Did Not Create a Lost State. It Created a Narrative.
The events of 1948 were tragic. War always is. But the widely repeated claim that Israel destroyed a Palestinian state is historically indefensible.
No Palestinian state existed. None had ever existed.
The Arab population that fled or was displaced did so during a war launched by five Arab armies with the explicit goal of destroying the Jewish state at birth. That war failed. Israel survived. The consequences were real and painful, but they were the result of rejection, not dispossession.
The refugee narrative that followed became the core unifying element of Palestinian identity, replacing state-building with grievance. Unlike every other refugee population of the 20th century, Palestinians were deliberately kept stateless by Arab regimes to weaponize their suffering against Israel.
That, too, is a historical fact.
Zionism Is Indigenous. Palestinian Nationalism Is Modern.
Zionism is not a colonial enterprise. Jews are not foreign settlers.
Jewish presence in the Land of Israel predates Islam by more than a millennium. Hebrew, Jerusalem, and Jewish national consciousness are not inventions of the 19th century. They are continuities.
Palestinian nationalism, by contrast, is a modern political identity, shaped by British colonial borders, pan-Arab failure, and sustained opposition to Jewish self-determination.
Even Palestinian historians acknowledge this. Rashid Khalidi, often cited against Israel, concedes that Palestinian identity took form in the early 20th century and evolved alongside, indeed because of, Zionism.
The difference is this:
Zionism sought to build a state.
Palestinian nationalism sought to prevent one.
Why This Matters Now
This is not an academic debate. It shapes policy, diplomacy, and moral clarity.
When Western governments speak as if Israel displaced an ancient Palestinian nation, they reinforce a false premise that fuels rejectionism rather than compromise.
Peace will not come from pretending history began in 1948. It will come when the Palestinian movement accepts the same truth the Arab world increasingly has: the Jewish state is permanent, legitimate, and indigenous.
Zionism is not the obstacle to peace.
The refusal to accept Zionism is.
Until that changes, no amount of slogans, state recognitions, or historical revisionism will alter the fundamental reality:
Israel exists because the Jewish people returned home and built.
