Israeli vs Palestinian

 A group of Israeli actors decided to boycott an award for their work in an Israeli TV series.  These actors were Israeli citizens.  They had trained in an Israeli art school. Their gripe:  They wanted to be recognized as Palestinians.

For me that's hard to fathom.  Here's why:

1, The word "Palestine" refers to a region of the old Ottoman empire in the same way that Syria and Iraq refers to other regions.  After World War I these regions were divided into individual nations.  The divisions were somewhat arbitrary.  Lebanon had been Syrian, but the French decided that the Christians living in the western part of Syria would be destroyed if left in a Muslim country.  This prompted them to carve out Lebanon from Syria and establish it as an independent country.

2. Palestine was just one more part of the Ottoman empire.  It was a desolate area with swamps and mostly arid land.  Its total peopulation in the 1800"s was no greater than that of today's Tel Aviv. (And that was back when Jordan was a part of Palestine.)  Being a land bridge from Europe to Africa was perhaps Palestine's single most notable feature.

3. In the 20th century, Jews and Muslims were both mostly immigrants.  The Jews immigrated to Palestine for two reasons:  a. It was their religious homeland and b. they had nowhere else to go.   Jews brought in funding to develop the land and drained its swamps, the land became more valuable.  As a British mandate following World War I, more economic development arose.  Suddenly, Palestine was a place for Arabs from Syria, Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere to go to find work.  The early settlers were all referred to as Palestinians - even Jews.  The Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper.

4. For the Arab world the establishment of Israel was an unforgivable sin.  Why this should be so was not readily understood by Jews.  Weren't all the nations along northern Africa, Islamic?  Weren't all the nations in the middle east Islamic?  What was the problem with having one small nation declaring itself a Jewish state?  Add to that, 20% of Israel's population is non-Jewish.  What Islamic state has a non-Islamic population of that magnitude.  True, Egypt had a Coptic population, but it's been on steady decline as a result of their being constantly abused.

5. If the Arabs in areas A and B (Oslo Accords) wish to identify themselves as Palestinians so be it.  But what does that have to do with Israeli Muslims?

The Arab actors who are Muslim say that they identify with the Palestinians because the apartheid conditions in which they are being held.  But their governance is entirely up to the Palestinian Authority.  True the PA is well known to be corrupt.  But what can Israel do about that?  How does that make Issrael an apartheid nation?