From the article, comment # 5
“12/6/2011 11:34 AM
Tried reading your article, which is very interesting, but I’m having trouble getting through the first couple of paragraphs due to the continued use of the terms “Palestine” & “Palestinian”
Palestine was a derogatory name given to the area by the Romans as an insult to the Jews. I would expect a “lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament studies” to know that.
Understandable as they are from the writer’s lead-in, I still could not get past the “Palestinian” terminology and ceased reading. If it starts off this twisted, how does the reader know when something factual is stated?
But the writer gives it away at the very beginning by noting that it is written in Beirut. So the Palestinian terminology is there to help the writer keep his or her head a bit longer. Sorry, Dhimmitude is not a reason for such writing in my opinion.
Palestine is an ancient term for a geographical, as opposed to an ethnic or national area. It was in use by Greeks and others at least five centuries before Rome started using it as the name for their province.
It had no political overtones whatsoever until the last few decades. It was just a noun referencing a particular geographical area.