The Malicious Term 'Palestinian Territories'

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

These days, the use of the term “Palestinian territories” has become widespread, referring to the land occupied in 1967, or to that land on which the Palestinian Authority says it wants to establish a Palestinian state. This term is now used across various Arab and foreign media outlets, and among academics, intellectuals, political analysts, and writers. Its currency has even reached Palestinian writers and analysts, who use it without scrutiny or examination.

The term “Palestinian territories” is now being used to shrink Palestine. Instead of Palestine being that Mandate-era Palestine which the English and the French fashioned at Sykes-Picot and in what followed it, it now becomes the West Bank and Gaza — and perhaps even less than that, if the Zionist settlement blocs remain in the West Bank.

…works to erase the awareness of Palestine in favor of “the Palestinian territories,” a term now being clearly interpreted across various media outlets and by many writers to mean the land occupied in ‘67.

Tomorrow, for the rising generations, Palestine will become the West Bank and Gaza, and the Mandate-era Palestinian dimension will drop out of awareness, in preparation for being erased from memory altogether. It is likely that the people of Palestine will end up teaching their children in schools about “the Palestinian territories” rather than about Palestine. This is not strange, since whoever made Mount Yunis in Hebron the highest mountain in Palestine instead of Mount Jarmaq will just as easily shrink Palestine down to “the Palestinian territories.”

I believe it is necessary to pay attention to this term, and not to let it slip past our minds and erase our awareness of our homeland and of the cause of our displaced, tormented people. I appeal to all Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim writers and analysts to pay attention to this matter, and I likewise appeal to Al Jazeera, which now uses this term heavily, to take note of it — especially since it broadcasts daily footage of the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees and their attachment to their homeland.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “مصطلح الأراضي الفلسطينية اللئيم” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.