Palestinians not recent arrivals

REGARDING the letter from Maerton Davis of Israel (Irish Examiner, July 6), it is surely unwise to call someone "ignorant concerning historical facts", immediately before displaying that same quality.

The Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist in 722BC, and the name was never used again until 1948, when it was clearly “imposed” upon the people then living there. The Romans were not responsible for calling the land Palestine. The Palestinians were. They are not recent arrivals, being mentioned in the Bible as Philistines, which is closer to their own word. It does not mean anything like “the mouth of Satan“, because it is not a Hebrew word.

Mr Davis implies that no other countries in the region existed before World War I. If he means that they were not independent, that is not the same thing. Did Ireland not exist before 1922?