The term “Palestine” has ancient origins, but took on a specific political meaning in the Roman era. In 135 AD, after crushing the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the province of Judea to “Syria Palaestina.” This act was a deliberate attempt to mock and hurt Jewish identification with the land. By invoking the name of the Biblical enemies of Israel — the Philistines — the Romans meant to insult the Jews and erase Judea’s Jewish character.
As historians note, Hadrian’s renaming of Judea to Palestina was intended “to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land,” replacing the Jewish ethnonym with a purely geographic term.
Prior to this, the region had commonly been called Judea (made of the same Hebrew word meaning “Jew”) or the Land of Israel, (reflecting its Israelite heritage).
In other words, no independent nation called “Palestine” ever existed; rather, Palestine was a general geographic term used by Greeks and Romans for the southern Levant. It’s telling that even centuries later, no sovereign state named Palestine arose — the area remained under various empires until the 20th century.
In modern times, the term “Palestine” typically refers to the territories and people associated with the Arab Palestinian national identity. Today, it denotes the areas of the former British Mandate that are not part of the State of Israel — namely the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, which are often called the Palestinian Territories.
Both Gaza and the West Bank are located at the heart of the Land of Israel—regions of immense strategic importance, especially in light of Islamic Jihadist ideology and global geopolitical tensions. These are the lands on which Palestinians aspire to establish an independent state (often dubbed the “State of Palestine”).
Demographics
As of 2025, the combined population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is roughly 5.5 million Palestinians. The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) is home to around 3.2 million Palestinians, while the Gaza Strip houses about 2.35 million Muslims.
Notably, Gaza’s population has been growing very rapidly — it was about 2.1 million in 2023 (before the war) and is estimated at 2.35 million in 2025, despite the difficult war conditions.
For many who casually hear the term “genocide” applied to Gaza, the actual population growth figures might come as a surprise. That disconnect exists not because of facts on the ground, but because of anti-Israel propaganda that weaponizes language to distort reality.
In fact, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, stirred controversy when she stated that Israel’s actions in Gaza did not meet the legal definition of genocide — emphasizing that such a charge requires clear evidence, not just civilian casualties (most of whom Hamas affiliated) or political outrage. Her position stood in stark contrast to claims made by other UN bodies and rising political pressure from various member states and anti-Israel advocacy groups.
Later that year, Nderitu was dismissed from her post. She also reported facing harassment and threats for her stance, highlighting not only the internal tensions within the UN but also the growing politicization of legal terms like “genocide” — which, when misused, risk undermining both justice and credibility in international diplomacy.
The Palestinian people, in the contemporary sense, are the Arabic-speaking people, overwhelmingly Muslim. In Gaza, for instance, approximately 99.8% are Muslims (sadly, the number of Christians and Jews living in Gaza has dropped by 99.9% since 1948). Only some Palestinians are indigenous to these territories or descend from those who lived there before 1948.
The modern political concepts of “Palestine” and “Palestinian people” are often criticized for appropriating an ancient-sounding name to lend historical legitimacy to a rather recent nationalist movement. While the term itself dates back to Roman times (Emperor Hadrian, 2nd century AD) — the contemporary use of “Palestine” as a national identity only gained traction in the 20th century as part of the Islamic resistance to the rise of the Zionist movement. Critics argue that this rebranding strategically invokes antiquity to obscure the fact that no sovereign state called “Palestine” ever existed, thereby manufacturing historical depth to support territorial claims and political legitimacy.
It is important to clarify that modern Palestinian Arabs are not the descendants of the ancient Philistines — despite the etymological echo of the name. The Philistines were a seafaring people of the Iron Age who vanished as a distinct group over 2,500 years ago. These are two entirely different and disconnected groups — with the latter appropriating the original name to serve a modern political agenda.
So where did the Palestinian people come from? Modern Palestinians primarily trace their ancestry to various Muslim Arab populations who settled or migrated into the region over centuries — particularly during the Islamic Caliphates and the Ottoman Empire. Genetic testing confirms that migrations from the Arabian Peninsula introduced the chromosomes of modern Palestinian Arabs over the last two millennia.
Most Palestinian families arrived in the last hundred-plus years from surrounding Arab regions (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, etc.), drawn by economic opportunities or fleeing conflicts. This is evidenced by many common Palestinian surnames that indicate foreign origins — for example, al-Masri (meaning “the Egyptian”), al-Mughrabi (“the Maghrebi,” i.e. North African), al-Turki (“the Turk,” i.e. Turkish), al-Hourani (“from Houran,” a region in Syria), and so forth.
Historians have documented waves of migration: Egyptian peasants and soldiers settling in Gaza and the coastal plain in the 19th century, laborers from Syria and Transjordan coming during the British Mandate to work in growing cities and on new British projects, etc.
Many Palestinians today can recount diverse family origins, acknowledging that their ancestors moved to the area from other parts of the Arab world.
This does not negate Palestinian peoplehood — a distinct national identity has clearly formed — but it does underscore that Palestinian identity is relatively modern, coalescing chiefly in the 20th century, and that the population has diverse regional roots.
For the sake of comparison, imagine large waves of Muslims immigrating from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to the state of Michigan. Then, a century later, their descendants start calling themselves “Michiganians,” claim that Michigan — now a Muslim state — has always belonged to them, and refuse to recognize the authority of the United States. That’s the kind of historical revisionism we’re dealing with in the so-called ‘Palestinian territories.’
The Influence of Islam on the Palestinian People
The Arabic word Islam itself means “submission,” signifying a universal surrender to Allah and Islam as termed in the Quran, Hadiths and the Sharia law. This submission, as history attests, has rarely been a mere peaceful and private spiritual practice. From its earliest days, Islam has demanded not just individual piety but the conquest and submission of peoples and lands.
Sharia law in Gaza is selectively enforced by Hamas through personal status courts and social policies, shaping aspects of daily life — especially for women — while blending religious norms with political control.
Sharia Law?
Most Westerners have no real understanding of life under Islamic Sharia law, as only those living in Muslim-majority countries — such as Iran — experience its full reality. Let’s take a quick glimpse at life under Sharia Law.
Sharia, as implemented in various jurisdictions, prescribes cruel and unusual punishments, often justified by Islam’s religious text and tradition. Its most notorious prescriptions are the Hudud crimes—offenses considered transgressions against Allah, carrying fixed, often brutal penalties:
Amputations and Cross‑Amputations: Under Hudud, theft can result in the amputation of the right hand — intended both as punishment and deterrence. In some interpretations, the punishment extends to cross-amputation, cutting off the right hand and left foot to hinder the individual’s future independence. Such punishments are justified by Quran (e.g., 5:33–34) and reinforced by classical jurisprudence.
Stoning for Adultery: Adultery by married individuals (Zina) can be punished by stoning to death, a verdict rooted in hadith rather than the Quran, which prescribes only lashes.
Death for Homosexuals: Homosexual (including LGBTQ+) acts are criminalized under Sharia, with punishments ranging from flogging to execution. In Iran, same-sex relations are punishable by death, and the regime has carried out public hangings of gay men as recently as 2022. Article 233 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code defines homosexuality as a capital offense, and Article 234 prescribes execution by hanging for penetrative acts between men. Ayatollah Khomeini once wrote: “If two men, even if minors, engage in homosexual acts, they both must be killed.”
The dehumanization of LGBTQ individuals under Sharia is often framed as a divine command. In countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, accusations alone can result in torture or extrajudicial killing. Public sentiment shaped by state media further endangers LGBTQ lives, casting them as moral corrupters or agents of the West. UN reports have condemned these practices, calling them violations of international law and crimes against humanity. Nevertheless, many Islamic regimes continue to defend these laws as sacred and non-negotiable.
Flogging and Corporal Punishment: Lashes—often numbering 80 or more—are ordered for moral crimes like fornication, alcohol consumption, and in some cases, apostasy. While flogging may seem less final than execution, the physical pain, social degradation, and psychological trauma are severe and irreversible.
Execution for Apostasy and Blasphemy: Perhaps most chilling is the death penalty for apostasy — leaving Islam — or blasphemy. Classical jurisprudence regards apostasy as treason, punishable by execution unless the accused repents. This includes peaceful ideological dissent. In countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan, apostasy remains a capital offense. Such laws are condemned as direct violations of freedom of conscience, as recognized by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Human rights organizations argue that Islamic Sharia Law conflicts profoundly with fundamental human rights. Amnesty International and Humanists UK have repeatedly called for the abolition of corporal punishment and the death penalty for religious expression. Public floggings and amputations are globally seen as torture, not justice.
The Palestinian People — A Cynical Tool in the Hands of Islamists
The Gaza Strip, a coastal enclave, has been under the de facto rule of Hamas for twenty years. Hamas (meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement”) is an ISIS-like Islamist militant movement that also functions as a political party. Hamas published its charter in August 1988, wherein it defined itself as a chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood and its desire to establish “an Islamic state throughout Palestine [Israel].”
For twenty years, Gaza has not held any elections, and Hamas governs the territory in an authoritarian manner. Dozens of countries designated as a terrorist organization Hamas, including the United States, European Union, Canada, and others, due to its record of attacks on civilians and avowed goal of destroying Israel and the Jewish people.
The group’s ideology is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood’s radical Islamist teachings. Hamas’s charter and leaders openly reject Israel’s right to exist and embrace an extreme form of jihadist rhetoric against Jews. In fact, scholars have noted that Hamas is a “direct ideological descendant” of global jihadist movements like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS).
A recent analysis by a security expert described Hamas as “a fundamentalist terrorist organization… fully embracing [the] ideology and grotesque methods” of groups like ISIS, including calls for indiscriminate violence in the name of Islamic conquest.
Hamas leaders have, for example, publicly praised figures like Hitler and Osama bin Laden as “great holy warriors” and have invoked classic antisemitic and apocalyptic language, framing their conflict with Israel as a religious war against Jews worldwide.
In practice, Hamas administers Gaza with a heavy hand and an explicitly Islamist agenda. The Gaza government imposes Sharia-inspired regulations on daily life — for instance, it has enforced conservative dress codes for women, gender segregation in schools and public spaces, and other religiously based social restrictions.
Dissent is not tolerated: political opposition, independent media, and civil society groups face harassment or shutdown. Freedom House’s assessments have found that Gaza under Hamas lacks any meaningful institutional checks and is rife with human rights abuses — there are no free elections, no independent judiciary (Hamas appoints its own courts), and no transparency in governance.
Numerous reports document the persecution of opponents and dissidents: journalists have been arrested or beaten for criticizing Hamas, and ordinary Gazans who protest living conditions or Hamas policies have been met with force. Hamas’s rule in Gaza is often compared to other Islamist militant regimes, and its militant activities pose constant security risks. The group has built a formidable armed wing (the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) and an arsenal of rockets and weapons, frequently launching attacks against Israel. For instance, in the period between October 2023 and May 2024, “Hamas and other terrorist groups have launched more than 19,000 unguided rockets at Israel.”
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza to contain Hamas, which has severely restricted Gaza’s economy and freedom of movement. Inside Gaza, besides Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is also powerful. PIJ is a smaller Islamist militant group, also dependent on Iranian support, that shares Hamas’s jihadist ideology and operates its own militants in Gaza. Hamas has at times cooperated with PIJ (they jointly engage in rocket fire and tunnel warfare against Israel) and at other times restrained them to avoid provoking large wars. Both Hamas and PIJ are often likened to “Islamist jihadist” movements akin to ISIS in terms of ideology — all envision an Islamic state and endorse violence as a religiously sanctified means. However, Hamas and PIJ focus specifically on the Palestinian arena (fighting Israel), whereas ISIS had global aims. Still, their theocratic outlook — seeking to implement Islamic rule — has turned Gaza effectively into an Islamist polity.
The Palestinian Agenda: A Front for Islamic Jihad
The so-called “Palestinian cause” is inseparable from the wider Muslim agenda of Jihadism. The two most powerful groups in Gaza — Hamas and Islamic Jihad — are not “freedom fighters” seeking coexistence, but jihadist militias bent on religious war. Their leaders say it plainly.
The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.
(Preamble to Hamas Charter)
The financial, military, and ideological support from Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood is not accidental; it is the lifeblood of the Palestinian movement. Their goal is not statehood beside Israel, but statehood instead of Israel.
This is not speculation or “Islamophobia.” It is written in black and white. The Hamas Charter (Article 7) openly quotes a hadith and says that “The day of judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah (on the northern border of Israel), all unapologetically claim:
The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death.
(Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah)
These are not hidden aims nor are they a radical’s opinion. They are, in fact, coming straight from the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. For instance:
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him…
(Sahih Muslim 2922, Hadith)
These and other antisemitic slogans are regularly chanted by Palestinians in the streets and repeated in religious sermons, children’s school textbooks, and kids’ television shows in Gaza and the West Bank.
Conclusion
“From the river to the sea” is not a call for a friendly peace solution; it is a call for the genocide of over 7 million Jews. The phrase — referring to the land stretching from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west — means the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.
The people of Gaza live under the iron grip of an Islamist militant regime — one that exploits its own civilians as human shields, enforces harsh sharia-based social controls, and openly proclaims its goal of eliminating the Jewish people. Yet this grim reality is routinely obscured, minimized, or spun by much of the mainstream media in its coverage of the conflict with Israel.
This was an excerpt from my upcoming book, “The Elephant in the Middle East: The Hidden Theological Context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.“
