Israel Matzav

17th century book: 'Not one place in the land of Israel has a name of Arabic origin'

Phyllis Chesler writes that Newt Gingrich was really onto something when he called the 'Palestinians' an 'invented people' during last week's Republican debate.

In addition to all that we already know, and have written many times, Avi Goldreich has now called our attention to a book by the scholar, Hadriani Relandi, which he published at the end of the 17th century. The book, Palestina documents Relandi’s trip to the Holy Land (see Google Books to view the work). It is written in Latin. Relandi spoke Hebrew, Arabic, and ancient Greek, as well as many European languages. According to Goldreich, Relandi surveyed 2500 places where people who appear in the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud once lived.

Essentially, Relandi mapped the Land of Israel and conducted a population survey and census of each community.

Relandi concluded that: “Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin. Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except for Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name. Till today, most of the settlements names are of Hebrew or Greek origin, the names distorted to senseless Arabic names. There is no meaning in Arabic to names such as Acco (Acre), Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, or Jenin and towns named Ramallah, El Halil and El-Kuds (Jerusalem) lack historical roots or Arabic philology".

In 1696, the year Relandi toured the land, Ramallah, for instance, was called Bet'allah (From the Hebrew name Beit El) and Hebron was called Hebron (Hevron) as it was in the Bible and the Arabs called Mearat HaMachpelah "El Chalil", their name for the Jewish Patriarch Abraham.”

Ironically, outrageously, UNESCO has just supported the “Palestinian” right to bar Jews from placing the Machpelah on Israel's Heritage Site list, the place where our Jewish ancestors are buried.

Relandi found that the majority of the land was utterly desolate. Where inhabitants existed, they were mainly Jews and Christians and they mainly lived in Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza.

“There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Shchem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natche family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived. In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians. “

In Goldreich’s view, Relandi’s book “strengthens the connection, relevance, pertinence, kinship of the Land of Israel to the Jews and the absolute lack of belonging to the Arabs, who robbed the Latin name Palestina and took it as their own.”

Goldreich concludes: Spain has a history of Arab rule, not Israel. Based on the Arab Muslim assimilation of Greek and Roman science, they were able to leave a “genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! Nada, as the Spanish say! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule; only huge robbery, pillaging and looting; stealing the Jews' holiest place, robbing the Jews of their Promised Land. Lately, under the auspices of all kind of post modern Israelis -- also hijacking and robbing us of our Jewish history. “

Any comments Mitt?

Labels: Palestinian people

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:41 AM