Do you know the actual history of “Palestine”? The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine for exactly 400 ye

Do you know the actual history of “Palestine”?

The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine for exactly 400 years - from its conquest by Sultan Selim I in 1516 until British forces captured the region in 1917 during World War I.

The Ottoman Empire was Muslim, and it ruled by Sharia Law.

Palestine was never a single, unified political province called “Palestine” by the Ottomans. Instead, the land was divided into smaller administrative districts (sanjaks), which shifted over time and answered to different regional governors (beylerbeys or pashas).

In 1864, Jerusalem was made an independent district reporting directly to Istanbul, while northern Palestine fell under the Vilayet (Province) of Beirut, and southern areas (like Gaza and Beersheba) fell under the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem or the Vilayet of Syria.

The Ottomans never considered “Palestine” an entity. “Palestine” never had borders. “Palestine” never had its own government. Nor was there ever a movement to create one.

So under 400 years of Muslim rule, “Palestine” was just a vague idea of a region, like what America calls “the Midwest.”

Then during WWI the Ottoman Empire joined on the side of Germany. That put them into military conflict with England.

When WWI ended, Germany and the Ottoman Empire were defeated and the Empire’s Middle East territory was divided up into several “Mandates” by the League of Nations. A “mandate” was sort of a “trust” and England was appointed as trustee.

The British government issued the “Balfour Declaration” in 1917 supporting a national homeland for the Jews in the Mandate of Palestine.

The British Mandate of Palestine expired on 14 May 1948. The new United Nations proposed a division of Palestine which gave the Jews 10% of the land and 90% for the Arabs.

The Jews accepted their 10% and declared statehood. The Arabs declared war.

So for over 400 years the Muslims controlled “Palestine” and never tried to make it a country. In 1948 they rejected statehood. And they’ve been rejecting it ever since.