Actually there's more to it than that.
"The first time the name (Palestine) was used was in 70 CE when the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier. It was a way for the Romans to add insult to injury. They also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had even less staying power.
"Palestine has never existed - before or since - as an autonomous entity. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland.
- Joseph Farah, Arab-American journalist, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily
The name "Palestine", from the Greek Palaistina, originally from the Hebrew Pleshet (Land of the Philistines): a small coastal strip north east of Egypt, also called Philistia. The Roman term "Syria Palaestina" in the 2nd century BCE referred to the southern third of the province of Syria, including the former Judea. The name "Palestine" was revived as an official title when the British were granted a mandate after World War I.
- Encyclopaedia Britanica ill, Micropaedia, vol. Vll, "Palestine."
A common misperception is that the Jews were forced into the diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. and then, 1,800 years later, suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. A national language and a distinct civilization have been maintained.
Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in Palestine continued and often flourished. Large communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea.
Many Jews were massacred by the Crusaders during the 12th century, but the community rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years. By the early 19th century - years before the birth of the modern Zionist movement - more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is today Israel.
Although the expulsions of Jews after AD 70 and 135 were massive, devotion to the Land of Israel caused some to linger just outside the borders, wait for quieter times and keep coming back. One of the so-called Early Church Fathers, Origen, during his stay in the Holy Land from AD 231-254, observed that the Jews were still a majority in the Land at that time. After the Roman Empire embraced Christianity in the fourth century, a systematic dispersal of the remaining Jews began. However, between AD 614-617, the Jews actually controlled large parts of the Land.
Consequently, the population of the Land was a "quilt" of minorities when the Arabs acquired it in their conquest of Byzantine Syria in AD 640. This quilt of people whose Land was dubbed "Palestine" by Imperial Rome was composed of Jews, Samaritans, dissident-Christians and the largest grouping - Syrian Orthodox Christians - none of whom were Arabs.
Although the Arabs ruled the Land from AD 640 to AD 1099, it is questionable that they ever became the majority of the population. The historian James Parker wrote:
"During the first century after the Arab conquest [AD 670-740], the caliph and governors of Syria and the Land [Palestine] ruled entirely over Christian and Jewish subjects. Apart from the Bedouin in the earliest days, the only Arabs west of the Jordan...were the garrisons."
In AD 985 the Arab writer Muqaddasi complained about the large majority Jewish population in Jerusalem and added, "The mosque is empty of worshippers..." Although Al-Hakim, Caliph of the Arab Empire (AD 996-1021), ordered all non-Muslims in Syria and the area called Palestine to convert to Islam or be expelled, he later rescinded some of the restrictions and so the Arabs remained a minority.
The noted Arab historian Dr. Philip Hitti observed that after almost four centuries after the Arab conquest (about AD 1070), the Christians (non-Arabs) in Syria, including Palestine, were still fully as numerous as the Muslims and that the Muslims were by no means all Arab.
The Crusader rule (AD 1099-1291) in the Land was followed by the non-Arab Muslim rule of the Mamelukes (AD 1291-1517). The Arab historian Hitti observed that there was a large exodus of Arabs during this period. The Arab historian Ibu Khaldun wrote in AD 1377, "Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel extended over 1400 years...It was the Jews who implanted the culture and customs of the permanent settlement."
Nearly 300 years after the Arab rule in the Land, the noted Arab historian Khaldun (called one of the greatest historians of all time by Arnold Toynbee) observed that the Land still was permeated with Jewish culture and customs. In AD 1400, nearly 300 years after Arab rule, there was still no evidence of Palestinian roots or established culture.
During the period of the Mamelukes as a consequence of the Black Plague, the population of the Land west of the Jordan River dwindled down to 140,000 to 150,000 Muslims, Christians and Jews. After the Turkish conquest in 1517 a census for tax purposes tabulated 49,181 heads of families and single men liable to tax. Professor Roberto Bacchi calculated that in the years 1553-1554 there were 205,000 Muslims, Christians and Jews.
From his travels in 1785, Francois Comte de Volney's figures would leave less than 200,000 for the total population of the land of Palestine. Both Dr. Philip K. Hitti and Alfred Bonni agree that the total population was less than 200,000 in AD 1800. Some estimate the total population of the Land at 150,000 by 1850. This total population would include Jews, Christians and Arabs.
Then Jewish funds started to flow into the Land by 1856 when Sir Moses Montefiore purchased Land outside of Jerusalem to teach agriculture to the Jews in the Land. From about 1878, Edmond de Rothschild began to actually finance the establishment of Jewish agricultural colonies. At this time in history, an uninterrupted stream of Jewish funds and Jewish immigration commenced to pour into Palestine. This influx of resources resulted in an economic upswing that attracted Arabs from surrounding countries.
Since the Land was at that time under Turkish Muslim rule, Arabs throughout the Middle East had unrestricted access to Palestine. By 1918 the Arab population increased to 560,000. In spite of restrictions on Jewish immigration, Jews and Arabs continued to pour into the Land until the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. Clearly, Jewish financial investments and immigration - together with laborious cultivation of the land - had put the Land of Israel on the economic map.
...The Jews lived in the Land of Israel for seventeen hundred years virtually uninterrupted until the Roman destruction of its national polity in AD 70. At this point, Israel's population of over two and one-half million was abruptly decimated by massive slaughter and expulsion. But as late as AD 617, Jews controlled Jerusalem and a large portion of the Land. After that time, even though Arabs conquered the Land, they were only a minority. Then through the centuries of Christian Crusader rule and the Mameluke period, the Land was still dominated by Jewish culture and customs until AD 1400 even though the Arabs eventually became a small majority.
- Bible Students Congregation of New Brunswick
Originally posted by Batz
You need to read a history book. The Romans didnt displace people hey installed a provential governor backed by roman legions and demanded tax revenue. The Jews still owned their land and organized the government. Jews were a part of the Roman bureaucracy through out the Roman empire.
