Angry people keep chanting ‘Free Palestine’ on our streets. They shout that ‘Palestine’ should stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – covering the territory currently occupied by the nation of Israel. But what does this word ‘Palestine’ refer to? And where does it come from? This area (which used to be called the ‘fertile crescent’ in the Ancient Near East) was first known as Canaan. It was occupied by the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago and they named it Israel. That area continued to be called ‘Israel’ for the next thousand years. The region was conquered by the Roman Empire in 63 BC. The Romans divided it into provinces, including ‘Judea’ (meaning ‘land of the Jews’). Then, starting in 70 AD the Jews revolted against their Roman overlords. The Romans decided to suppress Jewish nationalism and prevent any future uprisings. As a part of this they changed the name. The new name was chosen by the Romans from the ancient Philistines, who lived along part of the coastline. By that the time the Philistines had long disappeared as a distinct people. It was a deliberate choice by the Romans to erase Jewish historical and cultural ties to the land, as the Philistines were seen as foreign to the region. That old word ‘Philistine’ became Palestina in Latin, which, in turn, became ‘Palestine’ in English (recorded from 1628). Although many Jews were driven out of the area by the Romans (and scattered around the world) many Jews remained, and still knew the area as their ancestral homeland. Then in the seventh century Arabs began to flood in, under the military leadership of Mohammad and his powerful army. The area continued to be called ‘Palestine’ over the following centuries and, for a long time was part of the Ottoman Empire. When that empire collapsed after the first world war the area became the British Protectorate of ‘Palestine.’ After the second world war the newly formed United Nations divided up the old British protectorate into a Jewish state (to be called ‘Israel’) and an Arabic state (to be called ‘Palestine’). The Arab Palestinians rejected the United Nations declaration of their share of the territory, and took up arms against Israel. The rest, you know. But two things emerge clearly: ‘Israel’ is a far more ancient name for this area than ‘Palestine’ as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people; and those using the word ‘Palestine’ are ignorant of the history behind the name.