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Has the definition of Palestinian Jews been extended?

Reader comment on item: The 11th Encyclopædia Britannica on Who Lived in Palestine
in response to reader comment: Why does the PA not honor the rights of so-called Palestinian Jews living in Israel?

Submitted by Isa Almisry (United States), Jan 5, 2017 at 04:04

In 1948 the talk on the Arab Palestinian (e.g. the Arab Higher Committee) side as to the rights of native Jews included only those who had settled at the latest before the imposition of the British Mandate. Thus Ben Gurion and Reuven Rivlin would make it, the Mileikowskis would be a borderline case, but Begin, Shamir and the rest of the Stern Gang would not.
Has there been some official statement moving the cut off from c. 1920 to 1948? Otherwise we are talking about far, far fewer people-perhaps a tenth.

Btw, you are a little late with the dating of the Arab Palestinian identity. See for instance Campos' treatment of the election campaign of Sa'id Abu Khadra as Ottoman deputy from Gaza around the time of the EB article, in which Khadra appeals to his constituents, "the People of Palestine" (ahali filastin) for "your homeland Palestine." This, despite the fact that the Ottoman Constitution specified that the deputies represented the Empire as a whole, and not the district that elected them.

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