In today’s Middle East, there are Arabs, Jews, and so-called “Palestinians.”

Just who are the Palestinians?  Are they a unique group of people with a separate ethnic identity, language, and history?

The modern-day term “Palestinian” has been around since the British controlled the region after defeating the Ottoman Turks in WWI.

The British referred to the local inhabitants as “Palestinians.”  Ironically this included Arabs and Jews.

In 1947, at the request of the British, who chose to pull out of the region, the United Nations voted to create two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab.  However, the surrounding Arab nations rejected the U.N. vote and declared war on the fledgling Jewish state the day after it declared statehood in May 1948.

The war lasted until mid-1949, when a ceasefire was signed.

Certain Arabs who lived on the land became displaced due to territory Israel gained in the year-plus-long war (such is the nature of war).

Then in June 1967 came the Six-Day War.  As a result of the two wars, a sizeable number of Arabs ended up displaced and were not repatriated by the surrounding Arab nations.

In order to magnify their plight and create a separate identity for these Arabs, Yasser Arafat renamed them “Palestinians.”

In reality, the name he chose was not truly representative, since the original use of it included local Jews.  Simply put, they are Arabs.  However, since then, the name stuck.  Yet there really isn't any language, culture, or ethnic group of people known as "Palestinians."  All of them, in fact, are Arabs from various surrounding countries – Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc.

So in order to come up with a name I believe is actually more suitable, I recommend "Arabstinians," since they are, in fact, Arabs.