(newspaper unidentified) · 2 September 1982
CP-1982-006
What Is ‘Palestine,’ Anyway?
George F. Will, Washington
Transcribed from the clipping
“WASHINGTON — A small dam of words burst last Sunday and the wave that washed over the Arab-Israeli dispute rinsed a large rock that lies in the path of peace. Careful words from a king and crafty words from a Palestine Liberation Organization operative revealed deep Arab disagreement even about what the word ‘Palestine’ designates.
On ABC’s ‘This Week with David Brinkley’ Bassam Abu Shareef of the PLO said ‘an’ aim of the PLO is establishment of a state on ‘part of’ — on ‘any’ part of — Palestine. A state on the West Bank and Gaza would be ‘satisfactory.’
Question: ‘Does this mean that (the PLO) can accept the simultaneous existence of Israel as a Jewish state?’ Shareef: ‘This is the PLO program.
It was very clear, and although many people decided not to read it carefully because they don’t want to read it carefully, we now read it to you carefully.’… When Shareef was asked if the PLO’s argument about title to the West Bank is not ‘as much with Jordan as it is with Israel,’ he said: ‘Well, who told you that we differentiate greatly between Begin and Hussein?’
There, suddenly, the mask of moderation slipped, the dishonesty was revealed… The first modern use of the word ‘Palestine’ to designate a specific territory was for the territory mandated to British when the Ottoman empire collapsed in 1918.
The League of Nations’ mandate designated land on both sides of the Jordan River — all that is now Israel and Jordan — as Palestine. Later, Britain separated Transjordan (now Jordan), restricting the name ‘Palestine’ to the West Bank and what is now Israel.
But remember what Hussein never forgets: the PLO charter endorsed the original, inclusive definition of Palestine… On Monday, the Reagan administration declared that Jordan is not a Palestinian state. But on Sept. 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan said: ‘Israel and Jordan are the two Palestinian states envisioned and authorized by the United Nations.
Jordan is now recognized as sovereign in some 80 percent of the old territory of Palestine.’… Most Palestinians are still there, in Palestine.”
Context added by this archive
The third printing of the same George Will column of 2 September 1982 in this archive, under a third headline. The masthead is not on this clipping, so the paper is unidentified.
A correction
arrived captioned Elmira Star-Gazette 1948; it is the same syndicated column of 2 September 1982
Cite this clipping
"What Is ‘Palestine,’ Anyway?," (newspaper unidentified), 2 September 1982, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1982-006. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1982-006
More from (newspaper unidentified)
- Kaiser Wilhelm's Trip to Palestine(newspaper unidentified) · 9 April 1898
- States the Arab Point of View Concerning Palestine(newspaper unidentified) · 1 January 1946
- Forcing Palestine to Become a World Problem(newspaper unidentified) · 1 January 1947
- Arab Terrorist Spokesman Killed As Auto Explodes(newspaper unidentified) · 8 July 1972
- Bomb in car kills Arab guerrilla chief(newspaper unidentified) · 8 July 1972
- Arab Who Claimed Massacre Credit Dies(newspaper unidentified) · 8 July 1972
- 57 more from this paper in the full text →
More from the 1980s
- Even Israelis protest West Bank university shutdownThe Evening Sun · 11 January 1982
- Israel renews charge against PalestiniansThe Baltimore Sun · 3 March 1982
- Israelis Survive Storm Over Bedouin Baby’s DeathThe New York Times · 9 March 1982
- art review/Childhood reflectionsNewsday · 12 March 1982
- Looking the Other WayThe New York Times · 15 March 1982
- Begin will stay on despite voteStamford Advocate · 24 March 1982
- All 527 clippings from the 1980s →
In these collections
The same copy, in 2 other papers
Even the word 'Palestine' a matter of debate(newspaper unidentified)2 September 1982CP-1982-005
‘Palestine’ still a knotty issueThe Register-GuardEugene, Oregon2 September 1982CP-1982-007
Most of the shorter text appears in the longer one. Found by comparing transcriptions, not by reading them side by side, so this establishes that the text overlaps and not that these papers ran the same dispatch. How this was done.
Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1982-006.
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