Oh, I see. So, you have no evidence of such a desire, so you try to explain away the lack of evidence by claiming the Arabs were afraid to make a peep because of the Ottoman Turks.
Funny, isn't it, how the Jews, from the 1880s, were speaking of a "national homeland" -- although originally such voices were indeed a small minority -- and were not at all afraid of being massacred by the Turks?
Isn't it also funny how the Arabs in general were so scared of the Turks they actually rose in an Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire? Yet none of those of Lawrence's famous Arab allies seems to have defined himself as a Palestinian (as opposed to an Arab), nor have those who came to welcome Gen. Allenby in Jerusalem ("Palestinian" meant a Jew living in Palestine at the time)?
But I guess you'll have to find something -- anything -- as an excuse for the utter lack of Ottoman era Palestinian nationalism.
Funny, isn't it, how the Jews, from the 1880s, were speaking of a "national homeland" -- although originally such voices were indeed a small minority -- and were not at all afraid of being massacred by the Turks?
Isn't it also funny how the Arabs in general were so scared of the Turks they actually rose in an Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire? Yet none of those of Lawrence's famous Arab allies seems to have defined himself as a Palestinian (as opposed to an Arab), nor have those who came to welcome Gen. Allenby in Jerusalem ("Palestinian" meant a Jew living in Palestine at the time)?
But I guess you'll have to find something -- anything -- as an excuse for the utter lack of Ottoman era Palestinian nationalism.
