Palæstine

Proper noun

Palestine

1. A country in Western Asia, in the Middle East; the State of Palestine; the homeland of the Palestinian people.
   • Jews and Israel are not synonymous; nor is support for Palestine synonymous with anti-Semitism; nor is questioning the orthodoxy of the Republican party, which the majority of us do with relish, an insult to Jewry.2019 July 17, Talia Levin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ
   1. (sometimes strictly) The West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2. (historical or politically charged) The region in Western Asia in the Middle East between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
   • Most Zionists hoped for a state of their own, but early in the 20th century, writers like Hillel Solotaroff and Chaim Zhitlowsky, both Yiddish-speaking immigrant intellectuals in New York, imagined another alternative: a federation of self-governing anarchist communes in Palestine that would defend...2019 July 15, Greg Afinogenov, “The Jewish Case for Open Borders”, in Jewish Currents, number Summer 2019

   Synonyms:

   Canaan, the Holy Land, Israel, the Land of Israel

3. (historical) A British colonial entity administering approximately the lands mentioned in definition 1.
4. (historical, rare) The British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, of which this region was a part (the remainder being Transjordan, which covered approximately the lands of the modern Kingdom (originally Emirate) of Jordan).
5. (historical) Any of four Ancient Roman and Byzantine provinces in the eastern Mediterranean: Syria Palaestina, Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Salutaris.

   Synonyms:

   Palaestina

See all 24 meanings of Palestine