Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים פָלַסְטִינִים; Arabic: اليهود الفلسطينيون) were the Jews who inhabited Palestine (alternatively the Land of Israel) prior to the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Jews

Photo: The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, the Mevorach family collection

https://www.facebook.com/groups/histimages/posts/3651611918424591/

This sculpture is one of the Madanikas (also called Shilabalikas) from the Chennakesava Temple at Belur in Karnataka, built during the Hoysala period in the 12th century CE. The temple was commissioned by King Vishnuvardhana and is considered one of the major surviving examples of Hoysala architecture.

The Madanikas are bracket figures placed around the temple’s mandapa and are known for their highly detailed ornamentation, naturalistic poses, and refined stone carving. Many depict dancers, musicians, hunters, or women interacting with animals and birds, reflecting both courtly aesthetics and sculptural conventions of the period.

The figures were carved from chloritic schist, commonly called soapstone, which allowed artisans to produce intricate jewellery, textiles, and decorative patterns with exceptional precision. These sculptures are widely studied for their role in medieval South Indian temple art and Hoysala craftsmanship.

Historically, names like Philistia, Filastin, or Palestine designated regional zones, coastlines, or imperial provinces, but never an independent country, state or kingdom ruled by a sovereign leader, until the British Mandate of 1920.

Many people today assume that the first leader of Palestine must have been an ancient Arab Muslim. However, historical records show that the very first head of the state administration in the 20th century was actually a British Jewish statesman and an ardent Zionist: Herbert Samuel.

When the British Empire assumed control of the region from the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Prime Minister David Lloyd George appointed Samuel as the first High Commissioner for Palestine (1920–1925). His appointment carried profound historical weight, as he became the first practicing Jewish leader to govern the geographic region in over two millennia, stepping into a land that held deep indigenous meaning for his own ancestry.

The Deep Roots of the Land of Israel

• The Origin of the Name: Long before the region was renamed Syria Palaestina by the Roman Empire in 135 CE, the area was known natively as the "Land of Israel" (Eretz Yisrael).
• The Name's Lineage: The name "Israel" originally belonged to a historic individual, the biblical patriarch Jacob, from whom the ancient Israelites descended.
• An Indigenous Legacy: The Israelite and Jewish presence in this specific territory spans over 4,000 years. Historical, archaeological, and genetic data show that many Jewish individuals living there throughout the centuries and returning there carried ancestral lineage directly tied to these original inhabitants.

Unbroken Continuity: Byzantine and Ottoman Archaeology

A common misconception is that the Jewish presence vanished entirely after the Roman exiles. Extensive physical evidence proves that a distinct, continuous Jewish population remained rooted in the land through every major imperial conquest:

• The Byzantine Era (4th–7th Century CE): Despite harsh anti-Jewish laws imposed by Christian Byzantine rulers, archaeology reveals a thriving Jewish rural and urban life, particularly in the Galilee and Golan regions. Excavated sites like the Capernaum, Hammat Tiberias, and Zippori (Sepphoris) synagogues feature intricate mosaic floors, Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, and menorah motifs. These physical remains demonstrate that Jewish spiritual, cultural, and economic life endured directly on the soil during centuries of foreign rule.
• The Ottoman Era (1517–1917 CE): Under Turkish rule, the "Four Holy Cities" of Judaism—Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias—maintained active, deeply rooted Jewish communities. Safed became a global center for Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) in the 16th century. Archaeologists and historians have documented continuous residential quarters, historic synagogues (such as the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue), and centuries-old Jewish cemeteries (like the ancient slopes of the Mount of Olives). These sites confirm that generations lived, died, and maintained an unbroken connection to the land long before the arrival of the British.

Samuel's Zionist Vision and Administration

Years before taking office, Samuel wrote an influential memorandum titled The Future of Palestine. He urged the British cabinet to support a protectorate that would allow for the restoration of a Jewish national home, paving the way for the 1917 Balfour Declaration. As High Commissioner, he had to balance a complex population composed of a long-standing Arab majority and a rapidly growing, returning Jewish population.

• Immigration & Economic Rules: To balance these groups, Samuel tied Jewish immigration directly to the territory's "economic absorptive capacity" to prevent sudden economic disruption.
• Shifting Legal Frameworks: According to analysis by the Britain Palestine Project, Samuel instituted new land registry laws. These laws allowed for the legal purchase and transfer of land, creating permanent agricultural and civic foundations for Jewish communities.
• Concessions to Both Sides: In an effort to keep the peace among the Arab populace, Samuel pardoned and appointed Haj Amin al-Husseini as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. This move erred toward political appeasement and angered many Zionists, who felt Samuel was compromising their safety.

Why This History Matters for Peace

True peace requires acknowledging that multiple peoples have deep, legitimate, and indigenous ties to the exact same soil. Understanding that the Jewish connection to the land did not begin in 1948, but rather extends back thousands of years through an unbroken chain of physical, archaeological history, is a vital step in understanding the dual narratives of the region.

When World War II broke out, Irena Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker, employed by the Welfare Department of the Warsaw municipality. After the German occupation, the department continued to take care of the great number of poor and dispossessed people in the city. Irena Sendler took advantage of her job in order to help the Jews, however this became practically impossible once the ghetto was sealed off in November 1940. Close to 400,000 people had been driven into the small area that had been allocated to the ghetto, and their situation soon deteriorated. The poor hygienic conditions in the crowded ghetto, the lack of food and medical supplies resulted in epidemics and high death rates. Irena Sendler, at great personal danger, devised means to get into the ghetto and help the dying Jews. She managed to obtain a permit from the municipality that enabled her to enter the ghetto to inspect the sanitary conditions. Once inside the ghetto, she established contact with activists of the Jewish welfare organization and began to help them. She helped smuggle Jews out of the ghetto to the Aryan side and helped set up hiding places for them.

When the Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota) was established, Sendler became one of its main activists. The Council was created in fall 1942, after 280,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When it began to function towards the end of the year, most of the Jews of Warsaw had been killed. But it played a crucial role in the rescue of a large number who had survived the massive deportations. The organization took care of thousands of Jews who were trying to survive in hiding, seeking hiding places, and paying for the upkeep and medical care.

In September 1943, four months after the Warsaw ghetto was completely destroyed, Sendler was appointed director of Zegota’s Department for the Care of Jewish Children. Sendler, whose underground name was Jolanta, exploited her contacts with orphanages and institutes for abandoned children, to send Jewish children there. Many of the children were sent to the Rodzina Marii (Family of Mary) Orphanage in Warsaw, and to religious institutions run by nuns in nearby Chotomów, and in Turkowice, near Lublin. The exact number of children saved by Sendler and her partners is unknown.

On 20 October 1943, Sendler was arrested. She managed to stash away incriminating evidence such as the coded addresses of children in the care of Zegota and large sums of money to pay to those who helped Jews. She was sentenced to death and sent to the infamous Pawiak prison, but underground activists managed to bribe officials to release her. Her close encounter with death did not deter her from continuing her activity. After her release in February 1944, even though she knew that the authorities were keeping an eye on her, Sendler continued her underground activities. Because of the danger she had to go into hiding. The necessities of her clandestine life prevented her from attending her mother's funeral.

Source: https://wwv.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/righteous-women/sendler.asp