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'''''Salammbô''''' is an [[opera]] in four acts composed by [[Ernest Reyer]] to a [[French language|French]] [[libretto]] by [[Camille du Locle]]. It is based on the novel ''[[Salammbô (novel)|Salammbô]]'' by [[Gustave Flaubert]]. The opera was first performed at the [[La Monnaie|Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie]] in [[Brussels]] on [[February 10]] [[1890]]. It debuted at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in [[New York City]] on [[March 20]], [[1901]].
[[Image:Palestinianflagproposed.gif|250px|right|thumbnail|The [[Palestinian flag]], adopted in [[1948]], is a widely recognized modern symbol of the Palestinian people.]]
While there are various older or different definitions of the term "'''Palestinian'''" (discussed in [[Definitions of Palestine#Palestinian]]), the overwhelming majority of uses of the term today are in reference to the people, mainly [[Arab]]s, whose ancestors inhabited the [[Region of Palestine]] before 1918.
==Characters==
Under the British Mandate period from 1918 to 1948, "Palestinians" was largely a geographical term, which referred to anyone living in Palestine, including Jewish immigrants to the [[region of Palestine|Palestine region]] as well as Arabs living in the region. Since the [[creation of Israel]] this use has ended.
*Salammbô (Soprano), Hamilcar's daughter
While some may exclude [[Israeli Arab]]s from today's definition "Palestinians", others (including most Palestinians) consider them by their family ties as being Palestinians. Thus the term over the centuries has shifted from ethnic to regional and again to an ethnic description.
*Shahabarim (Tenor), High Priest of Tanit
*Narr'Havas (Basse chantante), King of Numidia
*Giscon (Bass), Carthaginian general
*Mathô (Tenor), Lybian mercenary
*Hamilcar (Baritone), Carthaginian Suffete
*Spendius (Baritone), Greek slave
*Autharite (Bass), Gaulish mercenary
*Taanach (Mezzo-soprano), Salammbo's servant
==Setting==
The Palestinians are a group of mainly Arabic speakers who regard themselves as a distinct branch of the [[Arabic language|Arabic]]-speaking peoples, with family origin in the region called [[Palestine]] being the defining characteristic. As such, the designation is independent of nationality and religion (though the vast majority are [[Muslim]]). While most Palestinians define themselves as Arabs, some Palestinian intellectuals prefer to emphasize their continuity with the previous population of the area, and see themselves as [[Canaanite]] rather than Arab (cf. [http://www.lpj.org/Nonviolence/Sami/articles/eng-articles/canaanite.htm Abu-Sahlieh]). The great majority of Palestinians are the descendants of Arabic speakers resident in Palestine during the period before the creation of [[Israel]], although the term can include certain non-Arab groups. They include most of the [[Israeli Arab|Arab minority in Israel]]. Another distinguishing characteristic of the Palestinians is their [[Palestinian Arabic|dialect]]; rural Palestinians, almost uniquely among Arabic speakers, pronounce the letter ''qaaf'' as ''k'' (Arabic ''kaaf''), although [[Bedouin]] and most urban families do not.
*Place: [[Carthage]]
*Time: 240 BC
==Other opera adaptations==
==Palestinian demographics==
In [[1863]], [[Modest Mussorgsky]] also started writing text and music for an opera based on Flaubert's novel, but he never managed to complete the work.
For the film score of [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', [[Bernard Herrmann]] wrote an aria for the fictional opera ''Salammbô'' performed by Kane's wife.
While the largest single population of Palestinians is found in the lands which constituted [[British Mandate of Palestine]], over half of Palestinians live elsewhere as [[refugees]] and [[emigrant]]s. In the absence of actual censuses, counting large populations is very difficult. However, the world-wide distribution of Palestinians in 2001, according to estimates collated by the [[Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs]], were as follows.
Contemporary French composer [[Philippe Fénélon]]'s ''Salammbô'' was first performed in the [[Opéra Bastille]] in [[1998]].
<center>
<TABLE cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="300px">
<TR><TD align="center">'''Country or Region'''</TD><TD align="center"> '''Population'''</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]] </TD><TD align="center">3,299,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Israel]]</TD><TD align="center">1,013,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Jordan]]</TD><TD align="center">2,598,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Lebanon]]</TD><TD align="center">388,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Syria]]</TD><TD align="center">395,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Saudi Arabia]]</TD><TD align="center">287,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Gulf states]]</TD><TD align="center">152,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">[[Egypt]]</TD><TD align="center">58,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">Other [[Arab]] states</TD><TD align="center">113,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">The [[Americas]]</TD><TD align="center">216,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">Other countries</TD><TD align="center">275,000</TD></TR>
<TR><TD align="center">'''TOTAL'''</TD><TD align="center">8,794,000</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</center>
[[Category:Operas by Ernest Reyer]]
Thus 49% of Palestinians live in the former British Mandate bounds of Palestine - 37.5% in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and 11.5% in the boundaries of Israel - while 51.0% live elsewhere.
[[Category:French-language operas]]
[[Category:1901 operas]]
[[Category:Operas]]
{{opera-stub}}
In [[Jordan]] today, there is no official census data about how many of the inhabitants of Jordan are Palestinians; estimates range from 50% to 80%. Some political researchers attribute this to the Jordanian policy of not further widening the gap between the two main population groups in Jordan: its original Bedouin population that holds most of the administrative posts and the Palestinians who are predominant in the economy.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics announced on [[October 20]], [[2004]] that the number of Palestinians worldwide at the end of [[2003]] is 9.6 million, an increase of 800,000 since [[2001]]. [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1098331917664&p=1078397702269]
===Refugees===
''See [[Palestinian refugees]] for more detail.''
4,082,300 Palestinians are registered as [[Palestinian refugees|refugees]] with [[UNRWA]]; this number includes the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war, but excludes those who have emigrated to areas outside of the UNRWA's remit. Thus, if the estimates above are correct, 46% of all Palestinians are registered refugees.
===Religions===
The British census of 1922 counted 752,048 in the [[British Mandate of Palestine]], comprising 589,177 [[Muslim]]s, 83,790 [[Jew]]s, 71,464 [[Palestinian Christian|Christian]]s and 7,617 persons belonging to other groups. If we exclude the Jewish population (although at the time a significant proportion of them would have been considered Palestinian), this implies 88% [[Muslim]], 11% Christian, and 1% other. However, the British censuses are believed by some to have significantly undercounted the [[Bedouin]].
Currently, no reliable data is available for the worldwide Palestinian population; Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University estimates it as 6% Christian[http://www.al-bushra.org/holyland/sabella.htm]. However, within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the [[Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs]], the Palestinian population is 97% [[Muslim]] and 3% Christian; there are also about 300 [[Samaritan]]s and a few thousand Jews from the [[Neturei Karta]] group who consider themselves Palestinian. Within Israel, 68% of the non-Jewish population is Muslim, 9% Christian, 7% [[Druze]], and 15% "other".
==The ancestry of the Palestinians==
It is still a matter of some debate to what extent [[Arab]]s replaced previous populations in the [[Middle East]], and to what extent those populations merely adopted the [[Arabic language]]. However, the prevailing view of historians is that most of the population remained the same; the significant number of loanwords from earlier languages ([[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] in the [[Fertile Crescent]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in [[Egypt]], [[Berber languages|Berber]] in the [[Maghreb]]), the retention of earlier cultural customs (especially well-documented for Egypt among the [[fellahin]], but notably including sizable [[Christianity|Christian]] communities throughout the area), and the relatively small population of Arabia all point to a continuity with the earlier population. The medieval [[Maghreb|North African]] sociologist [[Ibn Khaldun]] strongly argued for continuity, considering the Arabization of these populations to be a result of their imitating their rulers. Interestingly, in his time, the word "Arab" referred only to [[Bedouin]] and their direct descendants, and was not applied to city dwellers and farmers even if they had come to speak Arabic.
The Palestinian [[Bedouin]], however, are much more securely known to be [[Arab]] by ancestry as well as by culture; their distinctively conservative [[Varieties of Arabic|dialects]] and pronunciation of ''qaaf'' as ''gaaf'' group them with other [[Bedouin]] across the Arab world and confirm their separate history. Their arrival in the [[Negev]] predates Islam by a considerable period; specifically [[Arabic language|Arabic]] onomastic elements began to appear in [[Edomite language|Edomite]] inscriptions starting in the 6th century BC, and are nearly universal in the inscriptions of the [[Nabataean]]s, who arrived there in the 4th-3rd centuries BC[http://www.nabateans.org/israel.htm]. A few Bedouin are found as far north as [[Galilee]]; however, these seem to be much later arrivals (although [[Sargon II]] settled Arabs in [[Samaria]] as early as [[720s BC|720 BC]].)
As genetic techniques have advanced, it has become possible to look directly into the question of the ancestry of the Palestinians. In recent years, many genetic surveys have suggested that Jews and Palestinians (and in some cases other Levantines) are genetically closer to each other than either is to the Arabs of Arabia or to Europeans
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12743242]
[http://foundationstone.com.au/HtmlSupport/WebPage/semiticGenetics.html]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8838913]
[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C15F83F5D0C778DDDAC0894DA404482]. ([http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html this collection] contains more links to genetic studies of Jewish and middle eastern populations.) These studies look at the prevalence of specific inherited genetic differences ([[Polymorphism (biology)|polymorphism]]) among populations, which then allow the relatedness of these populations to be determined, and their ancestry to be traced back (see [[population genetics]]). These differences can be the cause of [[genetic disease]] or be completely neutral (see [[Single nucleotide polymorphism]]) ; they can be inherited maternally ([[mitochondrial DNA]]), paternally ([[Y chromosome]]), or as a [[genetic recombination|mixture]] from both parents ; the results obtained may vary from polymorphism to polymorphism. One study [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11935342]on congenital deafness identified an allele only found in Palestinian and [[Ashkenazi]] communities, suggesting a common origin ; an investigation [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12820706] of a Y-chromosome polymorphism found [[Lebanese]], Palestinian, and [[Sephardic]] populations to be particularly closely related ; a third study [http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:SsKy0fp013gJ:www.idesign.fl.net.au/camel_/tidbits/Being_Jewish_Doesn%27t_Mean_You%27re_Different/The%2520Origin%2520of%2520Palestinians%2520and%2520Their%2520Genetic%2520Relatedness%2520With%2520Other%2520Mediterranean%2520Populations.pdf+palestinian+genetics&hl=en], looking at [[Human leukocyte antigen]] differences among a broad range of populations, found Palestinians to be particularly closely related to Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews, as well as Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean populations. (The latter study by [[Antonio Arnaiz-Villena]] has been the subject of intense controversy, it was retracted by the journal and removed from its website, leading to further controversy; the main accusations made were that the authors used their scientific findings to justify making one-sided political proclamations in the paper; that the retraction followed lobbyist pressure because the results contradicted certain political beliefs; some suggested that the broad scientific interpretation was based on too narrow data [http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/Dynapage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v415/n6868/full/415115b_fs.html], whereas others support the scientific content as valid - for more information on the controversy : [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7401/1262], [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605798,00.html],
[http://www.forward.com/issues/2001/01.11.30/news7.html],
[http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/PDF/nature_genetics.PDF].)
If this close relatedness is true, it would confirm both Jews' and Palestinians' historical claims, suggesting a common Northwest [[Semitic language|Semitic]] ancestry. However, the results are complex, much work remains to be carried out, and partial results can be interpreted to suit diverse political agendas.
One point in which the two populations appear to contrast is in the proportion of sub-Saharan African genes which have entered their gene pools. One study found that Middle Eastern Arabs (specifically Palestinians, [[Jordan]]ians, [[Syria]]ns, [[Iraq]]is, and [[Bedouin]]), unlike other Middle Eastern populations (specifically [[Turkic peoples|Turk]]s, [[Kurds]], [[Armenian (people)|Armenian]]s, [[Azerbaijanis|Azeri]]s, [[Georgian people|Georgian]]s, and [[Mizrahi Jew|Near Eastern Jew]]s), had what appears to be a substantial gene flow from [[sub-Saharan Africa]] (amounting to 10-15% of lineages) within the past three millennia, possibly due to the [[slave trade]][http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v72n4/024771/024771.html].
== The origins of Palestinian identity ==
[[Image:Medieval_Arab_Palestine.jpg|thumbnail|350px|right|A map of Palestine as described by the medieval Arab geographers, with the ''junds'' of Jordan and Filistin highlighted in grey]]
Palestine (''Filasteen'' فلسطين) has been the Arabic name of the region since the earliest medieval Arab geographers (adopted from the then-current Greek term ''Palaistinê'', first used by [[Herodotus]], itself derived ultimately from the name of the [[Philistines]]), and "Palestinian" (''Filasteeni'' فلسطسيني) was always a common [[nisba]] adopted by natives of the region, starting as early as the first century after the [[Hijra]] (eg `Abdallah b. Muhayriz al-Jumahi al-Filastini[http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IAS/HP-e2/eventreports/Lecker.html], an ascetic who died in the early 700's.) However, the Palestinians, like most Arab nationalities, have come to view themselves as primarily Palestinians (rather than as primarily Arabs, or Syrians, or denizens of a particular town) mostly in the past century. Whereas European and to a lesser extent Ottoman colonialism was the main spur in forming national identities and borders elsewhere, the main force in reaction to which Palestinian nationalism developed was [[Zionism]]. One of the earliest Palestinian newspapers, ''Filastin'' founded in [[Jaffa, Israel|Jaffa]] in [[1911]] by Issa al-Issa, addressed its readers as "Palestinians"[http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/chronology/14001962.htm].
=== Formation of the Palestinian nationality ===
Until the 19th century, most modern Arab national groups, including Palestine, had no distinct national identities per se, but it is difficult to determine how regional loyalties may have felt to Palestine's inhabitants over the course of hundreds of years, including periods that predate the rise of the contemporary nation-state. There were well-known regions - including Palestine, or ''Filasteen'' فلسطين, which was considered to be the southern region of the Levant, ''ash-Sham'' الشام - but there was no sense that a person should owe a particular loyalty to his region rather than to his religion or ethnic group, or in the case of a Bedouin his tribe. However, starting in the 19th century, the European concept of [[nationalism]] crept in, in many varieties; some pushed the idea of a Syrian or Fertile Crescent state, some pushed the idea of a pan-Arab state, while some pushed for smaller states such as [[Lebanon]].
Even before the end of Ottoman administration, Palestine, rather than the Ottoman Empire, was considered by many Palestinians to be their country. On [[25 July]] [[1913]], for instance, the Palestinian newspaper [[al-Karmel]] wrote: "This team possessed tremendous power; not to ignore that Palestine, their country, was part of the Ottoman Empire."[http://www.passia.org/publications/research_studies/books/arab_nationalism/arabresist.html] The idea of a specifically Palestinian state, however, was at first rejected by most Palestinians; the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations (in [[Jerusalem]], [[February]] [[1919]]), which met for the purpose of selecting a Palestinian Arab representative for the [[Paris Peace Conference]], adopted the following resolution: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds." ([[Yehoshua Porath]], Palestinian Arab National Movement: From Riots to Rebellion: [[1929]]-[[1939]], vol. 2, [[London]]: Frank Cass and Co., Ltd., [[1977]], pp. 81-82.) However, particularly after the fall of the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the French conquest of [[Syria]], the notion took on greater appeal; in 1920, for instance, the formerly pan-Syrianist [[mayor of Jerusalem]], [[Musa Qasim Pasha al-Husayni]], said "Now, after the recent events in [[Damascus]], we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine". Similarly, the Second Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations (December [[1920]]), passed a resolution calling for an independent Palestine; they then wrote a long letter to the [[League of Nations]] about "Palestine, land of Miracles and the supernatural, and the cradle of religions", demanding, amongst other things, that a "National Government be created which shall be responsible to a Parliament elected by the Palestinian People, who existed in Palestine before the war."
It was nonetheless still rejected by many groups; in 1937 Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, leader of the small [[Pan-Arabism|pan-Arabist]] Istiqlal party, told the [[Peel Commission]]: "There is no such country [as Palestine]! "Palestine" is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria." ([http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf1.html Myths & Facts. A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict] by Mitchell G. Bard)
[[Image:Nobel_prize_arafat.gif|frame|<small>Originally the normal headgear of Palestinian peasants, the [[keffiyeh]], worn here by [[Yasir Arafat]], first came to symbolize Palestinian nationalism during the [[British Mandate of Palestine|British Mandate]] period.</small>]]
Gradually, however, the Palestinians came to fully embrace the idea of a distinct Palestinian nationality in the course of the ongoing [[Arab-Israeli conflict]]. The idea of an independent nationality for Palestinian Arabs was greatly boosted by the [[1967 Six Day War]]; instead of being ruled by different Arab states encouraging them to think of themselves as Jordanians or Egyptians, they were now ruled by a state with no desire to make them think of themselves as Israelis, and an active interest in discouraging them from regarding themselves as Egyptians, Jordanians or Syrians. Moreover, the natives of the [[West Bank]] and the [[Gaza Strip]] now shared many interests and problems in common with each other that they did not share with the neighboring countries.
Because of the gradualness of the creation of an Palestinian national identity (as opposed to a regional one) - and, many allege, for reasons of political convenience - many Israelis did not accept the existence of an independent Palestinian people, as in [[Golda Meir]]'s statement: "There are no Palestinians," (see [[History of Palestine]]). Today the existence of a unique Palestinian nationality/identity is generally recognized even by most Israelis ([http://www.geocities.com/enough_net/right-exist.html], [http://www.rosenblit.com/Palestine.htm]).
In the period shortly after the State of [[Israel]] came into existence, many Arabs, including some Palestinians - in particular, supporters of [[pan-Arabism]] or [[pan-Syrianism]] - insisted that Palestinians were not distinct from other Arabs of the region. Zuhair Mohsen, leader in the seventies of the Syrian-funded [[Baathist]] group as-[[Saiqa]] and simultaneous head of the Military Department of the PLO, expressed the pan-Syrianist position of his main funders in an interview with the Dutch daily ''Trouw'' on March 1977: "There is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. It is for political reasons only that we carefully emphasize our Palestinian identity, because it is in the national interest of the Arabs to encourage the existence of Palestinians against Zionism, the establishment of a Palestinian state is a new expedient to continue the fight against Zionism and for Arab unity... For tactical reasons, Jordan, which has defined borders, cannot claim Haifa or Jaffa; but a Palestinian can claim Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba and Jerusalem." After his annexation of the [[West Bank]], King [[Abdullah I of Jordan]] forbade the use of the term ''Palestine'' in Jordanian official documents, for fear of encouraging separatism among the Palestinians. However, both pan-Arabism and pan-Syrianism have massively declined in popularity, and most Arabs now believe that Palestinians have a distinctive identity.
== Palestinians' political representatives ==
[[Image:Pna_logo.jpg|right|frame|Coat of arms of the PNA]]
The Arab summit meeting in Algiers in June 1988 stated that the [[PLO]] is the "only legitimate representation of the Palestinian people". However, Israel, and to a lesser extent the United States and parts of Europe, preferred to deal with what it regarded as more moderate Palestinian groups for a long period of time.
The [[Palestinian National Authority]] governs large sections of the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]]. It considers itself, and has often been considered by Israel, to be the primary political representative of the Palestinian people. In recent years, its authority has in practice been challenged by groups such as [[Hamas]]; however, most such groups continue to recognize its legitimacy in principle.
==See also==
*[[Arab--Israeli conflict]],
*[[British Mandate of Palestine]]
*[[Definitions of Palestine|Definitions of "Palestine" and "Palestinian"]]
*[[Knowledge wars]]
*[[Hamas]]
*[[List of famous Palestinians]]
*[[Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt]]
*[[Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan]]
*[[Palestine]]
*[[Palestinian Arabic]]
*[[Palestinian economy]]
*[[Palestinian exodus]],
*[[Palestinian music]]
*[[Palestinian Christian]]
*[[Palestinian refugees]]
*[[Palestinian terrorism]]
*[[PLO]]
[[de:Palästinenser]]
[[he:פלשתינאים]]
[[nl:Palestijnen]]
[[pl:Palestyńczycy]]
[[Category:Palestine]]
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