Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

February 18, 2026

The British Museum Was Right to Remove the Word “Palestine”

The dilemma of the defenders of civilization.

Traditionally, archaeologists and historians have referred to the territory now comprising Gaza, Israel, and Jordan as “Palestine” when discussing the period before 1946. At least when speaking of anything that happened after 135 CE, doing so follows standard academic practice: places should be called by the names used in the era under consideration. (Israel only emerged as a geographic term in 1948; for Jews, it had previously been Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.)

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