"There was nothing called a Palestinian people" in 1917, says Palestinian historian

Official PA TV, special broadcast for the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration

Historian Abd Al-Ghani Salameh: "Before the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) when the Ottoman rule ended (1517 - 1917), Palestine's political borders as we know them today did not exist, and there was nothing called a Palestinian people with a political identity as we know today, since Palestine's lines of administrative division stretched from east to west and included Jordan and southern Lebanon, and like all peoples of the region [the Palestinians] were liberated from the Turkish rule and immediately moved to colonial rule, without forming a Palestinian people's political identity."
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The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate "responsible for putting into effect the declaration," which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.

The Ottoman rule of the area started in 1512 and lasted for over 400 years.