Under the Mandate, Jewish institutions used the name Palestine, and Arabs were Palestinians by the land's name
The claim
“There were newspaper articles from the time that suggest the name was sometimes used just for Jews. For example, an article would refer to "Palestinians" as distinct from "Arab Palestinians."”Made by C.S. Friedman (public figure, Science fiction and fantasy novelist).
Where it was posted: Quora, in an answer by C.S. Friedman
What the evidence shows
Accurate as far as it goes; the omitted context changes its meaning.
Under the British Mandate, the institutional use of “Palestinian” often did attach to Jewish bodies, because the Zionist movement embraced the label. The Palestine Post (now the Jerusalem Post) was a Jewish/Zionist newspaper. The Palestine Symphony Orchestra was Jewish. Palestinian citizenship under the Mandate applied to everyone but was used heavily by Jewish immigrants. The currency was the “Palestine pound.”
So, yes, in that era, “Palestinian” in official/institutional contexts frequently meant the Jewish community, and Arabs more often identified as “Arabs” or by locality or as part of Greater Syria.
The Arabs didn’t invent anything, they were simply Palestinians, by the plain geographic name of the place. The only people doing identity-carpentry with the word were the newcomers who needed to carve out a separate category for themselves. So if anyone “invented” a distinction, it was your side, not the Palestinians.
Everyone living in Palestine is Palestinian, correct. That is the end of the story.
First published in my Quora debunk archive.
Evidence
Founded in 1932 as the Palestine Post; renamed in 1950.
Founded in 1936 as the Palestine Orchestra; renamed in 1948.
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