h/t Asa Winstanley

15 Feb 2026
https://1taghrid.substack.com/p/when-a-museum-erases-a-word-why-the

The British Museum has quietly removed the word "Palestine" from several
displays in its Ancient Middle East galleries. The official explanation is that
the term was "anachronistic."

But history and context tell a different story.

A Name With More Than Two Thousand Years of History
The name Palaistinê appears in Herodotus in the 5th century BCE.
The Romans renamed the region Syria Palaestina in 135 CE.
Byzantine, early Islamic, Crusader, and Ottoman sources all used variations of
the name.
European maps from the medieval period through the 19th century consistently
label the region as Palestine.

And in Britain's own cultural canon, the word appears in Shakespeare's Othello -
a reminder that "Palestine" has long been part of English literary and
historical consciousness.

This is not a modern invention.
It is one of the oldest continuously used geographic names in the region.

Ctd ...