Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel), Palestine and Yishuv are terms referring to the geographical area that was not a single official political entity during the period under Ottoman rule (until 1917) and the British Mandate period (1917–1948). Consequently, this book uses them in different contexts. The term Palestine is used in references made to this region’s general historical period. The Hebrew word Yishuv (literally settlement) is the accepted term used when referring to the Jewish population of Palestine, prior to the establishment of the sovereign state of Israel in 1948. The Hebrew term Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) is used in two different contexts: it is the common term for the country, referred to in the Bible and in later historical periods leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The other context of the term is its Jewish-Zionist usage as an equivalent of the universal term Palestine, in scholarly publications.
The transliteration of words in Hebrew, geared for the convenience of reading, marks the definite article (the letter hey in Hebrew—