It is a lie that Palestinians did not exist in 1948. One of the earliest references to Palestinians as a distinct people dates back to 1798, when German philosopher Immanuel Kant mentioned “Palestinians living among us” in his book Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. He was, of course, referring to Ashkenazi Jews living in Europe. Palestine was always a geographical term, but on the rare occasions when it was used to refer to a people, it referred to Jews. The Palestinian Arab identity, however, is much more recent and was indeed only invented in the 1960s. Until then, Arabs were never seen as native, and fiercely rejected and even took offense at being called Palestinian, as the term was strongly associated with Jews and the Zionist movement. The Palestinian Arab identity was created specifically as a counter-identity to Israel and to present Arabs as an ancient and indigenous people of the region. Had Israel never been established, not a single Arab would identify as Palestinian today. So yes, Palestinians did exist before 1948. They just were Jews.