Talk:Hamastan

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Good work so far. I am a bit apprehensive about the Jesusland reference though. Do you really think it applies? Andersa 12:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Hamastan is not a deraugatory nickname 2 Arabic script 3 Gaza vs. West Bank 4 Conception of expresion 5 surprize surprize

[edit] Hamastan is not a deraugatory nickname

The leader, as stated in the article, accepts the term and welcomes the establishment of an Islamic state in Palestine like in Afghanistan.

The use of the term also predates the election of Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, so Netanyahu is only echoing a word Hamas uses to define itself. --04:42, 20 August 2006 209.197.148.184

I'm afraid it is kind of derogatory -- Mahmud al-Zahar can accept it as shorthand for "Islamist Palestinian state in which Hamas would predominate" in the context of a journalistic interview, but I seriously doubt whether it's a term that the Hamas leadership would ever use spontaneously to define itself. AnonMoos 20:51, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Arabic script

The Arabic spelling would be حماستان , but that doesn't really look like an Arabic word. However, it does get 588 Google hits: [1] -- AnonMoos 20:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Wow -- now that same link gets 105,000 hits! AnonMoos 07:50, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Careful, please. We should make a distinction here between "spelling in the Arabic script" and the "written form of an Arabic word", because, as others have noted, "-stan" is Persian in origin. -Fsotrain⁰⁹ 22:05, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

It wasn't originally an Arabic word, but it looks like it's on the way to becoming one... AnonMoos 08:54, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

The first recorded use I found is from a Nov. 2004 piece by an Israeli general [2] and I think it was used mainly by Israeli's right before the disangagement, so maybe a Hebrew script is more precise. DGtal 11:42, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

The Hebrew spelling in the Interwiki link in the article is חמאסטאן (i.e. he:חמאסטאן), but "Hamas" is of course originally an Arabic word, while the "-stan" suffix has an accepted standard spelling in Arabic script (as found in the Arabic names of countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan). Hamastan may have started out in Hebrew in 2004, but حماستان seems to be all over the Arabic media in the last week or so... AnonMoos 13:53, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I see my sense of humour isn't too good. The theory was that the word wasn't used at first be arabs, rather by jews, so adding a hebrew word is just as (ir)relevant as an arab one. My theory is that the creation and popularity was inspired by Fatahland (he:פתחלנד), a similar language mix-up, with similar meaning (a palestinian group taking over a territory, etc.). DGtal 15:50, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gaza vs. West Bank

Right now, it's looking like Hamastan is Gaza, but the term was originally meant to refer hypothetically to all the Palestinian territories being under Hamas domination... AnonMoos 21:41, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Conception of expresion

In may 2005 Silvan Shalom already used the expresion (hope you read hebrew) and I doubt he was the first. Maybe we should remove the whole "I invented it issue?" DGtal 22:34, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] surprize surprize

i'm not interested in fighting over this one, i figure i'll accept the "surprise" notation if it was referred to someone gullible about palestinian issues... like say, the british media or haaretz newspaper. Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 07:08, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Both versions suck equally, really. "Hamas won the election" is succinct and factual, and really does not need qualifiers unless someone can point to sources to the contrary. Tarc 11:59, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

i think there is room to add the (gullible) westerner sources which were surprized. Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 13:16, 8 July 2007 (UTC)