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Palestine or Philistine? The name “Palestine” is widely assumed to derive from the Biblical term Peleshet, Land of the Philistines. But, as David Jacobson notes, the ancients also used the name Palestine to refer to the Land of Israel. The Philistines appear in the historical record in Egyptian inscriptions, which refer to them as Prst, one of the Sea Peoples, and clearly identify them as a group. As portrayed in these 12th-century B.C.E. reliefs from the temple at Medinet Habu, Thebes, the Philistines captured in the naval battle sailed on ships that differed from those used by the Egyptians.