For Christians to use the term Palestine as a name for the area, which is the Holy Land, is a grave scriptural infraction. The Arab world, and a misinformed Western World, can call the area west of the Jordan River "Palestine” all they want; but that does not make it correct. In fact, to use the name Palestine, when referencing the areas of Israel and Judah, is to support a covert act of Satan. In my opinion, there are political elements promoting the use of the term Palestine, in spite of their knowledge that it is incorrect, because they want to avoid using the name Israel.
We know from the Bible (Genesis 12:6-7) that: "Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” By the time Jews got around to concurring the land God gave them the area was primarily occupied by the Canaanites and with a small southern section of the coast occupied by the Philistines. The Hebrew people were successful in conquering the Canaanites but they failed to over power the Philistines.
Conflict between the Hebrews and Philistines continued until both Israel and the Philistines were conquered by the Assyrian leader Tiglath-Pileser III, around 732 BC. Eventually, the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II gained control of the entire area and pulled it into the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Jewish people survived Babylonian capacity, as a distinct group, and returned to occupy the Promised Land. The Philistines, on the other hand, never regained nationhood and they disappeared as a distinct group by the late fifth century BCE. They were totally converted to Judaism by the time of the Hasmoneans.
Even though the Assyrians destroyed the Philistine nation, and the last remnants of a distinct Philistine people disappear during the time of the Hasmoneans, the world still wants to designate the Holy Land with a Philistine name. This is totally ridiculous! After all, the word Palestine is a derivative of the word "Pelesheth", which is a name that appears in the Old Testament. The term Pelesheth, as used in the Bible, refers only to the southwestern coastal area of Israel, which was occupied by the Philistines. Probably the earliest non-biblical reference to this southern coastal region comes from Ancient Egyptian temple texts. These texts tell of a people called the P-r-s-t or Peleset who were a part of the Sea Peoples invading Egypt in Ramesses III's reign. Also, in the writings of the Assyrian emperor Sargon II this same area is called Palashtu or Pilistu. Although the name Palestine has its roots in the early name for the region of the Philistines, the ancient world never applied this name to they lands occupied by the Jews.
After Babylonian captivity the Jews did enjoy a brief period of unification and expansion but it was short lived. It was not long before the Greeks, who called the land of the Jews "Ioudaia”, occupied the Holy Land. The Romans, who occupied the Holy Land after the Greeks, called the land of Israel "Iudaea,” which was taken from the Greek Ioudaia. From various Latin and Greek writers such as Pliny, Suetonius, Tacitus, Strabo and Ptolemy we know that the Romans considered Iudaea (or "Provincia Judaea") to mean all the lands inhabited by the Jews. After the Romans put down a Jewish revolt in AD 135 the Emperor Hadrian renamed "Provincia Judaea" "Provincia Syria Palaestina." The Romans latter shortened the name "Provincia Syria Palaestina" to Palaestina, which is the derivative for our modern usage of "Palestine."
It was, therefore, the Romans who took the term Palaestina (Palestine) and used it as a designation for all the lands occupied by the Jews: the Holy Land. This was not an inadvertent action; it was a cold calculation to attack the validity of the Jewish nation. The actions to discredit the Jewish nation, which were initiated by the Romans, have remained active to this very day. That, however, does not make it correct. The return of the Jews to the Holy Land in 1948 should have been sufficient to return this area to its original bible name. In fact, one could almost say that the use of the word Palestine can be considered anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. It appears as if the use of the term Palestine is Satan’s attempt to deny the existence of Israel as a legitimate and independent nation. We must remember that the Holy Land belongs to those God chose; and thus, there is nothing Satan or mankind can do to change this fact. Christian should be very careful in doing anything that can be viewed as denying what God has ordained. This entire area, the Holy Land, is not Palestine; therefore, Christians should be careful to call it by its rightful name: Israel.