The story of American Palestine, a land of corn and soybeans in the US

On the outskirts of the US State of Illinois, close to the border with Indiana, lies the small and sleepy village of Palestine, where "everybody knows everybody."

"It's the kind of place where you can still leave your doors unlocked at night,” Judy Beckes, a 76-year-old retiree in Palestine, IL tells TRT World.

“I don't think we've locked our back door for years.”

This village in the middle of the US is named after the historical land of Palestine in the Middle East. However, people who live here can’t be farther away from the death and destruction brought by Israel to the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

French explorer Jean Lamotte named the region in Illinois Palestine in 1678, as it reminded him of the “land of milk and honey” — a reference to the State of Palestine in the Southern Levant region of West Asia.

Beckes says she agrees with Lamotte’s description: “He commented there was so much food, the game and bow, and things around here that it reminded him of the land of Palestine, the land of milk and honey, and that's how it got its name.”

“I have friends who call it God's country but there's a lot of people who do that around the country anyway,” Beckes laughs.

Israel was carved out of Palestine in 1948. Zionists have tried for years to erase the memory of historical Palestine, even going on to suggest that nothing by the name of Palestine ever existed.

To have a centuries-old village called Palestine in the middle of the US is a testimony to the existence of Palestinian lands and people long before Israel emerged on the world map.

The US has a tradition of naming towns and villages after foreign countries and capitals, such as the city of Lebanon in Pennsylvania and the city of Dublin in Ohio.

“Palestine is surrounded by flat prairie land, which now contain corn and soybean fields. But back several centuries, the Illinois prairie stretched west for miles,” writes a blogger named Pamela S. Meyers who frequented the village that once possessed “a sea of tall grass.”

Beckes says she watches the news of the bombardment in Gaza and recently learned that her deceased mother-in-law used to donate to organisations active in the region, including Doctors without Borders (MSF)

“She must have donated to everybody,” Beckes says, adding that her and her husband Harold still receive many letters from the organisations addressed to her mother-in-law.

“I think those who can give, do what they can here.”

Centennial farms

As Beckes’ is retired, she says her days are “not too busy” but she volunteers for the historical society, which renovated the Fife Opera House in the village.

“It's quiet, it’s beautiful around here,” she says about her village. “It gets cold though.”

The US village of Palestine is home to 1,233 people, made up of just 347 families, according to the 2020 US census, and is 94.97 percent white.

Beckes was born and raised in Palestine, IL, like her father and many other people living in the village today. Meanwhile, Beckes’ mother just celebrated her 101st birthday.

“You’ll find generations of people all through town who were born and raised here like their parents or their grandparents were,” Beckes tells TRT World.

“There are many, what they call, centennial farms around here, which is a farm that's been under the same family ownership for over 100 years,” she adds.

In fact, Beckes has three boys and while one of them lives in southern Chicago and another in Jacksonville, Indiana, the third built a house on a farm in the village. It is about a quarter mile from Beckes and her husband Harold, who she’s been married to for 55-years.

“(My son) checks on us and we go to his kids' basketball games and things like that,” she explains.

Around a quarter of the village population is under the age of 18 but the median age is 47.5 years and median income for a household is $41,700.

In contrast, roughly 2.4 million people reside in the State of Palestine, of which 45 percent are under the age of 18. But the Israeli war on Gaza has caused 1.9 million of the Palestinian territory's inhabitants to be displaced.

From Texas to Ohio

In this American village named after Palestine, the biggest task of the local police is to hand out speeding tickets under the watchful gaze of Pat Schofield, the longtime mayor who is more than 80-years-old.

“Once in a while, you know, you'll have somebody arrested for drugs,” Beckes says. “Right now the town is a little impoverished but we have a very strong, active food bank and churches where people help other people if they need it.”

Earlier this year, a tornado tore through the village and “took out the airport and a lot of people's houses” but immediately volunteers "swooped in and everything was cleared up within a couple of days,” says Beckes.

The village’s top rated pastimes on Trip Advisor are to enjoy the “amazing view of the Wabash River from a very high bluff” in Merom Park and to visit the Heath Candy Bar Museum.

But blogger Meyers also praised the village’s three-day rodeo, which includes live entertainment, tractor pulls, corn hole tournaments and much more.

“By the time this is posted, I will be on the road home from a very exciting weekend in Palestine, Illinois, site of the Pioneer City Rodeo” she wrote in a blog post on September 4, 2017. “The same rodeo that is the setting for my book, Second Chance Love.”

Palestine village in Illinois is not the only region in the US with the same name as the Middle Eastern country.

There are also two cities named Palestine, one in Texas state with a total population of 18,544 people (image one) and another in Arkansas state with a total population of 506 people (image two).

In addition, there is an even tinier village in Ohio state with a total population of 180 people also called Palestine (image three) and even Palestine Lake in Indiana state (image four).

Bustling town turned quiet village

Palestine was chartered in 1811 and "over the years, many interesting events have shaped the course of Palestine’s history,” the Palestine Chamber of Commerce writes on its website.

But there was no elaboration on the interesting events and in general very little information available online.

“Back in the early 1800s, the federal land grant office was here and everybody passed through Palestine when they wanted a land grant and these were given to the soldiers of 1812,” Beckes adds.

Janice, who preferred to not disclose her last name, is a florist at Rocking Horse in Palestine, IL, who like Judy, spent her whole life in the village. Janice also has a daughter who lives in the village.

Janice also remarked to TRT World how “originally Palestine was a very bustling community back in the 1800s”, but agreed that now it’s “more quiet, more of a residential community.”

Beckes also said the city was sitting on an “underground aquifer,” which contains really good water about a 10 to 15 feet drill below the surface.

“It's just plenty more good anyway, that's why people came here to get fresh water and go on to wherever they were going, but they all passed through here.”

In contrast, aid organisations in Palestine, the country, have been warning of a severe lack of food, water, basic hygiene and access to medication leading to the rise in a number of illnesses and diseases as Israel continues with its deadly offensive.

However, for her part, like most in the village of Palestine, IL, Janice says she listens to the news but is not personally attached to it.

“There have been people in the community who have had friends that were over there, but I think they all got out,” Janice tells TRT World without elaboration.