palestine translation the common name in other languages for the geographical area known in hebrew as eretz israel is palestine see also how the declaration of the establishment of the state of israel begins with the words eretz israel to name this region eretz israel hebrew the land of israel palestine was the birthplace of the jewish people a google search for the term in hebrew yielded about results it is clearly the endonym for this region in wide use in hebrew referring to an extensive range of topics connected to the geography history politics and academic study of this region