Fast Fact #5
Following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea as “Syria Palaestina” – a name derived from the Hebrew “פלשתים” which means “invaders” and the name of the biblical Philistines who had died out by then. In Mandatory Palestine, the mil, a general circulation coin, was stamped (פלשתינה (א”י, which included the abbreviation for ארץ ישראל or “Land of Israel”.