There was never a country called “Palestine”, yet.
People like to share this, but failed to understand how the map turned so white.
By 1946, “Palestine” isnt even a country yet, as its still under the British control – and they, being British, decided in their ultimate wisdom, to create a Jewish state in Palestine (Balfour Declaration 1917 – and also given Zionist movement plus increasing persecution in Europe) – its called Mandatory Palestine which is run as an occupied territory after the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1.
Even in WW2, there was the Arab revolt that saw the beginning of the bad blood between all sides.
UN PLAN 1947, the moment this is declared and with the British running away from the region, civil war broke out in “Palestine”. So do note, this is a PLAN, not a real border of Israel and Palestine.
In case you arent confused yet, USSR supports Israel, while obviously, Jews around the world donated money to build up money to buy equipments and weapons for the newly created Israeli army.
In early 1948, foreign volunteer forces (Arab Liberation Army) invaded into “Palestine”, including the Syrians, Egyptian, Iraqi and from a number of Arab states , as well as from Bosnia. Muslim Brotherhood also entered. While this happened, the middle and upper class of Arabs fled “Palestine” – because they got money to run.
Then 1948 Arab-Israeli War happened the moment Israel declared it’s independence, terminating the British Mandate. Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen sent expeditionary force to “Palestine”. This essential became the Israeli War of Independence.
It’s important to note that, Israel struggled to buy arms for their war effort, until they managed to finally acquire weapons from Czechoslovakia. Without which, Israel would not have continue fighting. After initial setbacks, Israel counter attacked and expanded their territorial control (from the map above) to what we finally see in Panel 3 of the famous 4 panel maps.
However, what the map is wrong is that, those are not “Palestine” as a state. Gaza is essentially conquered by Egypt while the West Bank and East Jerusalem is conquered by Jordan. Palestinian refugees that fled the war, settled in refugee camps and continued to be “stateless” as the Arab countries that hosted them refused to give them citizenship (this is done deliberately by the order of the Arab League to keep their “Palestinian identity” to protect their rights to return to their homeland… or so to speak.
“Palestine” isn’t a country at this stage (1949) and with the armistice lines signed, “Palestine” was essentially conquered by 3 different countries: Israel, Egypt and Jordan. “Palestine” continued to be occupied by foreign powers as shown in the 3rd panel until 1967, with the outbreak of the Six Day War.
It is important to note that, the Arab League or Palestinian supporting countries had ALL THE TIME in the world to form the State of Palestine, create its own government and self-determination. They never did. They left “Palestine” in limbo.
1967: Six Day War , is a surprising “time” that is not shown on the famous panels – probably because it was a utter humiliation of the creator of this panel.
What started off as an attempt to blockade Israel and contain Israel, particularly by Egypt with the closure of the Straits of Tiran (which was already a trigger for war during the Suez Crisis), became a casus belli for war between Israel and Egypt. As a result of, Israel conquered the entire of the Sinai Peninsula, controlling the Straits of Tiran directly.
Jordan was asked not to enter war, but Jordan rejected Israel’s request and fighting proceeded in the West Bank. Iraqi also enter war in support of Jordan’s war effort. But Jordan’s army lost the war within the first day of fighting and decided to evacuate from West Bank. It’s also during this battle that Israel captured the entire of Jerusalem.
Syria entered war due to false information of Egyptian success (probably the same type of misinformation we are nowadays getting bombarded in the Ukraine War and the current Israeli-Hamas war), but woefully unprepared against a superior foe. Eventually, Syria lost the Golan heights.
This war secures Israel geo-strategically, providing strategic depth and buffer zones from it’s enemies.
As for “Palestine”, Gaza and West Bank is now conquered and occupied by Israel. Again, there is still not a country called “Palestine” at this stage.
This acquired buffer zones proved useful in the Yom Kippur War, where Egyptian and Syrian initial successes lies only in their former territory. Pre-1967 Israeli territory was never stepped on by it’s enemies.
How about the State of Palestine / Palestine Authority we know today?
Surprisingly, it is granted by Israel (as show in the history above, Israel “rightfully” conquered all of “Palestine”), where Israel signed a series of agreements from 1993 with Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to establish limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza – which created the Palestinian Authority.
It is important to note, in the Oslo Accords (which is what these agreements are called), the signed the Letters of Mutual Recognition, where the PLO acknowledged the State of Israel and pledged to reject violence, and Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as partner in negotiations.
If you remove all the stigma and biasness, this is essentially the same as Indonesia giving Aceh autonomy but still remains part of Indonesia; or Hong Kong as part of China in a one country two system; or Catalonia as part of Spain – with the exception that, Israel did not want to annex the Palestine out of existence.
Thus, it had to be in this context to realise that, Palestinians never had autonomy or sovereignty – and the first time they had the right to any form of self rule or government – comes from their “sworn enemy” – Israel. Palestinian Authority is first time Palestinians governed themselves (and then they proceeded to go into their own civil war in around 10 years after achieving autonomy in the Hamas-Fatah conflict)
And this is also why, the 4 Panel Maps is highly misleading – because, Palestine would have became their own country long time ago, had Jordan and Egypt grant the Palestinians their sovereignty. Instead, they are just pawns in a greater geopolitical struggle with Israel, and that Israel, with no choice essentially, to secure their own security, conquered all of “Palestine”.
Today, we saw the direct consequence of the baggage of history and Israeli’s unwillingness to form a union state with the Palestinian, instead opting for a “state within a state” solution that now resulted in “self-rule Gaza” going to war with Israel despite, they are actually part of Israel (unofficially).
The Real “Palestine”
Today, there is still no “country of Palestine”, it remains just autonomous regions within the State of Israel. That’s essentially what it is, in all shape and forms. However, even if we going to recognise “Palestine” as a state within a state, it is also not “a state”.
It is 2 states.
Gaza and West Bank.
Gaza ruled by Hamas in a forceful takeover after the break down with Fatah as they are unable to work together to form a unity government after the elections of 2006, while Fatah took over the West Bank and the internationally recognised government of the Palestinian People under the name of the “Palestinian National Authority”, led by Mahmoud Abbas, whom is now leader for life (a form of leadership that is also known elsewhere as dictatorship)
This 2 enclaves are entirely different, from governance to the level of freedom of it’s people, as well as the level of suppression from Israel.
So different that, Mahmoud Abbas was given the opportunity to get full independence from Israel for the most of West Bank in 2008 – whom rejected the opportunity because the then Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, refused to allow Abbas a copy of the map – which honestly, is highly suspicious.
But regardless the caveat, it was an opportunity for Palestinians to have a country of their own, getting 93.7% of West Bank with additional land from Israel to make up 99.5% of the size of West Bank. This opportunity has since been lost, and probably not gonna be seen again any time soon.
Gaza on the other hand, is firmly in the hands of Hamas, whom had since their full takeover, launched countless conflict with Israel, causing Israel to hit back with impunity – causing outrage across the world. Today’s Hamas-Israeli War is the same thing.
Palestinians are the victim of not just Israel, but by their own leaders
Since there had been no elections since 2006, with West Bank under a dictatorship as well as Israeli Occupation, while Gaza is ruled by a terrorist organisation (essentially), respite seems far away from the Palestinians.
Heavy propaganda from militant groups as well as Hamas, continues to riled up Palestinians in the West Bank – despite not realizing that they are no longer really the same “people” anymore – the realities between the 2 enclaves of Palestinians had diverged. They are two separate entities.
Former US President Donald Trump’s Peace Deal for Palestine is less generous than the 2008 Ehud Olmert’s proposal, but there is a lot more opportunity for peace and prosperity of the Palestinian people – but of course, it is rejected outright because, they still have not realized that, they are not in the position to negotiate, plus the fact that Gaza is not even under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
With Benjamin Netanyahu back as the Prime Minister, whom seemed to be determined to “solve” the Palestine issue, a looks like a lot more suffering will come to the Palestinians before it would get better.
And perhaps, even the last panel in the famous 4 Panel Maps would look generous for the Palestinians in the very near future.
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