In 1948, the people celebrating the birth of the state of Israel had a country. The Arab Palestinians did not. Why? What about Gaza?
What about the West Bank? Let’s get into it. Before World War I, the land we now call Israel and the Palestinian territories was part of the Ottoman Empire. During the war, Britain took control and set its sights on making it a homeland for the Jewish people.
Jewish immigration surged in the 1920s and 30s, fueling growing violence with Arab communities. By 1947, mandatory Palestine was in the grip of a civil war between Arab and Jewish militants. The British, overwhelmed and unable to maintain order, prepared to leave. On May 14, 1948, the British high commissioner boarded a plane in Jerusalem and left.
The mandate ended. Then, the Jews proclaimed the state of Israel. That same night, US President Truman recognized the new state. The next day, Jordanian King Abdullah raised his revolver, fired a shot, and shouted forward.
Armies from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded. The first Arab-Israeli war had begun. Though the Arab forces made some early gains, Israel organized its defense forces quickly, built from groups like the Hagana and the Irgun. Through superior organization, international support, and waves of Jewish immigration, Israel pushed backthe Arab armies.
When fighting ended in 1949, Israel controlled about 78% of former mandatory Palestine. Around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled, creating a massive refugee crisis. About 200,000 to 230,000 ended up in the Gaza Strip. Another 350,000 ended up in the West Bank.
So what happened to those Palestinians in Gaza? Their suffering was immense, but they did not simply resign themselves to their fate. Women tried to bring comfort and dignity to their makeshift homes. Children, supported by help organizations, quickly entered a rapidly growing school system.
A modest economy emerged around local services, agriculture, and small-scale industry. Yet above all, it was the dream of returning to their nearby homeland that sustained this resilient refugee community. Despite minefields and harsh crackdowns, many continued to cross back into Israel. The Arab League created an entity called the All Palestine Protectorate during the war, administered by Egypt.
When the fighting ended, Gaza remained the only part of the former mandate under the authority of that All Palestine government. Historians debate whether that government was a genuine attempt at an independent Palestinian state or just a facade for Egyptian occupation. When Egypt and Syria merged into the United Arab Republic in 1958, the Gaza Strip was incorporated into that new Arab state, but in reality it stayed under Egyptian military control. Arab states treated the Palestinian cause as part of the larger Arab-Israeli conflict, not as a project for Palestinian sovereignty.
Under Egyptian administration, Gaza remained a unique and separate political territory in a world dominated by sovereign states. It sat caught between borders and power struggles, making it a volatile hot spot. The political climate in Gaza encouraged unusual cooperation between communists and Islamists. Over time, infiltrators evolved into fedayeen, Palestinian militants.
First came politicization, as a radical minority broke away from the Muslim Brotherhood to embrace armed struggle, eventually giving rise to future founders of Fatah. Second came professionalization, when Nasser’s Egypt took charge of organizing and directing Palestinian raids as part of its conflict with Israel. It was in Gaza that these militants were forged, and Israel would soon exact a heavy price for it. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip for the first time not in 1967, but in 1956.
Not long after the 1948 war ended, clashes resumed along the armistice line between Gaza and Israel, escalating into frequent border fighting in the early 1950s. To prevent a new full-scale war, various attempts were made through political talks, military strategies, and economic plans to resolve Gaza’s precarious situation. All those efforts failed, leading to the outbreak of the 1956 war, also known as the Suez Crisis. It included an invasion of Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel.
When Israel captured Gaza during that conflict, it planned to annex the territory. But in March 1957, Israel was forced to withdraw, and Egyptian military control was reestablished. From then onward, Gaza was cemented as a separate geopolitical entity, one closely tied to the broader Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Now let’s look at the West Bank under Jordanian occupation.
After the 1948 war, Jordan’s Arab Legion moved into the West Bank and, under the 1949 armistice agreement with Israel, took formal control. This marked the beginning of the West Bank as a separate geographic and political unit. About 450,000 Palestinians lived there then, soon joined by roughly 350,000 refugees fleeing the coastal plains, Galilee, and the Negev. By 1952, Jordanian authorities counted over 740,000 people in the West Bank, nearly half of them refugees.
In April 1950, Jordan’s parliament formally annexed the West Bank. King Abdullah had been preparing for this, appointing military governors, granting Jordanian nationality to Palestinians, and organizing parliamentary elections across both banks. The process was swift, deliberate, and relatively smooth, lasting under two years. Though most of the world never recognized the annexation, it was widely accepted on the ground until Israel captured the territory in 1967\).
Jordan granted West Bank Palestinians citizenship and representation in government, integrating the region into the Hashemite Kingdom. In 1950, the Jordanian Parliament formally voted for unity between the East and West Banks, despite objections from the Arab League. That decision transformed Transjordan into the Kingdom of Jordan, with Palestinians now forming a majority of its population. Yet tensions remained.
Most West Bankers maintained a Palestinian identity, and many resented their economic and political dependence on Amman. The 1948 war and annexation disrupted long-standing social and economic networks. Before 1948, West Bank towns and villages had strong ties to Arab centers like Haifa, Jaffa, and coastal Palestine. Once Israel controlled those areas, trade routes and family connections were severed.
Some villages were split by the new armistice line, cutting farmers off from their own fields. Local economies weakened, as the region lost much of its agricultural land. Refugees often squatted on village land or competed for scarce resources, creating friction with host communities. Meanwhile, frequent cross-border infiltrations by Palestinian refugees into Israel provoked Israeli reprisals, which devastated border villages and deepened discontent with Jordan’s inability to provide security.
Jordan tried to administer the West Bank as part of its state apparatus, giving Palestinians citizenship, votes, and government posts. But resentment grew, especially as Palestinian political life was overshadowed by events in the wider Arab world. The 1950s and 60s saw Arab nationalism rise, fueled by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. His pan-Arab message of liberation, revenge, and unity resonated deeply with Palestinians, especially in refugee camps, where his portrait often hung beside that of King Hussein.
Political radicalism spread. West Bank politics increasingly challenged Jordan’s monarchy. Palestinian support grew for parties like the Ba’athists, Communists, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and later for guerrilla movements like Fatah. Jordan struggled to balance suppressing radical opposition and allowing Palestinians some role in government.
Tensions persisted. Then, in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, was created. It symbolized an independent Palestinian identity separate from Jordanian rule, intensifying the strain. By 1967, Arab nationalism and Palestinian activism had hit a fever pitch.
Nasser’s call for war against Israel galvanized mass demonstrations across the West Bank, pressuring King Hussein to join the Arab military alliance. When Israel launched its preemptive strike in June 1967, Jordan entered the conflict but suffered a swift defeat. Within three days, Israel occupied the entire West Bank, ending Jordanian control. That defeat dramatically reshaped the region.
Hundreds of thousands of additional Palestinians became refugees. The West Bank was placed under Israeli rule, and Palestinian nationalism began to crystallize around independent organizations like the PLO. The 1967 war marked the end of Jordan’s West Bank era and set the stage for the next phase of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
There had never been a Palestinian state, and understanding why requires looking at these decades of shifting control, failed promises, and competing ambitions among the Arab states themselves.
