Which modern states and administrations have claimed or governed Palestine since 1948?
Executive summary
Since 1948 the territory variously called Palestine has been claimed, annexed, occupied, administered or represented by multiple modern states and political administrations: chiefly the State of Israel, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Egypt (through direct administration and the short-lived All‑Palestine Government), while Palestinian national institutions—the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and, later, the Palestinian Authority/State of Palestine—have asserted representation and limited self-government since the 1960s and 1990s respectively [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. International bodies and commentators frame the post‑1967 West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza as Occupied Palestinian Territory under ongoing Israeli control, a legal and diplomatic posture reflected repeatedly in UN and UNCTAD reporting [6] [2].
1. Israel — declared state, territorial control, and occupation
Jewish leaders declared the State of Israel on 14–15 May 1948; in the 1948 war Israel expanded beyond the UN partition lines to control roughly 77% of the former British Mandate, including much of Jerusalem, and thereafter exercised sovereignty over those areas it retained inside the 1948 armistice lines [1] [2]. In 1967 Israel captured the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights and has administered the West Bank and East Jerusalem since then under military and civilian systems that most international actors classify as occupation [6]. Israel also imposed military rule on the Palestinian population that remained inside Israel from 1948 until 1966, a fact that shaped Palestinian politics inside Israel in the following decades [7].
2. Jordan — annexation and administration of the West Bank (1948–1967)
When the 1948 fighting subsided Jordan took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and formally annexed the West Bank in 1950, granting West Bank Palestinians Jordanian citizenship, a move recognized by some states and disputed by others and often framed as consolidation rather than the creation of a separate Palestinian sovereign entity [8] [9]. Jordan’s control lasted until the 1967 war, after which Israel occupied the territory; sources note the 1948–67 period as administration of those remaining mandate territories by Jordan [6].
3. Egypt and the All‑Palestine Government — Gaza’s administration and symbolic statehood
Egypt did not annex Gaza but exercised de facto administration of the Gaza Strip after 1948 and sponsored the All‑Palestine Government established in Gaza on 22 September 1948, a body that proclaimed Palestinian independence and was recognized by several Arab states but remained dependent on and later sidelined by Cairo and dissolved effectively by 1959 [3] [10]. UN and academic accounts emphasize the All‑Palestine Government’s brief life and its role in inter‑Arab rivalry, underlining that Egyptian control of Gaza from 1948 to 1967 was administrative rather than integrative annexation [11] [3].
4. Palestinian national institutions — PLO, Palestinian National Council, and declared states
The PLO, founded in 1964, became the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people and its bodies (including the Palestinian National Council) declared an independent Palestinian state in 1988 and earlier attempted proclamations in 1948 were advanced by Palestinian actors and some Arab governments, producing partial recognitions and symbolic claims [4] [10]. The PLO’s role as representative underpins later negotiated transfers of authority and diplomatic recognition efforts documented by UN and academic sources [6] [4].
5. Palestinian Authority/State of Palestine — interim governance, limited control, and fragmentation
Under the Oslo process the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created in 1994 as an interim self‑governing body to administer parts of the West Bank and Gaza, and since 2013 PA institutions have increasingly used the name “State of Palestine” on official documents while the PA continues to exercise limited territorial authority alongside ongoing Israeli occupation and settlement activity [5] [6]. Since 2007 internal Palestinian fragmentation produced two de facto administrations — the Fatah‑led PA in the West Bank and Hamas’s de facto government in Gaza — complicating claims to unified Palestinian governance and provoking differing regional recognitions and diplomatic stances [5].
6. How historians and international actors frame competing claims and remaining gaps
United Nations, academic and media sources paint this sequence as a patchwork of conquest, annexation, administration and national representation: Israel established and expanded a state in 1948 and occupied additional territory in 1967; Jordan and Egypt administered remaining mandate territories for two decades; Palestinian institutions (PLO, PA/State of Palestine) have asserted statehood and run parts of the territory since the 1960s and 1990s, respectively [2] [6] [4] [5]. Reporting and scholarship disagree over legitimacy, legal status and recognition details—matters that the provided sources document in outline but do not exhaustively list for every country and moment—so further primary diplomatic records would be needed to map full international recognition histories and state claims beyond the summaries above [10] [11].