Why Wasn’t A Palestinian State Formed Under Arab Rule (1948–1967)

And here it is, the question no one asks?



If the overriding goal for two decades after Israel’s founding was the creation of a Palestinian state, why did none appear when the territories in question were fully under Arab control?
Between 1948 and 1967, Egypt governed the Gaza Strip and Jordan ruled the West Bank.
During those nineteen years, neither Cairo nor Amman made any serious effort to establish an independent Palestinian entity in the lands they held.

Instead, Gaza remained under strict Egyptian military administration, with its Arab residents denied Egyptian citizenship. Jordan formally annexed the West Bank in 1950 and extended citizenship to its Palestinian population, yet it actively worked to suppress any distinct Palestinian national movement that might challenge Hashemite control.

At the time, the dominant political vision across the Arab world was not Palestinian statehood. It was a broader pan-Arab nationalism united by one overriding objective and The elimination of the Jewish state
Palestinian identity was subordinated to that larger cause. Arab leaders framed the conflict not as a dispute over two neighboring states, but as a collective Arab struggle against Israel’s very existence.
This context here is important, when we examine the 1947 UN Partition Plan. The proposal called for two states, one Jewish, one Arab, side by side.

Jewish leaders accepted the plan despite its painful territorial compromises. Arab leaders rejected it outright and launched a war to prevent any Jewish state from emerging.
Once that war ended in 1948 with Israel’s survival, the surrounding Arab governments showed little interest in creating the Arab state the UN had envisioned. Their priority remained defeating Israel, not building Palestinian sovereignty.

When today’s discussions date the start of Palestinian suffering exclusively to 1967, the year Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, they erase an entire chapter of history.
For nineteen years the territories were under Arab sovereignty, yet no Palestinian state was born.
That omission is not accidental….it raises questions about where the true priorities of regional governments lay.

Genuine justice and accountability cannot be selective. If we are serious about fairness, the same standard must apply to Cairo’s military rule in Gaza, Amman’s annexation and suppression of Palestinian nationalism, and Jerusalem’s decisions alike.
The historical record is clear, between 1948 and 1967, Israel had no control over Gaza or the West Bank.

If Palestinian statehood was truly the paramount objective, the obvious follow-up question remains.
Why, when the opportunity existed under full Arab control, was no such state ever established?

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