Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity. It is a geographical term, used to designate the region at those times in history when there is no nation or state there. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians.
Mandatory Palestine was an entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948. In 1923 the British "chopped off" 75% of Mandatory Palestine and formed Transjordan. Both were under British rule.
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal developed by the United Nations, which recommended a partition with Mandatory Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan as Resolution 181(II).
The Partition Plan was not realized in the days following the 29 November 1947 resolution as envisaged by the General Assembly. It was followed by outbreaks of violence in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Jews and Arabs known as the 1947–48 Civil War. The Arab Higher Committee was confident and decided to prevent the set-up of the UN-backed partition plan. In an announcement made to the Secretary-General on 6 February 1947, they declared:
"The Palestinian Arabs consider any attempt by Jewish people or by whatever power or group of power to establish a Jewish state in an Arab territory to be an act of aggression that will be resisted by force"
An eight-man gang from Jaffa, an Arab group, ambushed a bus killing five and wounding others. Half an hour later they ambushed a second bus, southbound from Hadera, killing two more. At other places, Arab snipers skirmished Jewish buses in Jerusalem and Haifa. Both sides committed atrocities throughout the war. As the civil war progressed, the Jewish forces began to get an upper hand. At midnight on 14 May 1948, the British Mandate expired and Britain disengaged its forces. Earlier in the evening, the Jewish People's Council had gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved a proclamation, declaring "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the "State of Israel".
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War began with the invasion of, or intervention in, Palestine by the Arab States on 15 May 1948. Israeli forces were victorious and had gained all but the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The armistice lines were known afterwards as the "Green Line". The Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) were occupied by Egypt and Jordan. Jordan formally annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950, giving all residents automatic Jordanian citizenship. The US along with the UK approved of this annexation.The territory under Israeli control was three-quarters of the prior British administered Mandate.
During those 19 years, 1948-1967, Jordan and Egypt never offered to surrender those lands to make up an independent state of "Palestine". The "Palestinians" never sought it. Nobody in the world ever suggested it, much less demanded it.
In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Movement was founded. Its charter proclaimed its sole purpose to be the destruction of Israel. The Six-Day War was initiated by General Moshe Dayan, the Israeli’s Defence Minister in 1967. Israel believed that it was only a matter of time before the three Arab states co-ordinated a massive attack on Israel.The war was a military disaster for the Arabs but it was also a massive blow to the Arabs morale. Here were four of the strongest Arab nations systematically defeated by just one nation. Israel expelled Egypt and Jordan from the West Bank and Gaza.
The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace deal with Israel.
The 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought by the coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel from October 6 to 25, 1973. The war began when the Arab coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israeli positions. Israel repelled the attack.
Eventually, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, allowing the PLO to relocate from Tunisia and take ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, establishing the Palestinian National Authority
