Palestine (Region)

In modern geographical usage, Western Palestine generally denotes the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, although broader historical definitions sometimes included Transjordan.[1][2] The 1945–1946 Survey of Palestine calculated 26,320 square kilometres of land and 704 square kilometres of inland water, including Lake Huleh, Lake Tiberias, and half of the Dead Sea, for a total of 27,024 square kilometres.[4]

The principal physical regions include the coastal plains, the central highlands of Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea, the Jordan Valley, and the southern desert. The Survey identified Jebel Jarmaq, at 1,208 metres, as the highest mountain and described the Beersheba district as a large triangle reaching the Gulf of Aqaba and covering nearly half the land area.[4] The region’s position between Egypt, Syria, the Mediterranean, and the interior made it an important corridor for trade and armies.[5]

The name Palestine is linked to the Hebrew Peleshet and related Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Arabic forms. Herodotus used the geographical expression “the Philistine Syria” in the mid-fifth century B.C.E.; the adjective Palaistinei later became a proper noun.[1] Other accounts trace the name to the Philistines and its subsequent Greek and Roman forms.[5]

After the suppression of Jewish revolts, the Roman province was renamed Syria Palaestina in 135 C.E.; from approximately the fourth century, Roman administration used the names First, Second, and Third Palestine.[5] Muslim administrators later used Filastin for First Palestine and distinguished it from Urdunn, or Jordan. The designation declined in official use as provinces were increasingly named for their capitals, but Palestine remained a geographical term for the Holy Land in other languages.[1]

Jewish historical and religious connections to the Land of Israel extend back thousands of years, and Jews have maintained a continuous presence there for more than four millennia.[6] The Hebrews called the territory the Land of Israel; after the Babylonian exile, Jewish returnees established a polity in Judea that eventually became the Hasmonean Kingdom.[5]

Roman rule, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the suppression of Jewish revolts transformed the region’s political order, although Jewish communities continued to live in the land. Under later Muslim rule, Filastin was used as a regional designation, while the Crusaders revived versions of the Roman provincial names with different boundaries.[1][5] The region subsequently came under Ottoman rule, which lasted until the First World War.

Palestine was not a single Ottoman administrative unit, and no Ottoman province or district was officially named Palestine.[1][6] In the late Ottoman period, the area commonly identified by that name in English was divided among the Acre and Nablus sanjaqs of the Vilayet of Beirut and the independent Jerusalem sanjaq, which reported directly to Constantinople.[4]

By 1897, when Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress, the territory remained part of the Ottoman Empire and was commonly called Palestine in English. Congress participants pledged “to secure for the Jewish people a publicly recognized, legally assured homeland” in the Land of Israel.[6] The congress helped organize modern political Zionism around Jewish return to and self-government in the ancestral homeland.

Allied forces under General Edmund Allenby occupied Palestine between October 1917 and September 1918. On 25 April 1920, the Supreme Allied Council at San Remo allotted the Mandate to Great Britain, and a civil administration headed by High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel replaced military government on 1 July 1920.[4]

The League of Nations Council confirmed the Mandate on 24 July 1922, and it formally entered into operation on 29 September 1923.[4] Its preamble recognized the Jewish people’s historical connection with Palestine. Article 2 required political, administrative, and economic conditions supporting a Jewish national home and self-governing institutions while safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants. Articles 4 and 6 recognized a Jewish agency and required the facilitation of Jewish immigration and close Jewish settlement without prejudicing other sections of the population.[3]

The Mandate recognized English, Arabic, and Hebrew as official languages and guaranteed freedom of conscience, worship, and access to the Holy Places.[3] A League-approved British memorandum made the Jewish-national-home, immigration, and settlement provisions inapplicable east of the Jordan River, where Transjordan was separately administered.[3]

Administrative arrangements changed over time. One account describes North, South, and Jerusalem districts, with Jerusalem also serving as the capital.[7] The 1945–1946 Survey lists six districts and sixteen subdistricts.[4] Britain increasingly restricted Jewish immigration during the 1930s; approximately 60,000 Jews from Germany and annexed territories nevertheless reached Mandatory Palestine between 1933 and 1939.[6] Britain referred the question of sovereignty to the United Nations in spring 1947.[8]

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended partition into independent Arab and Jewish states linked by an economic union, with Jerusalem under an international regime.[9] On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 by 33 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions.[10]

The proposed Arab State included Western Galilee, much of the Samaria and Judaea hill country, parts of the coastal plain, the Gaza area, and Jaffa. The proposed Jewish State included Eastern Galilee, part of the coastal plain, and the Beersheba area.[11] Contemporary estimates assigned about 4,400 square miles and 745,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews to the Arab State, and 5,600 square miles and 550,000 Jews and 500,000 Arabs to the Jewish State. Jerusalem was estimated to contain about 100,000 Arabs and 100,000 Jews.[12]

The plan called for the Mandate to end no later than 1 August 1948 and for the two states to exist no later than 1 October 1948.[11] Zionist leaders accepted partition, while Palestinian Arab leaders and surrounding Arab governments rejected it.[10]

Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, and the British Mandate ended on 15 May. Fighting between Arab and Jewish forces had already begun, and neighboring Arab armies entered following Israel’s proclamation.[12][13] Israel’s War of Independence ended through armistice agreements with Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Syria. By then Israel controlled territory beyond that proposed for the Jewish State; a 1949 U.S. document estimated 7,750 square miles under Israeli control or military occupation.[12]

No government was established for the proposed Arab State. Transjordan annexed the territory known as the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — while Egypt administered the Gaza Strip.[1] Mandate-era Palestine consequently ceased to exist as a single political entity.

The war displaced a large Arab population. The demographic literature reports Israeli estimates of 625,000–675,000 and Palestinian estimates of 700,000–850,000.[2] A 1949 U.S. document stated that approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs had “fled or were expelled from Israeli-controlled territory.”[12] Explanations remain disputed: the cited study contrasts a Palestinian account emphasizing expulsion with an Israeli account emphasizing wartime flight encouraged by Arab leadership.[2]

During the June 1967 Six-Day War, Israel seized East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, gaining control of the entire area west of the Jordan that had constituted the British Mandate territory.[14] Jordan had governed Judea and Samaria and Egypt had imposed military rule in Gaza between 1948 and 1967.[13]

The Palestine Liberation Organization had been founded in 1964 as an umbrella organization of Palestinian factions and militias in exile under the Arab League. After 1967 it asserted an independent Palestinian identity through guerrilla raids from Jordan and emerged as a representative of Palestinian national aspirations.[14]

Following the Oslo agreements, the territory was divided among Israel and Palestinian Areas A, B, and C. The cited demographic study describes Area A as under Palestinian administrative and security control, Area B as under Palestinian administration and Israeli security responsibility, and Area C as under Israeli military responsibility.[2]

Under the Declaration of Principles signed on 13 September 1993, Israel accepted the PLO as “the representative of the Palestinians,” while the PLO renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace. The parties agreed to establish a Palestinian Authority for a five-year interim period before permanent-status negotiations on borders, refugees, and Jerusalem.[15]

The May 1994 Cairo Agreement finalized Israel’s withdrawal from most of Gaza and Jericho. The September 1995 Taba, or Oslo II, Agreement divided Judea and Samaria into areas under Israeli control, Palestinian control, and Israeli military responsibility combined with Palestinian civil administration.[15] Israel withdrew its settlers and military forces from Gaza in 2005, while Hamas seized control there in 2007, leaving the Palestinian Authority centered in parts of Judea and Samaria.[14]

The 1922 census recorded 757,182 inhabitants: 589,177 Muslims, 83,794 Jews, 73,014 Christians, and 9,474 people in other categories. In 1931 the total was 1,035,821, including 759,712 Muslims, 174,610 Jews, 91,398 Christians, and 10,101 others.[4] An estimate for 31 December 1941 gave a total of 1,585,500, including 973,104 Muslims, 474,102 Jews, and 125,413 Christians.[16]

A demographic study estimates that the population reached approximately two million in 1947: about 1.2 million Muslims, 650,000 Jews, and 150,000 Christians.[2] Its longer reconstruction estimates growth from approximately 275,000 in 1800 to more than 500,000 by 1890 and 9.3 million by 2000. It also records an uninterrupted Jewish presence, early Jewish predominance, a Christian majority during the Byzantine period, and a Muslim majority through 1947.[2]

The Congressional Research Service estimates that approximately 3 million Palestinians live in Judea and Samaria and 2.1 million in Gaza, with about 98 percent identified as Sunni Muslim and a small Christian minority.[17] It also estimates that about 2 million Palestinians live in Israel as citizens and that approximately 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees live in Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.[17]

A separate CRS report defines Palestinians as Arabs living in present-day Israel, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, or those with historical or cultural ties to that area. It notes that Palestinians have differed over the nature and extent of a prospective independent state.[14]

Geography shaped the region’s economic development: the coastal plain supported agriculture and citrus production, while routes between Egypt, Syria, the Mediterranean, and the interior encouraged trade.[5] Under the British Mandate, the Jewish community developed educational and welfare services, opened the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and used the Histadrut to expand construction, industry, and agriculture during a period of rising Jewish immigration.[5]

After 1967, the economy of Judea and Samaria became increasingly connected with Israel. The cited reference reports rapid economic growth during the 1970s alongside improvements in infant mortality, literacy, life expectancy, and participation in schools and universities.[5]

Jerusalem served as the capital of Mandatory Palestine and as the headquarters of its administrative district.[7] Resolution 181 proposed a special international regime encompassing Jerusalem and nearby communities, including Abu Dis, Bethlehem, Ein Karim, Motsa, and Shu’fat.[11]

The 1945–1946 Survey treated Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and Gaza as principal ports and listed Beersheba, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Safad, and Tiberias among the principal inland towns.[4] These centers reflect the region’s long-standing religious, administrative, commercial, and strategic importance.

The name and geographical scope of Palestine have varied by period and source. Ancient forms are linked to Peleshet, the Philistines, Greek Palaistinei, and Roman and Arabic administrative usage.[1][5] Definitions have ranged from the territory west of the Jordan to broader areas including Transjordan. Measurements likewise differ: the 1945–1946 Survey reports 27,024 square kilometres including inland water, while a later demographic study gives approximately 28,000 square kilometres for Western Palestine.[2][4]

Mandate chronology also requires distinction. The League confirmed the text in July 1922, it entered into operation in September 1923, and some historical accounts consequently date the Mandate period from 1923 to 1948.[8][4] Modern labels—including “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” “Palestinian Territories,” and “Palestine”—also reflect disputed political and legal usages. The demographic study records the UN Population Division’s adoption of “Occupied Palestinian Territories” in 2000 while discussing alternative terminology.[2]