The All-Palestine Government (, ') was established on 22 September 1948, during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, to govern the Egyptian-controlled territory in Gaza, which Egypt had on the same day declared as the

All-Palestine Protectorate The All-Palestine Protectorate (), also known as All-Palestine, the Gaza Protectorate or the Gaza Strip, was a short-lived client state with limited recognition, corresponding to the area of the modern Gaza Strip, that was established in the are ...

. It was confirmed by the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

and recognised by six of the then seven Arab League members, with

Transjordan Transjordan may refer to: * Transjordan (region), an area to the east of the Jordan River * Oultrejordain, a Crusader lordship (1118–1187), also called Transjordan * Emirate of Transjordan, British protectorate (1921–1946) * Hashemite Kingdom o ...

being the exception. Though it claimed jurisdiction over the whole of the former

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the All-Palestine Protectorate, which came to be called the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

.Gelber, Y. ''Palestine, 1948''. Pp. 177–78 The President of the protectorate was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, former chairman of the

Arab Higher Committee The Arab Higher Committee () or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Je ...

, and the Prime Minister was

Ahmed Hilmi Pasha Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi Pasha ( 1883 – 1963) was an Arab soldier, economist, and politician of Albanian descent, who served in various positions in post- Ottoman Levant, and later as Prime Minister of the short-lived All-Palestine Government i ...

. The legislative body was the All-Palestine National Council. Shortly thereafter, in October,

King Abdullah I Abdullah I (Abdullah bin Hussein; 2 February 188220 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan and its predecessor state Transjordan from 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate, until 1946, when he ...

of Transjordan began to take steps to effect the annexation of those parts of Palestine that his army and other Arab forces had captured and held during the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

. Then, on 1 December 1948, the

Jericho Conference The Jericho Conference () was held in December 1948 to decide the future of the portion of Palestine that was held by Jordan at the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, led by Sheikh Muhammad Ali Ja'abari.At this conference, notables from the Wes ...

named him "King of Arab Palestine". The Congress called for the union of Arab Palestine and Transjordan and Abdullah announced his intention to annex the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The other Arab League member states opposed Abdullah's plan. Initially, the All-Palestine Government was based in Gaza, but was relocated to Cairo following the Israeli invasion in December 1948, and was never permitted to return to Gaza, though the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian control through the war. The importance of the All-Palestine Government gradually declined, especially after the relocation to Cairo. In parallel to the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, the authority of the government further degraded, being put by the Arab League under the official ''aegis'' of Egypt. In 1953, the All-Palestine Government was nominally dissolved, except the position of prime minister, with Hilmi attending Arab League meetings on behalf of the

.Middle East Record Volume 1 - pg.128
/ref> In 1959, the All-Palestine nominal area was ''de jure'' merged into the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Republic of Egypt (1953–1958), Egypt (including Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Ara ...

, coming under formal Egyptian military administration, who appointed Egyptian military administrators in Gaza. The All-Palestine Government is regarded by some as the first attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state. However, it was under official Egyptian protection, and had no executive role. The government had mostly political and symbolic significance. The All-Palestine Government's credentials as a ''

bona fide In human interactions, good faith () is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case with , which is ...

'' sovereign rule were questioned by many, mainly due to the government's effective reliance upon not only Egyptian military support but also Egyptian political and economic power. Egypt, however, both formally and informally renounced any and all territorial claims to Palestine territory (in contrast to the government of Transjordan, which declared its annexation of the West Bank).

Background

British rule

During the

Sinai and Palestine campaign The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revol ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

forces captured

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Prior to the war, the region's exact boundaries had never been clearly defined by the Ottoman authorities. After the conflict's end in 1918, the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

received a

mandate for Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British Empire, British administration of the territories of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine and Emirate of Transjordan, Transjordanwhich had been Ottoman Syria, part of the Ottoman ...

from the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

at the

San Remo conference The San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council as an outgrowth of the Paris Peace Conference, held at Castle Devachan in Sanremo, Italy, from 19 to 26 April 1920. The San Remo Resolution ...

in 1920, subsequently partitioning the region into

and the

Emirate of Transjordan The Emirate of Transjordan (), officially the Amirate of Trans-Jordan, was a British protectorate established on 11 April 1921,United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(UN) proposed the Partition Plan of 1947 which proposed that the Gaza area would become part of a new Arab

Palestinian state Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as th ...

. The Arab states rejected the UN partition plan, which heralded the start of the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and ...

, then serving as the British Foreign Secretary, stated in regards to the partition plan that "The majority proposal is so manifestly unjust to the Arabs that it is difficult to see how, in Sir Alexander Cadogan's words, 'we could reconcile it with our conscience." Transjordan had been recognised as an independent government throughout most of the mandatory period, but it was officially recognised as an independent state by the United Kingdom in the

Treaty of London (1946) The Treaty of London was signed between the United Kingdom and the Emirate of Trans-Jordan on 22 March 1946 and came into force on 17 June 1946.Treaty of Alliance between His Majesty in respect of the United Kingdom and His Highness the Amir of ...

. Some countries continued to dispute its independent status.

End of the Mandate

With the announcement by Britain that it would unilaterally withdraw from Palestine by 15 May 1948, the various groups in the region commenced manoeuvres to secure their positions and objectives in the power vacuum brought on by the end of British control. The objective of the surrounding Arab countries in the take-over of the whole of Palestine was set out on April 12, 1948, when the

announced:

The Arab armies shall enter Palestine to rescue it. His Majesty (King Farouk, representing the League) would like to make it clearly understood that such measures should be looked upon as temporary and devoid of any character of the occupation or partition of Palestine, and that after completion of its liberation, that country would be handed over to its owners to rule in the way they like.

Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the Mandate (because 15 May was the

Jewish Sabbath Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the cre ...

). On 15 May 1948, the Egyptian army invaded the territory of the former British mandate from the south, starting the

Formation of the All-Palestine Government

An Egyptian Ministerial order dated 1 June 1948 declared that all laws in force during the Mandate would continue to be in force in the Gaza Strip. On 8 July 1948, the Arab League decided to set up a temporary civil administration in Palestine, to be directly responsible to the Arab League. This plan was strongly opposed by

and received only half-hearted support from the

, which had itself been set up in 1945 by the Arab League. The new administration was never properly established. Another order issued on 8 August 1948 vested an Egyptian Administrator-General with the powers of the High Commissioner.''Palestine Yearbook of International Law 1987-1988'', Vol. 4, by Anis F. Kassim, Kluwer Law International (1 June 1988), , p. 294 The Egyptian government, suspicious of King Abdullah's intentions and growing power in Palestine, put a proposal to the Arab League meeting that opened in Alexandria on 6 September 1948. The plan would turn the temporary civil administration, which had been agreed to in July, into an Arab government with a seat in

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

for the whole of Palestine. The formal announcement of the Arab League's decision to form the Government of All-Palestine was issued on 20 September. Egypt declared formation of the

on 22 September 1948. The All-Palestine Government was formed under the nominal leadership of

Amin al-Husayni Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (; 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. was the scion of the family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Hussei ...

, the

Mufti of Jerusalem The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places, including Al-Aqsa. The position was created by the British military government led by Ronald Storrs in 1918.See Islamic Leadership in Jerusal ...

. Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi was named

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. Hilmi's cabinet consisted largely of relatives and followers of Amin al-Husayni, but also included representatives of other factions of the Palestinian ruling class.

Jamal al-Husayni Jamal al-Husayni (; 1894–1982), was born in Jerusalem and was a member of the Husayni family. Husayni served as Secretary to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress (1921–1934) and to the Muslim Supreme Council. He was co-f ...

became foreign minister,

Raja al-Husayni Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The title has a long ...

became defence minister, Michael Abcarius was finance minister,

Awni Abd al-Hadi Awni Abd al-Hadi, () aka Auni Bey Abdel Hadi and Awni Abdul Hadi (1889, Nablus, Ottoman Empire – 15 March 1970, Cairo, Egypt) was a Palestinian political figure. He was educated in Beirut, Istanbul, and at the Sorbonne University in Paris. H ...

was minister for social affairs and

Anwar Nusseibeh Anwar Bey Nuseibeh () Anwar Bey Nuseibeh (1913–1986) was a leading Palestinian who held several major posts in the Jordanian Government before Israel took control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 war. After the Six Day War h ...

was secretary of the cabinet.

Husayn al-Khalidi Husayn Fakhri al-Khalidi (, , 17 January 1895 – 6 February 1962) was mayor of Jerusalem from 1935 to 1937 and the 13th Prime Minister of Jordan in 1957. Early life Khalidi served as a doctor in the Ottoman Army during World War I, and was in ...

was also a member. Twelve ministers in all, from different Arab countries, headed for Gaza to take up their new positions. The decision to set up the All-Palestine Government made the Arab Higher Committee irrelevant, but Amin al-Husayni continued to exercise an influence in Palestinian affairs. The All-Palestine National Council was convened in Gaza on 30 September 1948 under the chairmanship of Amin al-Husayni. The council passed a series of resolutions culminating on 1 October 1948 with a

declaration of independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

over the whole of Palestine, with

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

as its capital. Although the new government claimed jurisdiction over the whole of Palestine, it had no administration, no civil service, no money, and no real army of its own. It formally adopted the

Flag of the Arab Revolt The flag of the Arab Revolt (), also used as the flag of Hejaz (), was a flag used by Hussein bin Ali and his allies, the Arab nationalists, during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and as the first flag of the King ...

that had been used by Arab nationalists since 1917 and revived the Holy War Army with the declared aim of liberating Palestine. Abdullah regarded the attempt to revive al-Husayni's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and on 3 October his minister of defence ordered all armed bodies operating in the areas controlled by the

Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army, of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of the Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an independent state, with a final Ar ...

to be disbanded.

Glubb Pasha Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, KStJ, KPM (16 April 1897 – 17 March 1986), known as Glubb Pasha (; and known as Abu Hunaik by the Jordanians), was a British military officer who led and trained Transj ...

carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently.Shlaim, 2001, p. 99. The sum effect was that:

'The leadership of al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Arab Higher Committee, which had dominated the Palestinian political scene since the 1920s, was devastated by the disaster of 1948 and discredited by its failure to prevent it.'

After Israel began a counter-offensive on the southern front on 15 October 1948, the All-Palestine Government was quickly recognised by six of the then seven members of the Arab League:

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, and

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

, but not by Transjordan. It was not recognised by any other country.

Cabinet of the All-Palestine Government

Activities of the All-Palestine Government

After the declaration

Despite its lofty declarations and goals, the All-Palestine Government proved to be generally ineffectual. The Palestinian Arabs, and the Arab world in general, were shocked by the speed and extent of the Israeli victories, and the poor showing of the Arab armies. This, combined with the expansionist designs of King Abdullah, cast the Palestinian Arab leadership into disarray. Avi Shlaim writes:

'The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble attempt to create armed forces under its control, furnished the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Abdullah and serve as an instrument for frustrating his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Transjordan'.Shlaim, 2001, p. 97.

First years

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War came to an end with the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949, which fixed the boundaries of the

. The All-Palestine Government was not a party to the Agreement nor involved in its negotiation. The Gaza Strip was the only area of the former British Mandate territory that was under the nominal control of the All-Palestine Government. The rest of the British Mandate territory became either part of Israel or the West Bank, annexed by Transjordan (a move that was not recognised internationally). In reality, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian administration, though Egypt never made any claim to or annexed any Palestinian territory. Egypt did not offer the Palestinians citizenship. There was an enormous influx into the Gaza Strip of Palestinian refugees from those parts of the former Mandate Palestine that became part of Israel. From the end of 1949, the refugees received aid directly from

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

and not from or through the All-Palestine Government. There is no evidence of any All-Palestine Government involvement in the negotiations for the setting up of UNRWA-run refugee camps in the Gaza Strip or anywhere else.

Under Nasser's policies

After the

Egyptian Revolution of 1952 The Egyptian revolution of 1952, also known as the 1952 coup d'état () and the 23 July Revolution (), was a period of profound political, economic, and societal change in Egypt. On 23 July 1952, the revolution began with the toppling of King ...

and the rise to power of

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

, Egyptian support for

Pan-Arabism Pan-Arabism () is a Pan-nationalism, pan-nationalist ideology that espouses the unification of all Arabs, Arab people in a single Nation state, nation-state, consisting of all Arab countries of West Asia and North Africa from the Atlantic O ...

and the Palestinian cause increased. However, the new rule increasingly acted to degrade the Palestinian self-rule. In 1952, All-Palestine being put by the Arab League under the official ''aegis'' of Egypt. In 1953, the All-Palestine Government was nominally dissolved, except the Prime Minister Hilmi position, who kept attending the Arab League meetings on behalf of All-Palestine. During the

Suez War The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

of 1956 Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

. Israel eventually withdrew from the territories it had invaded, and the All-Palestine Government continued to have official sovereignty in Gaza. In 1957, the Basic Law of Gaza established a Legislative Council that could pass laws that were given to the High Administrator-General for approval."From Occupation to Interim Accords", Raja Shehadeh, Kluwer Law International, 1997, pages 77–78; and Historical Overview, A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Fir

Dissolution

The situation changed again after the 1958 unification of Egypt and Syria in the

. In June 1959, Gamal Abdel Nasser officially annulled the All-Palestine Government by decree, reasoning that the All-Palestine Government had failed to advance the Palestinian cause. In addition, Nasser proclaimed his intention to work towards the formation of a new Palestinian government that would fight for the "liberation of all Palestine". This plan met the opposition of the Jordanian government, that held at that time the

under its control."Majali: Jordan will Vehemently Oppose the Establishment of a Palestinian Government" ''Al Hamishmar'', August 24, 1959 (in Hebrew)
/ref> At that time, Amin al-Husayni moved from Egypt to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip became directly administered by Egypt. In March 1962 a Constitution for the Gaza Strip was issued by the Egyptian government, establishing a new

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

. Egyptian administration as well as the functioning of that legislative council came to an end in June 1967 when the Gaza Strip was captured by Israel in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...