The evolution of a statehood claim from 1915 to today

Wars & Conflicts · Published 16 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: How does a territory move from imperial rule to competing nationalisms? The path toward Palestinian statehood is not a single event, but a century-long cycle of broken promises, partition plans, and shifting borders. Understanding this history requires tracing the transition from Ottoman collapse to modern diplomatic frameworks.

The foundations for modern conflict were laid during World War I. In 1915–16, the Hussein-McMahon correspondence saw Britain offer support for Arab independence in exchange for fighting the Ottoman Empire. However, while the emir of Mecca assumed this included historical Palestine—a predominantly Arab area—the British later issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, promising a 'national home' for the Jewish people. This created a dual claim to self-determination that persisted after the Ottoman Empire fell and Britain took over the League of Nations mandate in 1920.

The first major attempt at partition occurred in 1947 with UN Resolution 181, which proposed dividing the land into Jewish and Arab states. The plan was rejected by Arabs, leading to the 1948 war. While Israel was established, the West Bank fell under Jordanian rule and the Gaza Strip under Egyptian control. This changed again in the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured both territories. These events solidified the 'land for peace' principle, which eventually informed the 1979 Camp David Accords and the subsequent Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

A two-state solution was reached via the Oslo Accords during 1993, as the Palestinian Authority was created following a pact between the PLO and Israel. However, despite initial progress, distrust led to a breakdown by 2000, with the process coming to a virtual halt after 2008. Today, while the two-state solution remains the international consensus, it exists alongside various contested models, including one-state frameworks or binational proposals that were rejected by Israel in the late 1960s.

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