Why is Palestine not a country?

Answer 1

The term "Palestine" was coined by the British to refer to an area of land administered by the empire following World War I. Thus, both Arabs and Jews living within this area were referred to as Palestinians. The British followed up on their promise (made during World War I) to the Hashemite leadership in Arabia to give them a country by splitting the Mandate of Palestine in 1922 into the Mandate of Palestine and the Mandate of Transjordan. Some people claim that this subdivision, which represented a 25-75% split in territory created the Arab State necessary by the Balfour Declaration. (Transjordan became the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.)

Popular opinion today and at the time proves that this was not the case. British authorities governed the Mandate of Palestine based more on the desires of the Arab majority than the increasing Jewish minority. Land purchases became harder for Jews to make, Jewish immigrants were detained at Cyprus or barred entry, and the British still articulated that the territory of this second-smaller Mandate of Palestine would result in a Jewish and an Arab State. The British ceded the problem to the United Nations in 1947 which resulted in the UN Partition Plan. This plan (contrary to those who see Jordan as the Palestinian State) allocated half of the settled territory (the Jewish State had more land, but much of it was unsettled desert) to an Arab State.

After the UN Vote, both the Arabs and the Jews had a right to declare a state pursuant to the agreement. The Jews followed through on this, declaring a State in 1948 and stopped calling themselves Palestinians, favoring the term Israelis. The Arabs remained hostile to this concession and refused to give it legitimacy by also declaring a State and continued calling themselves Palestinians. This is the rub. Since Palestine did not officially declare its statehood alongside of Israel, some claim that it is not a country. For many years (from 1948-1993) there was no recognition of a Palestinian government by any country that recognized Israel. However, the Oslo Accords and Camp David Summit created the Palestinian Authority which serves as the current Palestinian government. The PA does not have UN membership for political reasons (similar to Taiwan) as opposed to issues based on sovereignty.

Answer 2

Palestine sits in the confusing ambiguous space between being a country and being a non-country. It has partial provisional sovereignty and incomplete recognition. Read more below.

This is a difficult question to properly answer. There was never a historic country of Palestine, and prior to the creation of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922 (with the current known borders), the southwestern Levant was politically arranged quite differently. Prior to 1988, there was international consensus in most major organizations (such as the United Nations, European Union, NATO, etc.) that Palestine was not a country since Israel was the only legitimate post-Palestinian State and that the Gaza Strip and West Bank were territories that should be devolved to Egypt and Jordan respectively. The only organizations that dissented from this view were the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference, which have a vested interest in not recognizing Israel.

In 1988, Yasser Arafat declared the Palestinian State in exile. In 1993, the Oslo Accords secured international recognition (including Israel) of the Palestinian Authority as a political entity in charge of securing a future for the Palestinian people. There was a partial devolution of territory and security to several Palestinian areas. In 2005, the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and soldiers from Gaza resulted in the first fully independent Palestinian State in the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas led an insurrection leading to their illegitimate takeover of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority still rules a number of bantustans in the West Bank and exercises limited sovereignty over even those regions. Recently, Palestine gained recognition in the United Nations and had its Declaration of Independence vindicated by the International Court of Justice.

Answer 3

It is too dangerous for Palestine to become a state. They have thousands of bombs, guns, and weapons and they want to destroy Israel. As you can tell, if they had their own state, there would be a huge war. Israel said that when Palestine stops bombing them, then they can have their own state.