The Myth of Palestinian Sovereignty: A Historical Clarification
By Dr. Sabri Bebawi
KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
The kingdoms of Israel and Judah, whose capital cities were Samaria and Jerusalem respectively. Around 720 BCE, then, the Kingdom of Israel fell to the Neo-Assyrian…
The word Palestine evokes strong emotions and political convictions, yet the historical record offers a clear and often inconvenient truth: there has never been a sovereign country named Palestine. This is not a matter of opinion or ideology, but one of indisputable historical fact. While the geographic term “Palestine” has been used for centuries, it has never denoted a state with defined borders, a centralized government, or international recognition as a sovereign nation.
From antiquity to the modern era, the land commonly associated with Palestine has been ruled by a succession of empires and foreign powers. The ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, various Islamic caliphates, the Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, and finally the British have all governed the area. None of these ruling powers recognized or established a country called Palestine. Even the term itself was politicized early on; after crushing the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the region Syria Palaestina as a punitive gesture, aiming to erase Jewish identity from Judea. It was not a founding act of a Palestinian nation.
During the centuries of Ottoman rule (1517–1917), there was no administrative unit called Palestine. The land was divided among districts and provinces with no reference to an independent Palestinian identity. When the British took control under the League of Nations Mandate following World War I, the term “Palestine” was revived—but only as a geographic designation under British authority, not as a sovereign entity.
Even the Arab leadership of the time did not seek to establish a Palestinian state. Instead, many identified with a broader pan-Arab or Syrian national identity. The founding charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 did not even claim the West Bank or Gaza Strip as the territory of a Palestinian state. Why? Because those territories were then controlled by Jordan and Egypt, respectively—and neither made any effort to create a Palestinian state during their two-decade occupation.
It was only after the 1967 Six-Day War and the stunning defeat of surrounding Arab armies that the concept of a distinct Palestinian nation-state began to take hold in political rhetoric. This newly emerging identity was shaped in opposition to Israel and promoted largely for strategic and ideological reasons. It is worth noting that prior to Israel’s establishment in 1948, Arab residents of the region did not call themselves Palestinians in a national sense. In fact, the term “Palestinian” was often used to describe Jews in the British Mandate period, as seen in institutions like the Palestine Post (now the Jerusalem Post).
According to the criteria for statehood outlined in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, a sovereign nation must possess: (1) a permanent population, (2) a defined territory, (3) a government, and (4) the capacity to enter into relations with other states. At no point in history has any entity calling itself Palestine met all four criteria. The modern Palestinian Authority, created through the Oslo Accords, is a limited administrative body operating under Israeli security coordination. It does not constitute a fully sovereign government, nor does it control defined borders or maintain independent foreign relations.
Recognition of Palestine as a state by some nations and international bodies is largely symbolic. The United Nations General Assembly’s decision in 2012 to grant Palestine “non-member observer state” status was a diplomatic gesture—not an act of legal state creation. Such recognition does not erase the reality that no Palestinian state has ever existed in history.
This is not to deny the existence of the Arab people living in the region or their aspirations for self-determination. Those aspirations deserve to be addressed with dignity and fairness. But they should not be based on a fabricated past. Inventing a sovereign Palestinian history where none existed does not advance peace; it distorts it. The foundation for any lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must begin with historical accuracy.
In conclusion, the claim that there has never been a sovereign state called Palestine is not an attack on Palestinians—it is a historical fact. A just and peaceful future requires the courage to face the truth of the past. Justice cannot grow from falsehood. It must be rooted in reality, not mythology.