A territorial/national entity that was historically comprised of present-day
Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Empire territories that the League of Nations placed under the administration of Great Britain after World War I. In 1947, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent states: one Palestinian and the other Jewish. This proposal was not realized as Arab leaders, and other nations who rejected the plan, regarded it as invalid. The State of Israel declared independence in 1948 on part of Palestine. The subsequent
1948 War led to most of Palestine's territory being captured and annexed by Israel and the remaining parts (
Gaza Strip and the
West Bank, including
East Jerusalem) falling under Egyptian and Jordanian control respectively. (These territories were subsequently captured by Israel during the
1967 War, and have been occupied by Israel since then.) A sovereign state of Palestine does not exist today, and whether and under what conditions it will exist has been at the center of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and multiple rounds of peace negotiations. The term "Palestine" is used to refer alternatively to the currently Occupied Palestinian Territories, to a future independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, or to the entire historic territory of British mandate Palestine. In recent years, Palestine as a state has gained international recognition, both in the United Nations, and among several European governments. See
A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, Ilan Pappe, Cambridge University Press, 2004. See also "
Spanish MPs call for recognising Palestine," Al Jazeera, Nov 18, 2014.