All-Palestine Protectorate

All-Palestine Protectorate محمية عموم فلسطين
1948–1959
The Gaza Strip after the 1950 Armistice.
Status	Partial recognition Client state of the Kingdom of Egypt and later Republic of Egypt
Capital	Jerusalem (claimed) Gaza City (de facto 1948) Cairo (de facto 1949–59)
Common languages	Palestinian Arabic
Religion	Sunni Islam, Christianity
Government	Republic
President
• 1948	Amin al-Husseini
Prime Minister
• 1948	Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi
Historical era	Cold War
• Established	22 September 1948
• 1949 Armistice	1949
• Arab League places Gaza Strip under official aegis of Egypt[1]	1952
• Government dissolved (except Prime Minister's post)[2]	1953
• Suez Crisis	1956
• Disestablished	1959
Currency	Egyptian pound
ISO 3166 code	PS
Preceded by Succeeded by Mandatory Palestine Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Arab Republic
Today part of	Gaza Strip

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 area captured by the Kingdom of Egypt during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and allowed to run as a protectorate under the All-Palestine Government. The Protectorate was declared on 22 September 1948 in Gaza City, and the All-Palestine Government was formed. The President of the Gaza-seated administration was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, while the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha.^[3] In December 1948, just three months after the declaration, the All-Palestine Government was relocated to Cairo and was never allowed to return to Gaza, making it a government in exile. With a further resolution of the Arab League to put the Gaza Strip under the official protection of Egypt in 1952, the All-Palestine Government was gradually stripped of its authority. In 1953, the government was nominally dissolved, though the Palestinian Prime Minister, Hilmi Pasha, continued to attend Arab League meetings on its behalf.^[2] In 1959, the protectorate was de jure merged into the United Arab Republic, while de facto turning Gaza into a military occupation area of Egypt.

There are differences of opinion as to whether the All-Palestine Protectorate was a puppet or façade of the Egyptian occupation, with negligible independent funding or influence, or whether it was a genuine attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state. Though the All-Palestine Government claimed jurisdiction over the entire territories of the former British Mandatory Palestine, at no time did its effective jurisdiction extend beyond the Gaza Strip, with the West Bank annexed by Transjordan and Israel holding the rest. The All-Palestine Protectorate relied entirely on the Egyptian government for funding and on UNRWA to relieve the plight of the Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip. During most of its existence, the All-Palestine Protectorate was under de facto Egyptian administration, though Egypt never made any claim to or annexed any Palestinian territory. Egypt did not offer the Gazan Palestinians citizenship. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports, and those living in the Gaza Strip were not permitted to move freely into Egypt. However, these passports were only recognized by six Arab countries.