The History of the All-Palestine Government

The All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan. Though the jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip.

The Prime Minister of the Gaza-seated administration was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, and the President was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee. The All-Palestine Government is regarded by some as the first attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state. It was under official Egyptian protection, but it had no executive role.

In 1959, the All-Palestine Government was officially merged into the United Arab Republic, coming under formal Egyptian military administration, who appointed Egyptian military administrators in Gaza. Egypt, however, both formally and informally renounced all territorial claims to Palestinian territory (in contrast to the government of Transjordan, which declared its annexation of the Palestinian West Bank).

Ahmad Hilmi Abdelbaqi Pasha and Mohamed Ali Eltaher (also known by his traditional Arab nickname, Aboul-Hassan) are only two significant names when it comes to the history of this short living state.

THE 1948 ALL-PALESTINE GOVERNMENT – PASSPORTS

When Eltaher’s friend and companion in the long struggle for freedom, Ahmad Hilmi Abdel-Baqi Pasha, was asked by the League of Arab States in 1948 to form an “All-Palestine Government” in Gaza as a last effort to rescue what could be rescued of historic Palestine, Hilmi Pasha issued him Palestinian Passport Nº 1.

He then invited him to join the Cabinet and asked him to choose any Ministry he liked. In 1949, he issued him Palestinian Diplomatic Passport Nº 11.

Eltaher thanked Hilmi Pasha and accepted the passports with pleasure. He believed no one would acknowledge such passports, especially Arab League nations urging a Palestinian Government. Declining any official post preserved his freedom to write as he pleased.

All-Palestine Government passports are extremely rare to find, and you can imagine the diplomatic version is most rare! I’ve seen the standard version a few times but never received one. The red diplomatic type, however, I’ve spotted only twice in 20+ years.

Further reading…
http://eltaher.org/index_en.html
http://eltaher.org/biography/english/biography_p67_en.html?rp=12

The History of the All-Palestine Government, 1948-59

 

Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
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