[5][6] Turkish subjects habitually resident in Palestine (excluding Transjordan) on the first day of August 1925 automatically became citizens unless they opted to reject it.[5] Although the nature of Mandatory Palestine's citizenship had been debated within the British government since 1920, the main reason it was delayed was that Turkish citizens were officially enemy aliens until the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified in 1923.[9] Even so, in the early 1950s, United Nations officials described the "worn dog-eared Palestine passport issued in Mandate days by a government that no longer legally exists" as "mementos of identity that were treasured by refugees".A significant number of Arab Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip and those who found refuge in Syria and Lebanon, remained stateless.You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries is a stub.