Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction vii
International Commitments
on the Middle East: A Timeline, 1917-48 xii
Documents
1. Correspondence between Felix Frankfurter
and Prince Feisal of Saudi Arabia 1
2. Treaty of Peace between the
Principal Allied Powers and Turkey, Sèvres* 4
iii
iv Contents
Photo Spread 50
v
Introduction
The sixtieth anniversary of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 rec-
ommending partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, was
commemorated on November 29, 2007. The UN’s interest in this topic sixty years
ago was not a matter of chance, nor a result of cursory events or momentary political
pressures. It emerged from a long history of international concern that had engaged
the attention of national governments, international organizations, and diplomats. It
absorbed these diplomats, organizations, and governments with great intensity.
The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights is con-
vinced that the development and emergence of the UN’s partition plan can readily
be understood from a series of international documents that are presented in this
volume. These documentary snapshots offer a picture of how hard the new interna-
tional organization, the United Nations, worked to reach a fair and equitable solu-
tion. They present a picture of the extensive deliberations, meetings, discussions,
visits, and careful weighing of the pros and cons of every course of action open to the
decision-makers. They also reveal the views and the acceptance or rejection of these
proposals by the states and political actors concerned, the difficulties faced immedi-
ately following the partition decision by the UN Commission charged with imple-
menting the plan, and what transpired when the State of Israel was proclaimed and
sought membership in the world body.
By gathering these documents that chart the diplomatic deliberations and deci-
sions that took place, we hope both to clarify the historical record that underpins the
current situation in the Middle East and to recall that international institutions took
very seriously their responsibility to promote peace and stability after World War II.
Background
The League of Nations, founded as a result of the Versailles Peace Conference after
World War I “to promote international cooperation” and “to achieve international
peace and security,” in September 1922 assigned to the United Kingdom a mandate to
administer and prepare for independence the territory of Palestine, which had been
relinquished by the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Sevres. [See Document 2: Treaty
of Peace between the Principal Allied Powers and Turkey, Sèvres (August 10, 1920), and
Document 3: League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (September 23, 1922).]
Two years after the British had received a mandate for Palestine from the
League of Nations, an agreement was signed between the United States and Britain,
specifically reaffirming the UK’s responsibility to put into effect the repeated inter-
vii
viii Mandate of Destiny
mittee, voting on November 24 and 25, 1947, rejected each of Subcommittee 2’s rec-
ommendations, and adopted the recommendation of Subcommittee 1, for partition,
by 25-13 with 17 abstentions. [See Document 10: Report of Ad Hoc Committee on the
Palestinian Question to the United Nations General Assembly (25 November 1947).]
The Ad Hoc Committee Report was then sent to the General Assembly, which
examined it between November 26 and 29. Many representatives expressed their
views on the recommendations that emerged from the Ad Hoc Committee, includ-
ing notably Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko, who advocated partition.
Gromyko concluded that “all the alternative solutions of the Palestinian problem
were found to be unworkable and impracticable,” including the option of “creating a
single independent Arab-Jewish state with equal rights for Arabs and Jews.”
Explaining that the solution advocated by the Soviet Union was based on “under-
standing and sympathy” for national self-determination of peoples, Gromyko noted
with regret that the study by UNSCOP and others revealed that “Jews and Arabs do
not wish, or are unable, to live together.” [See Document 8: Speech by Soviet Ambassa-
dor Andrei Gromyko to the United Nations General Assembly (November 1947).]
Egypt’s representative expressed a number of procedural arguments, including
that the General Assembly itself had no competence to “impose a solution” about
Palestine, and that, while the partition plan may have succeeded in the Ad Hoc
Committee’s vote, too few UN members—fewer than a majority of UN members—
had thus far voted in favor of partition. Fawzi warned that Egypt would not recog-
nize any resolution adopted by the General Assembly, as in his view, it lacked com-
petence on the issue. Instead, the whole matter should be sent to the world court for
an advisory opinion. [See Document 9: Speech to UN General Assembly by Egyptian
Delegate Mahmoud Bey Fawzi (November 1947).]
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a res-
olution to accept the UNSCOP and Ad Hoc Committee recommendations to par-
tition Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, and declare Jerusalem an
international territory. The Assembly approved the slightly revised partition plan by
a vote of 33-13 with 10 abstentions, reaching a two-thirds vote in favor of the plan.
[See Document 11: UN General Assembly Resolution 181(II) (November 29, 1947).]
In speeches following the General Assembly vote, the Arab states expressed
their opinions of UN Resolution 181. Amir Arslan of Syria called the Charter “dead,”
while the Saudi Arabian delegate said that they were not bound by the decision. Arab
spokesmen claimed the resolution had destroyed the United Nations. [See Document
12: Verbatim Provisional Records, UN General Assembly (November 29, 1947).]
The UN Palestine Commission was then created to oversee implementation of
Introduction xi
Resolution 181. Its first special report—on security issues in Palestine—was deliv-
ered to the Security Council in February 1948. The Commission warned: “Powerful
Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the
General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settle-
ment envisaged therein.” Included in this special report were excerpts of a commu-
nication to the Commission from the Arab Higher Committee. The Committee
states it will never accept partition or the idea of a Jewish state. [See Document 13:
Report of UN Palestine Commission: First Special Report to the Security Council: The
Problem of Security in Palestine, Document A/AC.219 (16 February 1948).]
The final report of the UN Palestine Commission, on April 10, 1948, conclud-
ed that the Jews cooperated with the Commission, but that the Arab states and the
Arab Higher Committee opposed Resolution 181(II). The report states that nonco-
operation from both the British mandatory power and the Arabs meant the Com-
mittee could not implement the UN resolution. Various problems that needed to be
addressed in Palestine were discussed in the report, such as: security, economy, the
status of Jerusalem, and food supplies. [See Document 14: UN Palestine Commission
Report to the General Assembly (April 10, 1948).]
In his memoirs, Trygve Lie, the first secretary-general of the United Nations,
gives a firsthand account of the proceedings at the UN concerning partition. He
reviews the history of UNSCOP and Resolution 181(II) and Jewish and Arab reac-
tions to the Partition Plan. When the Arab invasion of Israel began in May 1948,
Lie saw it as “armed defiance of the United Nations.” [Document 15: Trygve Lie, In
the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations.]
We have included in this collection a speech to the Ad Hoc Political Commit-
tee of the United Nations delivered a year later, on May 5, 1949, by Abba Eban,
Israel’s permanent representative to the UN and later foreign minister. Eban makes
the case for Israel’s entrance into the UN, examining the earlier issues reviewed by
the UN with regard to Palestine as well as other topics that arose in the year that fol-
lowed, as independence was proclaimed and an armed conflict was in progress. Eban
argued that Israel had fulfilled the requirements of the UN Charter, and that a solu-
tion to the conflict could only be found in cooperation between Israel and its neigh-
bors. [Document 16: Abba Eban, Israel: The Case for Admission to the United Nations
(May 5, 1949).]
UN General Assembly Resolution No. 273, admitting Israel to membership in
the UN, regularizes the status of the State of Israel among the nations of the world.
[See Document 17: UN General Assembly Resolution 273, New York (May 11, 1949).]
We offer it as a conclusion to this documentary record.
International Commitments on the Middle East:
A Timeline, 1917-48
1917
2 November Government of United Kingdom guarantees reconstitution
of a “national home for the Jewish people in Palestine,”
signing Balfour Declaration.
1919
3 March Letters exchanged between Emir Feisal, who led
the Arab Hedjaz delegation to the Paris Peace talks,
and Judge Felix Frankfurter, representing the Zionists.
28 June Treaty of Versailles ends World War I and creates League of
Nations, an international organization of countries committed
to “promoting international co-operation and achieving
international peace and security.” The League Covenant
enters into force 10 January 1920, and its Assembly
first convenes on 15 November 1920.
1920
19-26 April In Treaty of San Remo, principal Allied powers entrust
United Kingdom with Mandate to govern Palestine.
10 August In Treaty of Sèvres, Allied Powers assign United Kingdom
responsibility for governance of Palestine, as the Ottoman
Empire renounces all claims to region.
1939
May British issue a White Paper proposing an independent
Palestinian state in ten years, limiting Jewish immigration
and making it subject to Arab consent, and prohibiting
land sales to Jews.
June League of Nations says the new White Paper is “not in
accordance with the interpretation which … the Commission
had placed on the Palestine Mandate.”
xii
International Commitments on the Middle East: A Timeline xiii
1945
24 October United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco
establishing new world organization devoted to
preserving world peace and security.
1946
18 April League of Nations is formally dissolved.
1947
February Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin says United Kingdom
wishes to refer Palestine Mandate to United Nations.
2 April UK requests special session of UN General Assembly
to consider future government of Palestine.
28 April UN General Assembly session addresses Palestine issue.
15 May General Assembly establishes Special Committee
on Palestine (UNSCOP).
26 May UNSCOP convenes at Lake Success.
15 June UNSCOP arrives in Palestine and begins series of hearings
and meetings; travels within Palestine.
20 July UNSCOP travels to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
8 August UNSCOP Subcommittee travels to Germany and Austria.
31 August UNSCOP issues report. Unanimously decides to end
UK mandate, and calls for preservation of Holy Places;
constitutional democracy with rights guarantees;
settling disputes peacefully; preserving economic unity
of Palestine. Additionally, majority report (seven) recommends
partition of Palestine with an internationalized Jerusalem,
and minority report (three) recommends local self-government
of Jerusalem and Arab sections.
13-16 September UN General Assembly begins annual session.
23 September UN General Assembly establishes Ad Hoc Committee
on the Palestinian Question and refers UNSCOP report to it.
29 September Arab Higher Committee formally rejects UNSCOP plan.
xiv Mandate of Destiny
1948
16 February UN Palestine Commission sends first special report
to UN Security Council complaining that Arabs are “defying”
Resolution 181, “have infiltrated into” Palestine, and are
“defeating the resolution by acts of violence.”
10 April UN Palestine Commission issues report on implementation
of Resolution 181, concluding that while the Jewish Agency
has cooperated, its efforts to implement partition plan are
hampered by the governments of Arab states and the Arab
Higher Committee, who “actively opposed” the resolution.
14 May United Kingdom mandate over Palestine ends.
Declaration of statehood by Israel
1949
May 11 State of Israel admitted to United Nations.
Document 1: Correspondence between Felix Frankfurter
and Prince (Emir) Feisal of Saudi Arabia
March 3, 1919
In 1919, this correspondence between the Emir of Saudi Arabia, as a representative
of the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz (later Saudi Arabia), and Felix Frankfurter, as a
representative of the Zionist Organization (later an associate justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court), describes their mutual support for both the Jewish and Arab quest
to establish independent states, free from colonial or imperialist domination. Emir
Feisal expresses sympathy for the Zionist movement and affirms that both the Arab
and Zionist movements are nationalist not imperialist, and there is room for both in
the Middle East. He attributes controversy between Arabs and Jews to “people less
informed and less responsible” who have tried “to exploit” and misrepresent both
movements. Feisal says the differences are not matters of principle, but details that
can be “easily adjusted by mutual goodwill.” Feisal describes the Arabs and Jews as
“cousins in race” and yearns for cooperation and understanding between the two
peoples. He states that together they can bring about a “reformed and revived Near
East.”
1
2 Mandate of Destiny
to make the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together
for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete
one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our
movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us
both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the other.
People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours,
ignoring the need for cooperation of the Arabs and Zionists have been
trying to exploit the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in Pales-
tine in the early stages of our movements. Some of them have, I am afraid,
misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry, and our aims to the Jew-
ish peasantry, with the result that interested parties have been able to
make capital out of what they call our differences.
I wish to give you my firm conviction that these differences are not
on questions of principle, but on matters of detail such as must inevitably
occur in every contact of neighbouring peoples, and as are easily adjusted
by mutual goodwill. Indeed nearly all of them will disappear with fuller
knowledge.
I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in
which we will help you and you will help us, so that the countries in which
we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the commu-
nity of civilised peoples of the world.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely,
(Sgd.) FEISAL.
5th March, 1919.
Royal Highness:
Allow me, on behalf of the Zionist Organisation, to acknowledge
your recent letter with deep appreciation.
Those of us who came from the United States have already been
gratified by the friendly relations and the active cooperation maintained
between you and the Zionist leaders, particularly Dr. Weizmann. We
knew it could not be otherwise; we knew that the aspirations of the Arab
and Jewish peoples were parallel, that each aspired to reestablish its
Correspondence between Felix Frankfurter and Prince (Emir) Feisal 3
nationality in its own homeland, each making its own distinctive contribu-
tion to civilization, each seeking its own peaceful mode of life.
The Zionist leaders and the Jewish people for whom they speak have
watched with satisfaction the spiritual vigour of the Arab movement.
Themselves seeking justice, they are anxious that the national aims of the
Arab people be confirmed and safeguarded by the Peace Conference.
We knew from your acts and your past utterances that the Zionist
movement—in other words the national aims of the Jewish people—had
your support and the support of the Arab people for whom you speak.
These aims are now before the Peace Conference as definite proposals by
the Zionist Organisation. We are happy indeed that you consider these
proposals “moderate and proper,” and that we have in you a staunch sup-
porter of their realisation. For both the Arab and the Jewish peoples there
are difficulties ahead—difficulties that challenge the united statesmanship
of Arab and Jewish leaders. For it is no easy task to rebuild two great civil-
isations that have been suffering oppression and misrule for centuries. We
each have our difficulties we shall work out as friends, friends who are ani-
mated by similar purposes, seeking a free and full development for the two
neighbouring peoples. The Arabs and Jews are neighbours in territory; we
cannot but live side by side as friends.
Very respectfully,
(Sgd.) Felix Frankfurter.
Document 2: Treaty of Peace between the Principal Allied
Powers and Turkey
Sèvres, August 10, 1920
The Treaty of Sèvres was a post-World War I agreement between the victorious
Allied powers and representatives of the government of Ottoman Turkey. As a result
of the treaty, Turkey renounced all rights over Arab Asia and North Africa, includ-
ing the area known as Palestine. The treaty stated that the United Kingdom was to
be responsible for Iraq and Palestine, and France would control Lebanon and an
enlarged Syria. Article 95 specifically stated that the Mandatory Power will be
tasked with implementing the Balfour Declaration.
4
Document 3: League of Nations Mandate for Palestine
September 23, 1922
In September 1922, the League of Nations, an international organization created as
a result of the Versailles Treaty, decided that Palestine was to be under a British
Mandate. The British were charged with promoting local autonomy and preparing
Palestine for eventual independence. The British would administer Palestine for
over two decades before they handed their mandate back to the United Nations, the
world body that was created after World War II.
5
6 Mandate of Destiny
Article 5.
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine terri-
tory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of,
the Government of any foreign Power.
Article 6.
The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and
position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facili-
tate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in
co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settle-
ment by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not
required for public purposes.
Article 7.
The Administration of Palestine shall be responsible for enacting a
nationality law. There shall be included in this law provisions framed so as
to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who take up
their permanent residence in Palestine.
Article 8.
The privileges and immunities of foreigners, including the benefits of
consular jurisdiction and protection as formerly enjoyed by Capitulation or
usage in the Ottoman Empire, shall not be applicable in Palestine.
Unless the Powers whose nationals enjoyed the afore-mentioned
privileges and immunities on August 1st, 1914, shall have previously
renounced the right to their re-establishment, or shall have agreed to their
non-application for a specified period, these privileges and immunities
shall, at the expiration of the mandate, be immediately re-established in
their entirety or with such modifications as may have been agreed upon
between the Powers concerned.
Article 9.
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that the judicial sys-
tem established in Palestine shall assure to foreigners, as well as to natives,
a complete guarantee of their rights.
Respect for the personal status of the various peoples and communi-
ties and for their religious interests shall be fully guaranteed. In particular,
the control and administration of Wakfs shall be exercised in accordance
with religious law and the dispositions of the founders.
8 Mandate of Destiny
Article 10.
Pending the making of special extradition agreements relating to
Palestine, the extradition treaties in force between the Mandatory and
other foreign Powers shall apply to Palestine […]
Article 22.
English, Arabic and Hebrew shall be the official languages of Pales-
tine. Any statement or inscription in Arabic on stamps or money in Pales-
tine shall be repeated in Hebrew, and any statement or inscription in
Hebrew shall be repeated in Arabic.
Article 23.
The Administration of Palestine shall recognise the holy days of the
respective communities in Palestine as legal days of rest for the members
of such communities.
Article 24.
The Mandatory shall make to the Council of the League of Nations
an annual report to the satisfaction of the Council as to the measures taken
during the year to carry out the provisions of the mandate. Copies of all
laws and regulations promulgated or issued during the year shall be com-
municated with the report.
Article 25.
In the territories lying between the Jordan and the eastern boundary
of Palestine as ultimately determined, the Mandatory shall be entitled,
with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations, to postpone or
withhold application of such provisions of this mandate as he may consid-
er inapplicable to the existing local conditions, and to make such provision
for the administration of the territories as he may consider suitable to
those conditions, provided that no action shall be taken which is inconsis-
tent with the provisions of Articles 15, 16 and 18.
Article 26.
The Mandatory agrees that, if any dispute whatever should arise
between the Mandatory and another Member of the League of Nations
relating to the interpretation or the application of the provisions of the
mandate, such dispute, if it cannot be settled by negotiation, shall be sub-
mitted to the Permanent Court of International Justice provided for by
Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
Document 4: American-British Palestine Mandate Convention
December 3, 1924
Two years after the British received a mandate for Palestine from the League of
Nations, an agreement was signed between the United States and Britain, setting
forth goals and details of the mandate and how the British were expected to admin-
ister it. The convention specifically reaffirms the United Kingdom’s responsibility to
put into effect the internationally recognized commitment to reestablish a national
home for the Jewish people in Palestine and the historic connection of the Jewish
people with Palestine, and encourages the British to do everything possible to
ensure this reality. Relevant articles of the convention are presented below.
9
10 Mandate of Destiny
that the Government of Palestine will fully honour the financial obliga-
tions legitimately incurred by the Administration of Palestine during the
period of the mandate, including the rights of public servants to pensions
or gratuities.
The present instrument shall be deposited in original in the archives
of the League of Nations, and certified copies shall be forwarded by the
Secretary-General of the League of Nations to all members of the League.
Done at London, the 24th day of July, 1922; and
Whereas the mandate in the above terms came into force on the 29th
September, 1923; and
Whereas, the United States of America, by participating in the war
against Germany, contributed to her defeat and the defeat of her Allies,
and to the renunciation of the rights and titles of her Allies in the territo-
ry transferred by them but has not ratified the Covenant of the League of
Nations embodied in the Treaty of Versailles; and
Whereas the Government of the United States and the Government
of His Britannic Majesty desire to reach a definite understanding with
respect to the rights of the two Governments and their respective nation-
als in Palestine;
The President of the United States of America and His Britannic
Majesty have decided to conclude a convention to this effect, and have
named as their plenipotentiaries:
The President of the United States of America:
His Excellency the Honourable Frank B. Kellogg, Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States at London:
His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India:
The Right Honourable Joseph Austen Chamberlain, M.P., His
Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs:
who, after having communicated to each other their respective full
powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows:
Article 1.
Subject to the provisions of the present convention the United States
consents to the administration of Palestine by His Britannic Majesty, pur-
suant to the mandate recited above.
12 Mandate of Destiny
Article 2.
The United States and its nationals shall have and enjoy all the rights
and benefits secured under the terms of the mandate to members of the
League of Nations and their nationals, notwithstanding the fact that the
United States is not a member of the League of Nations.
Article 3.
Vested American property rights in the mandated territory shall be
respected and in no way impaired.
Article 4.
A duplicate of the annual report to be made by the Mandatory under
article 24 of the mandate shall be furnished to the United States.
Article 5.
Subject to the provisions of any local laws for the maintenance of
public order and public morals, the nationals of the United States will be
permitted freely to establish and maintain educational, philanthropic and
religious institutions in the mandated territory, to receive voluntary appli-
cants and to teach in the English language.
Article 6.
The extradition treaties and conventions which are, or may be, in
force between the United States and Great Britain, and the provisions of
any treaties which are, or may be, in force between the two countries
which relate to extradition or consular rights shall apply to the mandated
territory.
Document 5: United Nations General Assembly
Resolution 106 (S-1)
This resolution, adopted on May 15, 1947, created a Special Committee to investi-
gate and propose solutions for the “question of Palestine.” The committee was made
up of eleven nations from around the world, and given three-and-a-half months to
come up with solutions to the problem. The group traveled to the region, questioned
both sides in the conflict, and reported its findings to the General Assembly.
13
14 Mandate of Destiny
15
16 Mandate of Destiny
“that the Mandate has proved to be unworkable in practice, and that the
obligations undertaken to the two communities in Palestine have been
shown to be irreconcilable.” Both Arabs and Jews urge the termination of
the mandate and the grant of independence to Palestine, although they are
in vigorous disagreement as to the form that independence should take.
(b) The outstanding feature of the Palestine situation today is found
in the clash between Jews and the mandatory Power on the one hand, and
on the other the tension prevailing between Arabs and Jews. This conflict
situation, which finds expression partly in an open breach between the
organized Jewish community and the Administration and partly in organ-
ized terrorism and acts of violence, has steadily grown more intense and
takes as its toll an ever-increasing loss of life and destruction of property.
(c) In the nature of the case, the Mandate implied only a temporary
tutelage for Palestine. The terms of the Mandate include provisions which
have proved contradictory in their practical application.
(d) It may be seriously questioned whether, in any event, the Man-
date would now be possible of execution. The essential feature of the man-
dates system was that it gave an international status to the mandated terri-
tories. This involved a positive element of international responsibility for
the mandated territories and an international accountability to the Coun-
cil of the League of Nations on the part of each mandatory for the well-
being and development of the peoples of those territories. The Permanent
Mandates Commission was created for the specific purpose of assisting
the Council of the League in this function. But the League of Nations and
the Mandates Commission have been dissolved, and there is now no
means of discharging fully the international obligation with regard to a
mandated territory other than by placing the territory under the Interna-
tional Trusteeship System of the United Nations.
(e) The International Trusteeship System, however, has not automat-
ically taken over the functions of the mandates system with regard to
mandated territories. Territories can be placed under Trusteeship only by
means of individual Trusteeship Agreements approved by a two-thirds
majority of the General Assembly.
(f ) The most the mandatory could now do, therefore, in the event of
the continuation of the Mandate, would be to carry out its administration,
in the spirit of the Mandate, without being able to discharge its interna-
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine: Report to the UN General Assembly 17
Nations for its actions in this regard, the authority concerned should be
able to count upon the support of the United Nations in carrying out the
directives of that body.
proper and an important concern of the United Nations that the constitu-
tion or other fundamental law as well as the political structure of the new
State or States shall be basically democratic, i.e., representative, in charac-
ter, and that this shall be a prior condition to the grant of independence.
In this regard, the constitution or other fundamental law of the new State
or States shall include specific guarantees respecting
A. Human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of
worship and conscience, speech, press and assemblage, the rights of organ-
ized labor, freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary searches and
seizures, and rights of personal property; and
B. Full protection for the rights and interests of minorities, including
the protection of the linguistic, religious and ethnic rights of the peoples
and respect for their cultures, and full equality of all citizens with regard to
political, civil and religious matters.
Comment
(a) The wide diffusion of both Arabs and Jews throughout Palestine
makes it almost inevitable that, in any solution, there will be an ethnic
minority element in the population. In view of the fact that these two peo-
ples live physically and spiritually apart, nurture separate aspirations and
ideals, and have widely divergent cultural traditions, it is important, in the
interest of orderly society, and for the well-being of all Palestinians, that
full safeguards be ensured for the rights of all.
(b) Bearing in mind the unique position of Palestine as the Holy
Land, it is especially important to protect the rights and interests of reli-
gious minorities.
Recommendation X. Capitulations
It is recommended that
States whose nationals have in the past enjoyed in Palestine the priv-
ileges and immunities of foreigners, including the benefits of consular
jurisdiction and protection as formerly enjoyed by capitulation or usage in
the Ottoman Empire, be invited by the United Nations to renounce any
right pertaining to them to the reestablishment of such privileges and
immunities in an independent Palestine.
Comment
(a) Article 9(1) of the Mandate for Palestine makes provision for a
judicial system which “shall assure to foreigners, as well as to natives, a
complete guarantee of their rights.” It is especially significant, in this
regard, that article 8 of the Mandate did not abrogate consular jurisdiction
and protection formerly enjoyed by capitulation or usage in the Ottoman
Empire, but merely left them in abeyance during the Mandate.
(b) On the termination of the Mandate, therefore, States having
enjoyed such rights prior to the Mandate will be in a position to claim the
re-establishment of capitulations in Palestine, and may demand, in partic-
ular, as a condition for waiving such right, the maintenance of a satisfacto-
ry judicial system.
(c) The Committee takes the view that, since independence will be
achieved in Palestine under the auspices of the United Nations, and sub-
ject to guarantees stipulated by the United Nations as a condition prior to
independence, there should be no need for any State to re-assert its claim
with respect to capitulations.
24 Mandate of Destiny
25
26 Mandate of Destiny
ties, but with the conviction that its determined purpose makes it the only
remedy for a conflict which otherwise threatens to become perpetual.
Furthermore, the creation of a Jewish State is a reparation owed by
humanity to an innocent and defenceless people which has suffered
humiliation, and martyrdom for two thousand years.
The Palestine Arabs must know that we who vote in favour of this
resolution have no desire to harm their interests, and that the intransigent
attitude of their leaders is the only obstacle to the attainment of liberty by
both peoples and to the forging of ties of brotherhood between them.
We hope that as the years go by and friendly human relations are
established, new ideas and new generations will wipe out the old grudges
between these two great peoples, and that they will become closely united
in peace and prosperity.
Document 8: Speech by Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko
to the United Nations General Assembly
Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko gave this speech in support of partition as the
United Nations was preparing to vote on UNSCOP’s recommendations. In it,
Gromyko, who later served for twenty-eight years as the Soviet Union’s foreign min-
ister, discusses alternative solutions proposed to the problem of Palestine and con-
cludes that “all the alternative solutions of the Palestinian problem were found to be
unworkable and impracticable,” including the option of “creating a single independ-
ent Arab-Jewish state with equal rights for Arabs and Jews.” Explaining that the
solution advocated by the Soviet Union was based on “understanding and sympathy”
for the anti-colonial national aspirations of the Arabs and support of national self-
determination of peoples, in which he also includes the Jews, Gromyko notes with
regret that the study by UNSCOP and others has shown that “Jews and Arabs do
not wish, or are unable, to live together.” He complains about the British inability
and unwillingness to cooperate with the United Nations to solve the problem, and
rebuts the argument by some states, “mainly ... the Arab states,” that the issue is
beyond the competence of the United Nations organization, stating its advocates
“were unable to adduce any convincing arguments apart from various general and
unfounded statements.”
28
Speech by Andrei Gromyko to the UN General Assembly 29
another. The only explanation that can be given is that all the alternative
solutions of the Palestinian problem were found to be unworkable and
impractical. In stating this, I have in mind the project of creating a single
independent Arab-Jewish State with equal rights for Arabs and Jews. The
experience gained from the study of the Palestinian question, including
the experience of the Special Committee, has shown that Jews and Arabs
in Palestine do not wish or are unable to live together. The logical conclu-
sion followed that, if these two peoples that inhabit Palestine, both of
which have deeply rooted historical ties with the land, cannot live togeth-
er within the boundaries of a single State, there is no alternative but to
create, in place of one country, two States—an Arab and a Jewish one. It
is, in the view of our delegation, the only workable solution.
The opponents of the partition of Palestine into two separate, inde-
pendent, democratic States usually point to the fact that this decision
would, as they allege, be directed against the Arabs, against the Arab pop-
ulation in Palestine and against the Arab States in general. This point of
view is, for reasons that will be readily understood, particularly empha-
sized by the delegations of the Arab countries. But the USSR delegation
cannot concur in this view. Neither the proposal to partition Palestine into
two separate, independent States nor the decision of the Ad Hoc Com-
mittee that was created at that session and which approved the proposal
which is now under discussion, is directed against the Arabs. This decision
is not directed against either of the two national groups that inhabit Pales-
tine. On the contrary, the USSR delegation holds that this decision corre-
sponds to the fundamental national interests of both peoples, that is to say,
to the interests of the Arabs as well as of the Jews.
The representatives of the Arab States claim that the partition of
Palestine would be an historic injustice. But this view of the case is unac-
ceptable, if only because, after all, the Jewish people has been closely
linked with Palestine for a considerable period in history. Apart from that,
we must not overlook—and the USSR delegation drew attention to this
circumstance originally at the special session of the General Assembly—
we must not overlook the position in which the Jewish people found
themselves as a result of the recent world war. I shall not repeat what the
USSR delegation said on this point at the special scission of the General
Assembly. However, it may not be amiss to remind my listeners again
Speech by Andrei Gromyko to the UN General Assembly 31
that, as a result of the war which was unleashed by Hitlerite Germany, the
Jews, as a people, have suffered more than any other people. You know
that there was not a single country in Western Europe which succeeded in
adequately protecting the interests of the Jewish people against the arbi-
trary acts and violence of the Hitlerites.
In connexion with the proposal to partition Palestine, the representa-
tives of some Arab States referred to the USSR and attempted to cast
aspersions on the foreign policy of its Government. In particular, the rep-
resentative of Lebanon twice exercised his ingenuity on the subject. I have
already pointed out that the proposal to divide Palestine into two separate
independent States, and the position which the USSR has taken in this
matter, are not directed against the Arabs, and that, in our profound con-
viction, such a solution of this question is in keeping with the basic
national interests not only of the Jews but also of the Arabs.
The Government and the peoples of the USSR have entertained and
still entertain a feeling of sympathy for the national aspirations of the
nations of the Arab East. The USSR’s attitude towards the efforts of these
peoples to rid themselves of the last fetters of colonial dependence is one
of understanding and sympathy. Therefore, we do not identify with the
vital national interests of the Arabs the clumsy statements made by some
of the representatives of Arab States about the foreign policy of the USSR
in connexion with the question of the future of Palestine. We draw a dis-
tinction between such statements, which were obviously made under the
stress of fleeting emotions, and the basic and permanent interests of the
Arab people. The USSR delegation is convinced that Arabs and the Arab
States will still, on more than one occasion, be looking towards Moscow
and expecting the USSR to help them in the struggle for their lawful
interests, in their efforts to cast off the last vestiges of foreign dependence.
The delegation of the USSR maintains that the decision to partition
Palestine is in keeping with the high principles and aims of the United
Nations. It is in keeping with the principle of the national self-determina-
tion of peoples. The policy of the USSR in the sphere of Nationality prob-
lems, which has been pursued ever since its creation, is a policy of friend-
ship and self-determination of peoples. That is why all the nationalities
that inhabit the USSR represent a single united family that has survived
desperate trials during the war years in its fight against the most powerful
32 Mandate of Destiny
and most dangerous enemy that a peace-loving people has ever met.
The solution of the Palestine problem based on a partition of Pales-
tine into two separate states will be of profound historical significance,
because this decision will meet the legitimate demands of the Jewish peo-
ple, hundreds of thousands of whom, as you know, are still without a
country, without homes, having found temporary shelter only in special
camps in some western European countries. I shall not speak of the condi-
tions in which these people are living; these conditions are well known.
Quite a lot has been said on this subject by representatives who share the
USSR delegation’s point of view in this matter, and which support the
plan for partitioning Palestine into two States.
The Assembly is making a determined effort to find the most equi-
table, most practical, most workable and at the same time the most radical
solution to the Palestine problem. In doing so, the Assembly bases itself
on certain irrefutable facts which led to the Palestinian question being
raised in the United Nations. What are these facts? Fact number one is
that the mandate system has been found wanting. I shall say more: the
mandate system has failed. That the mandate system has failed we know
even from the statements of the United Kingdom representatives. These
statements were made at the special session as well as at the present ses-
sion of the Assembly. It was just because the system of governing Palestine
by mandate had failed, had proved inadequate, that the United Kingdom
Government turned to the United Nations for help. The United Kingdom
asked the Assembly to take the appropriate decision and thus to undertake
itself the settlement of the problem of the future of Palestine.
Fact number two: the United Kingdom Government, having turned
to the United Nations, stated that it could not be responsible for imple-
menting all the measures which will have to be put into effect in Palestine
in connexion with a possible decision of the General Assembly. In so
doing, the United Kingdom Government has recognized that the General
Assembly can, by virtue of the rights and powers conferred upon it by the
Charter, assume responsibility for settling the question of the future of
Palestine.
The USSR delegation considers it advisable, nevertheless, to draw the
Assembly’s attention to the fact that up to now the Assembly has not been
getting from the United Kingdom the kind of support which we have the
Speech by Andrei Gromyko to the UN General Assembly 33
right to expect. On the one hand, the United Kingdom Government has
applied to the Assembly for help in settling the question of the future of
Palestine; on the other hand, the United Kingdom Government during
the discussion of the question at the special session as well as during the
current session of the Assembly, has entered so many reservations that
willy-nilly one asks oneself whether the United Kingdom is really anxious
to have the Palestinian problem settled through the United Nations.
At the special session of the General Assembly, the United Kingdom
representative, on the one hand, declared that the United Kingdom is pre-
pared to implement the United Nations decisions, provided that the
responsibility for the action that would possibly have to be taken did not
rest with the United Kingdom alone.
By this declaration, the United Kingdom delegation made it
unequivocally clear to the other States that it was prepared to cooperate
with the United Nations in the solution of this problem.
On the other hand, however, at that same special session, the United
Kingdom representative stated that his Government was prepared to give
effect to the relevant decisions of the General Assembly only if the Arabs
and Jews agreed on some kind of a solution of the problem. It will be clear
to everyone that these two statements contradict each other. If the first
statement shows the readiness of the United Kingdom to cooperate with
the United Nations in this matter, the second statement shows that the
United Kingdom Government may disregard the Assembly’s decision.
Similar reservations have been made by the United Kingdom repre-
sentative during the present session. We have heard, today, Sir Alexander
Cadogan’s statement on this matter. He repeated in a slightly modified
form the idea that the United Kingdom was prepared to implement the
Assembly’s decision provided the Jews and the Arabs came to an agree-
ment. But we all know that the Arabs and the Jews have failed to reach an
agreement. The discussion of this problem at the present session shows
that an agreement between them is impossible. There seems to be no
prospect of any such agreement being reached between Arabs and Jews.
This is the opinion not only of the USSR delegation but of all those
delegations that have come to the conclusion that a definitive decision on
this question must be reached during the present session.
All these reservations by the United Kingdom delegation show that
34 Mandate of Destiny
the United Kingdom has no real desire, even now, to cooperate fully with
the United Nations in solving this problem. While the vast majority of the
delegations represented at the General Assembly were in favour of reach-
ing forthwith a definite decision on the question of the future of Palestine,
in favour of partitioning Palestine into two States, the United Kingdom
Government declares that it will comply with the Assembly decision only
when the Jews and the Arabs agree between themselves. I repeat that to
put forward such a stipulation is almost tantamount to burying this deci-
sion even before the General Assembly has taken it. Is that how the Unit-
ed Kingdom should behave in this matter, especially now, when, after
lengthy discussion, it has become clear to everyone, including the United
Kingdom, that the overwhelming majority of countries are in favour of
partitioning Palestine?
In the course of the first session in which the question of the future of
Palestine first arose, it was still possible, at least to understand the reserva-
tions made by the United Kingdom delegation. But now, after the views of
the overwhelming majority of the United Nations Members have become
clear, the lodging of such reservations is tantamount to stating in advance
that the United Kingdom does not consider itself bound by any solution
the General Assembly may adopt.
The USSR delegation cannot share this view. We have a right to
expect the cooperation of the United Kingdom in this matter. We have a
right to expect that, should the Assembly adopt a certain recommenda-
tion, the United Kingdom will take that recommendation into account,
especially since the present regime in Palestine is hated equally by both
Arab and Jew. You all know what the attitude towards that regime is, espe-
cially on the part of the Jews.
I think I should also mention yet another aspect.
From the very outset of these discussions, a number of delegations,
mainly the delegations of Arab States, have tried to convince us that this
question was ostensibly not within the competence of the United Nations.
In so claiming they were unable, as might have been expected, to adduce
any convincing arguments apart from various general and unfounded
statements and declarations.
The General Assembly, as well as the United Nations as a whole, not
only has a right to consider this matter, but in view of the situation that
Speech by Andrei Gromyko to the UN General Assembly 35
36
Speech by Mahmoud Bey Fawzi to UN General Assembly 37
with regard to a Palestine which is more than five thousand miles away.
That is what we have been told. We do not wish to believe it; we wish to
hope it is not true.
If the General Assembly’s resolution is passed, I must reiterate that
we shall take it for what it is: a mere recommendation addressed to the
Egyptian Government. I must, in terms of no equivocation, reiterate our
position as it has been stated throughout the deliberations of the Ad Hoc
Committee on the Palestinian Question. This position is:
1. We are of the opinion that the General Assembly is not competent
to make the proposed recommendation to Egypt or to any other State;
2. In view of the difference of opinion on this question of compe-
tence, we requested, more than forty days ago, that the General Assembly
should ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. We
still would like to enlightened by such an opinion from the Court;
3. Failing an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice,
Egypt will be guided only by its own views as to the powers conferred on
the General Assembly by the Charter;
4. As at present advised, we will not adopt and we will not implement
the proposed recommendation by the General Assembly if it obtains the
necessary vote and is adopted;
5. As a sovereign, equal Member of the United Nations, Egypt
reserves its full rights under the Charter.
Document 10: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the
Palestinian Question to the United Nations General Assembly
25 November 1947
At its September 1947 second session, the UN General Assembly referred three
matters—the UNSCOP final report, a proposal of the United Kingdom, and a
Saudi-Iraqi proposal for recognition of a single-state solution—to a newly created
Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question. Composed of all UN members,
the Ad Hoc Committee deliberated for two months, examining some seventeen
proposed resolutions submitted to it. It included both the Jewish Agency and Arab
Higher Committee in its deliberations, and set up three bodies to examine the vari-
ous proposals: a conciliation commission that tried to bring the parties together and
two subcommittees. Subcommittee 1 was asked to draw up a detailed plan based on
the majority proposals of UNSCOP; Subcommittee 2 was asked for a detailed plan
based on the Saudi-Iraqi proposal for a unitary state.
The conciliation commission reported their work had not been fruitful. Sub-
committee 1 modified the UNSCOP partition plan slightly as to the dates of inde-
pendence, the boundaries of each state, including those of an internationalized
Jerusalem, and the implementation body to be in charge of the transition (a new
five-member Palestine Commission), and other matters. Subcommittee 2 concen-
trated on three matters: (a) legal questions such as the competence of the UN to
address the issue and the recommendation to refer the matter to the world court, as
proposed by Egypt, Iraq, and Syria; (b) the issue of Jewish refugees and its relation-
ship to the Palestinian question, recommending that the countries of origin take
back the refugees; and (c) the constitution and future government of a unitary Pales-
tinian state. The excerpted report below describes the results of the Ad Hoc Com-
mittee’s deliberations and its decisions voted upon on November 24 and 25, 1947.
The Ad Hoc Committee rejected each of the three recommendations of Subcom-
mittee 2, and then voted to adopt the recommendation of Subcommittee 1, on par-
tition, by 25-13 with 17 abstentions. The report was then sent to the General
Assembly, which considered it between November 26-29.
39
40 Mandate of Destiny
The Sub-Committees were asked to submit their reports not later than 29
October, subject to an extension of that time limit if necessary.…
By virtue of the authority vested in him by the Committee, the
Chairman appointed, on 22 October, the following members to serve on
the Sub-Committees:
(a) Sub-Committee 1: Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Poland,
South Africa, United States of America, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, Uruguay, Venezuela
(b) Sub-Committee 2: Afghanistan, Colombia, Egypt, Iraq,
Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen….
12. Representatives of the United Kingdom attended the meetings of
the two Sub-Committees in order to furnish information and assistance.
A representative of the Jewish Agency sat in Sub-Committee 1 and a rep-
resentative of the Arab Higher Committee in Sub-Committee 2, to give
such information and assistance as might be required. The Arab Higher
Committee did not accept an invitation to sit with the members of Sub-
Committee 1 when the latter discussed the question of boundaries. The
Arab Higher Committee was prepared to assist and furnish information
only with regard to the question of the termination of the Mandate and
the creation of a unitary State.…
14. The reports of Sub-Committee 1 (A/AC.14/34) and Sub-Com-
mittee 2 (A/AC.14/32) were submitted to the Ad Hoc Committee on 19
November (twenty-third meeting). At the same meeting, the Ad Hoc
Committee was informed by the Chairman, speaking on behalf of the
conciliation group, that their efforts had not been fruitful. Both parties
seemed to be confident as to the success of their case before the Assembly
and there appeared to be little hope of conciliation, at least at the present
time.
15. The report of Sub-Committee 1 recommended the adoption of a
draft resolution embodying a plan of partition with economic union. The
plan followed, in its general lines, the proposals of the majority of the Spe-
cial Committee on Palestine (two independent States, a City of Jerusalem
under an international regime, and economic union of these three units).
A new solution was proposed for the problem of implementation, in view
of the statements of policy made by the representatives of the Mandatory
Power on that problem. A Commission of five members appointed by the
Report of Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question to the UN General Assembly 43
That those Jewish refugees and displaced persons who cannot be repatri-
ated should be absorbed in the territories of Members of the United
Nations in proportion to their area, economic resources, per capita
income, population and other relevant factors.
46 Mandate of Destiny
The vote on the above text was sixteen in favour, sixteen against, with
twenty-six abstentions.
26. The third resolution of Sub-Committee 2 providing for the con-
stitution and future government of Palestine, as a unitary, democratic, and
independent State, with safeguards for minorities, was rejected by a vote
of twelve in favour, twenty-nine against, with fourteen abstentions.
27. The Committee then considered the amendments which had
been submitted respecting the plan recommended by Sub-Committee 1.…
Paragraph 3 in the same section B of Part I was also modified as a
result of the adoption of a Netherlands amendment (A/AC.14/36) giving
wider scope to the Boundary Commission.…
Paragraph 8 of Chapter 2 of section C was altered by the adoption of
an amendment put forward separately by the delegations of the Nether-
lands (A/AC.14/36) and Pakistan (A/AC.14/40) providing for the dele-
tion from the paragraph of provisions regarding expropriation of land for
other than public purposes. The vote was twelve in favour and nine against
the amendment.
The delegation of the Netherlands submitted an amendment
(A/AC.14/36) to add a new paragraph 9 to Chapter 2 of section C. The
amendment was withdrawn on the understanding that it might be resub-
mitted to the plenary meeting of the General Assembly in a revised form.
The delegation of Canada submitted an amendment (A/AC.14/45) to
paragraph 1 of Chapter 3 of section C respecting citizenship, which was
adopted.
The delegation of the United States of America submitted an
amendment (A/AC.14/42) to add a new paragraph to paragraph 9 of sec-
tion D. The amendment was adopted.…
The delegation of Pakistan submitted an amendment (A/AC.14/40)
to delete the whole of Part II dealing with boundaries and to provide for a
Boundary Commission, appointed by the Security Council, to recom-
mend boundaries in accordance with the principle that not more than ten
percent of the land, exclusive of state or waste lands, in the Arab or Jewish
State should be owned by Jews or Arabs respectively. The amendment was
rejected by a vote of eight in favour and twenty-two against.
The Committee adopted the amendment submitted by the delega-
tion of the United States of America (A/AC.14/38) to Part II, providing
Report of Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question to the UN General Assembly 47
that the town of Beersheba and the area to the northeast thereof and a
portion of the Negeb along the Egyptian frontier should be excluded from
the area of the proposed Jewish State and incorporated in the proposed
Arab State.
The delegation of Sweden submitted an amendment (A/AC.14/35)
to delete from paragraph 2, section C of Part III, in connection with the
administrative staff of the Governor of the City of Jerusalem, the phrase
“and chosen whenever possible from the residents of the City on a non-
discriminatory basis.” The amendment was rejected by a vote of ten in
favour and fifteen against. The paragraph was adopted with the phrase in
question amended to read as follows: “and chosen whenever practicable
from the residents of the City and of the rest of Palestine on a non-dis-
criminatory basis.”…
29. The amended draft resolution embodying the Plan of Partition
with Economic Union was adopted by a vote of twenty-five in favour,
thirteen against, with seventeen abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist
Republic, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Domini-
can Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Iceland, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
Peru, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of
South Africa, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United States of Amer-
ica, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Against: Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pak-
istan, Saudi Arabia, Siam, Syria, Turkey and Yemen.
Abstentions: Argentina, Belgium, China, Colombia, El Salvador,
Ethiopia, France, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexi-
co, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Yugoslavia.
Absent: Paraguay and Philippines.
30. Before the vote, the representatives of New Zealand, Syria, and
Iraq had made statements explaining their votes. After the roll-call, the
representative of Egypt also made a statement in connection with his vote.
31. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question therefore
recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following draft
resolution on the future government of Palestine embodying a Plan of
Partition with Economic Union:
48 Mandate of Destiny
A/516
Future Government of Palestine
The General Assembly,
Having Met in special session at the request of the Mandatory Power
to constitute and instruct a Special Committee to prepare for the consid-
eration of the question of the future government of Palestine at the second
regular session;
Having Constituted a Special Committee and instructed it to investi-
gate all questions and issues relevant to the problem of Palestine, and to
prepare proposals for the solution of the problem; and
Having Received and Examined the report of the Special Committee
(document A/364) including a number of unanimous recommendations
and a plan of partition with economic union approved by the majority of
the Special Committee;
Considers that the present situation in Palestine is one which is likely
to impair the general welfare and friendly relations among nations;
Takes Note of the declaration by the Mandatory Power that it plans to
complete its evacuation of Palestine by 1 August 1948;
Recommends to the United Kingdom, as the Mandatory Power for
Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption
and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of
the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out below;
Requests that
(a) The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for
in the Plan for its implementation;
(b) The Security Council consider if circumstances during the transi-
tional period require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine
constitutes a threat to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and
in order to maintain international peace and security, the Security Council
should supplement the authorization of the General Assembly by taking
measures, under Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter, to empower the Unit-
ed Nations Commission, as provided in this resolution, to exercise in
Palestine the functions which are assigned to it by this resolution;
(c) The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of
the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter,
any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution;
Report of Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question to the UN General Assembly 49
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, right, greets UN delegates just after Chatting informally after the partition vote are
the final meeting of the General Assembly that approved (l. to r.) Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa, the Nicaraguan UN delegate,
the partition plan by a vote of 33 to 13. Warren R. Austin, the American UN ambassador,
UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie, and UN General Assembly
President Oswaldo Aranho of Brazil.
The vote is taken to approve the resolution to partition Palestine into two states
at the second UN General Assembly session on Palestine, on November 29, 1947.
1. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Session, Supplement No. 11, Volumes I-IV.
52
UN General Assembly Resolution 181(II) 53
Requests that:
(a) The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for
in the plan for its implementation;
(b) The Security Council consider, if circumstances during the transi-
tional period require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine
constitutes a threat to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and
in order to maintain international peace and security, the Security Council
should supplement the authorization of the General Assembly by taking
measures, under Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter, to empower the United
Nations Commission, as provided in this resolution, to exercise in Pales-
tine the functions which are assigned to it by this resolution;
(c) The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of
the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Char-
ter, any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolu-
tion;
(d) The Trusteeship Council be informed of the responsibilities
envisaged for it in this plan;
Calls upon the inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be
necessary on their part to put this plan into effect
Appeals to all Governments and all peoples to refrain from taking any
action which might hamper or delay the carrying out of these recommen-
dations, and
Authorizes the Secretary-General to reimburse travel and subsistence
expenses of the members of the Commission referred to in Part I, Section
B, Paragraph 1 below, on such basis and in such form as he may determine
most appropriate in the circumstances, and to provide the Commission
with the necessary staff to assist in carrying out the functions assigned to
the Commission by the General Assembly.2
B
The General Assembly,
Authorizes the Secretary-General to draw from the Working Capital
Fund a sum not to exceed $2,000,000 for the purposes set forth in the last
paragraph of the resolution on the future government of Palestine.*
2. At its one hundred and twenty-eighth plenary meeting on 29 November 1947 the General Assembly,
in accordance with the terms of the above resolution elected the following members of the United Nations
Commission on Palestine: Bolivia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Panama, and Philippines.
54 Mandate of Destiny
eral Assembly, under the guidance of the Security Council. The mandato-
ry Power shall to the fullest possible extent co-ordinate its plans for with-
drawal with the plans of the Commission to take over and administer
areas which have been evacuated.
In the discharge of this administrative responsibility the Commission
shall have authority to issue necessary regulations and take other measures
as required. The mandatory Power shall not take any action to prevent,
obstruct or delay the implementation by the Commission of the measures
recommended by the General Assembly.
3. On its arrival in Palestine the Commission shall proceed to carry
out measures for the establishment of the frontiers of the Arab and Jewish
States and the City of Jerusalem in accordance with the general lines of
the recommendations of the General Assembly on the partition of Pales-
tine. Nevertheless, the boundaries as described in Part II of this Plan are
to be modified in such a way that village areas as a rule will not be divided
by state boundaries unless pressing reasons make that necessary.
4. The Commission, after consultation with the democratic parties
and other public organizations of the Arab and Jewish States, shall select
and establish in each State as rapidly as possible a Provisional Council of
Government. The activities of both the Arab and Jewish Provisional
Councils of Government shall be carried out under the general direction
of the Commission.
If by 1 April 1948 a Provisional Council of Government cannot be
selected for either of the States, or, if selected, cannot carry out its func-
tions, the Commission shall communicate that fact to the Security Coun-
cil for such action with respect to that State as the Security Council may
deem proper, and to the Secretary-General for communication to the
Members of the United Nations.
5. Subject to the provisions of these recommendations, during the
transitional period the Provisional Councils of Government, acting under
the Commission, shall have full authority in the areas under their control
including authority over matters of immigration and land regulation.
6. The Provisional Council of Government of each State, acting
under the Commission, shall progressively receive from the Commission
full responsibility for the administration of that State in the period
between the termination of the Mandate and the establishment of the
State’s independence.
56 Mandate of Destiny
Declaration provided for in section C below and include, inter alia, provi-
sions for:
(a) Establishing in each State a legislative body elected by universal suf-
frage and by secret ballot on the basis of proportional representation,
and an executive body responsible to the legislature;
(b) Settling all international disputes in which the State may be involved
by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and securi-
ty, and justice, are not endangered;
(c) Accepting the obligation of the State to refrain in its international
relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity
or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsis-
tent with the purpose of the United Nations;
(d) Guaranteeing to all persons equal and non-discriminatory rights in
civil, political, economic and religious matters and the enjoyment of
human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion,
language, speech and publication, education, assembly and association;
(e) Preserving freedom of transit and visit for all residents and citizens
of the other State in Palestine and the City of Jerusalem, subject to con-
siderations of national security, provided that each State shall control
residence within its borders.
11. The Commission shall appoint a preparatory economic commis-
sion of three members to make whatever arrangements are possible for
economic co-operation, with a view to establishing, as soon as practicable,
the Economic Union and the Joint Economic Board, as provided in sec-
tion D below.
12. During the period between the adoption of the recommendations
on the question of Palestine by the General Assembly and the termination
of the Mandate, the mandatory Power in Palestine shall maintain full
responsibility for administration in areas from which it has not withdrawn
its armed forces. The Commission shall assist the mandatory Power in the
carrying out of these functions. Similarly the mandatory Power shall co-
operate with the Commission in the execution of its functions.
13. With a view to ensuring that there shall be continuity in the func-
tioning of administrative services and that, on the withdrawal of the
armed forces of the mandatory Power, the whole administration shall be in
the charge of the Provisional Councils and the Joint Economic Board,
respectively, acting under the Commission, there shall be a progressive
58 Mandate of Destiny
59
60 Mandate of Destiny
A fateful decision has been taken. The die has been cast. In the words of
the greatest American, “We have striven to do the right as God gives us
to see the right.” We did succeed in persuading a sufficient number of
our fellow representatives to see the right as we saw it, but they were not
permitted to stand by the right as they saw it. Our hearts are sad but our
conscience is easy. We would not have it the other way round.
Empires rise and fall. History tells us of the empires of the Babylo-
nians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, the Arabs, the Per-
sians and the Spaniards. Today, most of the talk is about the Americans
and the Russians. The holy Koran says: We shall see the periods of rise
and fall as between nations, and that cycle draws attention to the univer-
sal law. What endures on earth is that which is beneficent for God’s
creatures.
No man can today predict whether the proposal which these two
countries have sponsored and supported will prove beneficent or the
contrary in its actual working.
We much fear that the beneficence, if any, to which partition may
lead will be small in comparison to the mischief which it might inaugu-
rate. It totally lacks legal validity. We entertain no sense of grievance
against those of our friends and fellow representatives who have been
compelled, under heavy pressure, to change sides and to cast their votes
in support of a proposal the justice and fairness of which do not com-
mend themselves to them. Our feeling for them is one of sympathy that
they should have been placed in a position of such embarrassment
between their judgment and conscience, on the one side, and the pres-
sure to which they and their Governments were being subjected, on the
other.
Pakistan desires to wash its hands of all responsibility for the deci-
sion that has just now been taken. It will, therefore, take no part in the
election of the United Nations Commission which will be set up to
implement that decision.
Mr. Jamali (Iraq): In San Francisco we had high hopes for the world.
Today, those hopes are shattered. We always thought that, after all,
humanity was a bulwark of peace and a bulwark of justice. Today, that
faith is destroyed. We did our best during the last few weeks to expound
the spirit and the letter of the Charter and apply it to Palestine. The fact
that we failed to win your support is not the result of a lack of good will on
the part of the members of this Assembly. It was not due to a lack of
Verbatim Provisional Records, UN General Assembly 61
I. Main Considerations
1. In its First Monthly Progress Report to the Security Council (Sec-
tion 13), the Commission had informed the Security Council that it was
devoting most serious attention to the various aspects of the security prob-
lem.…
2. It is because of the extreme gravity of the situation in Palestine
now, and the anticipated worsening of the conditions there, that this spe-
cial report is presented to the Security Council at this time. The commis-
sion realizes that both the future well-being of the people of Palestine and
the authority and effectiveness of the United Nations are deeply involved.
3. The Commission has appraised the security situation in Palestine
on the basis of a considerable volume of information, official and unoffi-
cial, available to it from a diversity of sources. These sources have included
official reports and appraisals from the Mandatory Power; reports and
62
First Special Report of the UN Palestine Commission to the Security Council 63
comments from the Jewish Agency for Palestine; statements by the Arab
Higher Committee; and dispatches from the press of the world. On the
strength of this information the Commission has concentrated its atten-
tion on the following main considerations:
A. The security situation in Palestine continues to be aggravated not
only in the areas of the proposed Jewish and Arab States, but also in the
City of Jerusalem, even in the presence of British troops.
B. The Commission will be unable to establish security and maintain
law and order, without which it cannot implement the resolution of the
General Assembly, unless military forces in adequate strength are made
available to the Commission when the responsibility for the administra-
tion of Palestine is transferred to it.
C. Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are
defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a
deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.
4. The question of providing an international force to assist the Com-
mission in the maintenance of law and order in Palestine during the tran-
sitional period repeatedly arose in the discussions of the Ad Hoc Commit-
tee of the General Assembly and its Subcommittee 1 which elaborated the
Plan of Partition with Economic Union. It was generally considered that
the matter fell within the competence of the Security Council, which
would subsequently take such action in the matter as circumstances might
dictate.
5. Although the security aspects of the problem are referred to the
Security Council by this report, the Commission intends to continue with
such of the vast amount of preparatory work essential to the implementa-
tion of the recommendations as can be undertaken without the assistance
of the Security Council sought herein.
b. The Arabs of Palestine consider that any attempt by the Jews or any
power or group of powers to establish a Jewish State in Arab territory is
an act of aggression which will be resisted in self-defense by force.
c. It is very unwise and fruitless to ask any commission to proceed to
Palestine because not a single Arab will co-operate with the said com-
mission.
d. The United Nations or its commission should not be misled to
believe that its efforts in the partition plan will meet with any success. It
will be far better for the eclipsed prestige of this organization not to
start on this adventure.
e. The United Nations prestige will be better served by abandoning, not
enforcing such an injustice.
f. The determination of every Arab in Palestine is to oppose in every
way the partition of that country.
g. The Arabs of Palestine made a solemn declaration before the United
Nations, before God and history, that they will never submit or yield to
any power going to Palestine to enforce partition.
manned on the Palestine side by both troops and police, although the
nature of the border country makes it extremely difficult to secure the
entire frontier against illegal entry, especially at night. On arrival in
Palestine, this band appears to have dispersed, and it is thus now
impracticable to deal with it by military action. So far as is known, its
numbers have not engaged in illegal activity beyond the possession of
arms.
3. Arab morale is considered to have risen steadily as a result of these
reinforcements, of the spectacular success of the Hebron Arabs in liqui-
dating a Haganah column near Surif, and of the capture and successful
dismantling by the Arab National Guard of a Jewish van filled with
explosives which was to have been detonated in an Arab locality. Even
the relatively serious loss of life and damage to property caused by Jew-
ish reprisals, have, in the High Commissioner’s view, failed to check the
revival of confidence in the fellaheen and urban proletariat. Panic con-
tinues to increase, however, throughout the Arab middle classes, and
there is a steady exodus of those who can afford to leave the country.
4. Subsequent reports dated 2 February indicate that a further party of
troops belonging to the “Arab Liberation Army” arrived in Palestine via
the Jisr Djamiyeh Bridge during the night of 29-30 January. The party,
numbering some 950 men transported in 19 vehicles, consisted largely
of non-Palestinian Arabs, all in uniform and well armed. It is now dis-
persed in small groups throughout villages of the Nablus, Jenin, and
Tulkarm sub-districts. The security forces have taken action to prevent
further incursions across the Jisr Djamiyeh and the Sheikh Husseini
Bridges.
8. A subsequent communication from the Mandatory Power under
date of 9 February 1948, also reports that:
A report has been received from Jerusalem to the effect that it is now
definitely established that a second party of some seven hundred guer-
rillas (believed to be under the command of Fawzi Bay al Kankji)
entered Palestine via Djamiyeh Bridge on 29th/30th January. It is
understood that this band dispersed rapidly among the villages of
Samaria and that there is now in that district a force of not less than
1400. Although this force has dispersed, it remains cohesive and is
increasingly exercising considerable administrative control over the
whole area. As an instance of this, the force has of its own accord and in
collaboration with Arab National Committee, already dealt with local
bandits and other petty crimes. The presence of this force, which
exhibits a surprising degree of discipline, has been warmly welcomed by
First Special Report of the UN Palestine Commission to the Security Council 67
VI. Conclusions
A. Review of the Facts Which Have Prevented the Implementation
of the Assembly’s Resolution
1. The Commission, on 9 January 1948, took up its task of imple-
menting the General Assembly’s resolution of 29 November 1947, which
had been supported by thirty-three Members of the United Nations.
The Commission appreciates the able assistance rendered to it by the
Secretary-General and his staff, who have extended full co-operation to
the Commission in carrying out the Assembly’s decision.
2. The Jewish Agency for Palestine co-operated with the Commis-
sion in its task of implementing the Assembly’s resolution. The Govern-
ments of the Arab States and the Arab Higher Committee not only with-
held their co-operation from the Commission, but actively opposed the
Assembly’s resolution. As the Commission reported to the Security
Council in its first Special Report (S/676) on 16 February 1948, “Powerful
Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolu-
tion of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to
alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.” Armed Arab bands from
neighbouring Arab States have infiltrated into the territory of Palestine
and together with local Arab forces are defeating the purposes of the reso-
lution by acts of violence. The Jews, on the other hand, are determined to
ensure the establishment of the Jewish State, as envisaged by the resolu-
tion. The resulting conditions of insecurity in Palestine have made it
impossible for the Commission to implement the Assembly’s resolution
without the assistance of adequate armed forces.
70
UN Palestine Commission Report to the General Assembly 71
* Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from
In the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations by Trygve Lie. Copyright © 1954 by Trygve Lie;
copyright renewed in 1982 by Guri Lie Zeckendorf, Sissel Lie Bratz and Mette Lie Holst. All rights
reserved.
76
Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations 77
It was not easy to remain objective on every one of these issues, but I
feel that I managed. The religious rivalry did not disturb me much. I rec-
ognized the right of all creeds to enjoy equal access to Palestine’s Holy
Places. The persecution of the Jews concerned me more. Already as a
child, I had been deeply impressed by the moving poems of Henrik
Wergeland, Norway’s great national poet of the early nineteenth century:
“The Jew” and “The Jewess,” written during his indefatigable fight for the
free entry of Jews into Norway. I had read about the Czarist pogroms
against the Russian Jews in 1906. Even fresher in memory was the fate of
the seven hundred Norwegian Jews whom the Nazis deported in the
course of World War II, of whom only twelve survived to return to their
homes in 1945. This history of suffering naturally affected my conscience.
About the Arab fellahin, I knew only that they were frequently oppressed
by absentee landlords and would no doubt benefit from the great Zionist
development projects already launched in the land: an orderly solution
would provide for the fullest protection of their rights. The hostile atti-
tudes announced at an early stage by the neighboring Arab states forecast
difficulties. Still I felt that, in view of the United Nations will to help them
preserve their newly won independence—as demonstrated already during
the Security Council’s London session—and their obvious need for out-
side help to solve their own internal problems, they would abide by the
Organization’s decisions. As to the attitudes of the great powers, I felt that
here was a field where they should still be able to act in unison—the rapid
deterioration in their mutual relationship notwithstanding. If they wished
to do something positive through the United Nations, here was the place
to do it. None of them would be interested in a breach of the peace in this
area, with the consequent danger of becoming entangled themselves. I
realized that Britain might be in a special position, because of her involve-
ment as the Mandatory power; but the United Kingdom itself had placed
the Palestine problem on the United Nations’ doorstep.
Besides, the existence of a Zionist community in Palestine had been a
recognized international responsibility ever since the League of Nations
confirmed the grant of a League of Nations mandate over the area to
Great Britain in 1922. One of the declared purposes of this decision was
the establishment of a Jewish national home, with the necessary safe-
guards for the civil and religious rights of all the country’s inhabitants,
irrespective of origin or religion.
78 Mandate of Destiny
Arabs would be the majority. Australia abstained from voting for either
recommendation.
The majority found that the claims of both the Arabs and the Jews in
Palestine were at once valid and irreconcilable: that to neither group could
be granted all it wished. Conceiving of the conflict in Palestine as one
between two intense nationalisms, they saw partition as the only means of
granting each nationality expression. I shall not set out the plan in its
impressive justification and detail.
What had emerged was a clear victory for the principle of partition. The
international community, through its chosen representatives, had decided
that two states should be created. As Secretary-General, I took the cue
and, when approached by delegations for advice, frankly recommended
that they follow the majority plan. Behind-the-scenes discussions soon
became hectic, and some Arab spokesmen attacked me openly; but I could
not yield. The responsibility for solving the Palestine problem had been
transferred to the United Nations, and the Organization had to act in con-
formity with its best judgment.
After an epic struggle the Second Session of the General Assembly
adopted the plan of partition on November 29, 1947, by a vote of 33 to 13,
with 10 abstaining. The majority included the United States and the Sovi-
et Union, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, most of Latin America,
and the Commonwealth. Of the minority Members, all except two had
substantial Moslem populations. The vote was preceded by a final series of
vain efforts to bring the Arabs and Jews of Palestine together: spokesmen
for the Jews indicated that they would accept partition, even though they
said the plan would give them but one-eighth of the territory originally
promised them in the Balfour Declaration; spokesmen for the Arabs made
it clear that they would reject partition, and offered no hope for any com-
promise. When the vote was taken, the representatives of Syria, Lebanon,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt rose and filed out of the Assembly
hall. Another walkout! The United Kingdom—the Mandatory power—
abstained from voting for or against the resolution.
Great Britain had placed the matter before the Assembly with the
declared conviction that agreement between the Arabs and Jews was unat-
tainable. This did not deter the British representative, Arthur Creech
Jones, from informing the Assembly that Britain would give effect only to
a plan accepted by the Arabs and the Jews: Britain would “accept” the par-
Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations 81
tition plan but could not implement it, as this might require the use of
armed forces. All British reservations had been respected in the November
29 resolution, and so this attitude caused considerable surprise. Of course,
the partition plan failed to provide sufficiently for implementation; but
most countries expected Britain as the original sponsor of United Nations
action to do its utmost toward carrying the action through. Had it done
so, need for an international force to restore peace in Palestine would not
have become nearly as acute as it soon did.
It fell to “five lonely pilgrims”—the representatives of Bolivia,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Panama, and the Philippines who together
formed the new Palestine Commission provided for in the resolution—to
plan the transfer of administrative responsibility from the Mandatory
regime to the proposed Arab and Jewish government organs. The com-
mission was to take over the administration from the Mandatory power
and establish in each new state a Provisional Council of Government that
would progressively receive full responsibility for the administration of its
state. The commission was to supervise in each state the erection of the
administrative organs of central and local government and the creation of
an armed militia, maintaining general military and political control over
this, which would include choice of its high command. Finally, the com-
mission was to effect an economic union between the two states. I chose
Ralph Bunche as principal secretary of the commission, and when it came
together at Lake Success on January 9, 1948, that choice was almost the
single bright element in the picture with which we were confronted.
From the first week of December, 1947, disorder in Palestine had
begun to mount. The Arabs repeatedly had asserted that they would resist
partition by force. They seemed to be determined to drive that point home
by assaults upon the Jewish community in Palestine—assaults which
brought considerable retaliation from the Jews. In response, I quietly set in
motion Secretariat studies of the possibilities of creating an international
police force and undertook exploratory conversations with various Mem-
ber governments. Publicly, I gave the Palestine Commission a calculated
welcome. “You are entitled,” I asserted at its first meeting, “to be confident
that in the event it should prove necessary, the Security Council will
assume its full measure of responsibility in implementation of the Assem-
bly’s resolution. You have a right to assume, as I assume, that in such a sit-
uation the Security Council will not fail to exercise to the fullest, and
82 Mandate of Destiny
* Later, as Moshe Sharett, first Israeli Foreign Minister, and now [in 1954] Prime Minister.
Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations 83
The consultations with Mr. Shertok were more fruitful. The Jewish
Agency in Jerusalem fully cooperated with the Palestine Commission, and
he and I—for different reasons working toward the same end, namely
compliance with the General Assembly resolution—had many useful con-
sultations in the course of the meetings or in my home.
Needless to say, I should have been delighted to have an equally inti-
mate collaboration with the Arab Higher Committee in implementing the
resolution by which I was unreservedly bound as Secretary-General.
Instead, the Arabs employed open threats. On February 6 the Higher
Committee representative wrote to me: “The Arabs of Palestine … will
never submit or yield to any Power going to Palestine to enforce partition.
The only way to establish partition is first to wipe them out—man,
woman and child.”
It was not for the purpose of wiping out anyone, but rather for pre-
venting an unrestrained civil and international war, that the Palestine
Commission and the Secretary-General began to concentrate on the for-
mation and dispatch of an international force to the Holy Land. In a spe-
cial report of February 16 to the Security Council, on “the problem of
security in Palestine,” the commission noted that Arab interests both
inside and outside Palestine were engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by
violence the settlement which the Assembly had recommended. Armed
forces from surrounding Arab states had already begun infiltration of
Palestine. The report set forth the vast difficulties caused by the Arab and
British attitudes, and cogently maintained that the armed assistance of the
Security Council alone would permit success: “In the view of the Com-
mission, a basic issue of international order is involved. A dangerous and
tragic precedent will have been established if force, or the threat of the use
of force, is to prove an effective deterrent to the will of the United
Nations.” Unless an adequate non-Palestine force was provided for keep-
ing order after May 15, the commission warned, “the period immediately
following the termination of the Mandate will be a period of uncontrolled,
widespread strife and bloodshed in Palestine, including the City of
Jerusalem. This would be a catastrophic conclusion to an era of interna-
tional concern for that territory.”
The stand of the Palestine Commission was unquestionably sound. It
was responsive to the fact then dominating the scene: that the Arab states
were making open preparations to invade Palestine and overthrow a Unit-
84 Mandate of Destiny
entered into consultations. The meetings took place as a rule in the offices
of the delegations, and sometimes in my Manhattan office. I was present
throughout. The United Kingdom declined to take part, but Sir Alexander
Cadogan did appear a few times to answer questions. From the start, the
consultations were a frustrating affair. Only the Soviet Union seemed to
be seriously intent upon implementing partition; the United States clearly
was not. Rumors were flying that the United States was seeking to moder-
ate the Arab stand even at the price of abandoning partition; and, in such
an atmosphere, firm action by the Council or its permanent Members was
out of the question. As it turned out, the United States would in effect
repudiate partition on the very day, March 19, when the committee of per-
manent Members reported on its recommendations for “implementing”
partition. With new instructions Mr. Austin took the floor to call for
“action by all means available … to bring about the immediate cessation of
violence” in Palestine. It was on this occasion that some sarcastic corre-
spondents coined the imaginary Austin quotation: “We must do noth-
ing—but at once!” To fortify his arguments for nonaction, he reverted to
an old suggestion: The United States government now believed that a
temporary United Nations trusteeship for Palestine should be established
“to maintain the peace.… It would be without prejudice to the character
of the eventual political settlement.… Pending the convening of a special
session of the General Assembly, we believe that the Security Council
should instruct the Palestine Commission to suspend its efforts to imple-
ment the proposed partition plan.”
I had met with Mr. Austin and representatives of the four other per-
manent Members of the Security Council just before the Council session.
He had told us then of Washington’s trusteeship proposal. I pointed out
that the possibility of trusteeship had been raised in UNSCOP by Aus-
tralia, and had been withdrawn in the realization that the idea would be
fought by both sides rather than one. It would, I maintained, require more
military force to carry out than partition—and the objection to partition
was that military force was needed to effect it. As Secretary-General, I
stated, I had to ask whether the great powers, in adopting the American
proposal, would accept responsibilities for implementing it. Mr. Austin
replied that the United States was “ready, of course, to back up a United
Nations decision.” I could not help wondering if he meant backing as
“staunch” as that which Washington had lent to the partition decision.
88 Mandate of Destiny
Parting cordially from Mr. Austin, with whom I have always had the
most friendly relations, I went to see Mr. Gromyko. He could receive me
without reservation—his government’s Palestine policy had been com-
mendable. I announced the feeling that I should resign in protest at the
American shift of position, and I have never found Ambassador Gromyko
more friendly. His melancholy features lit up with sympathy. But he
seemed half alarmed at my idea. “Speaking for myself,” he said, “I hope
you will not resign, and I advise you against it. What good will it do? How
will it change American policy? In any case, I would be grateful if you
would take no action before I have time to consult my government.”
Tuesday, Mr. Gromyko took me aside. He had cabled Moscow, he
reported, and Moscow’s reply was: “No, definitely not.” In view of the
advice from both Washington and Moscow, I did not resign.
The second special session of the General Assembly opened at Flush-
ing Meadow on April 16, 1948. In the weeks preceding, I had been careful
not to give public prejudgment of what the Assembly would do—of
whether it should, or would, adopt the United States plan for trusteeship.
When asked, I could not, of course, conceal such obvious facts as that
trusteeship had been proposed almost a year earlier and judged unworkable.
The Assembly debated for a month, not without confusion. The
American proposals for trusteeship won slight support, despite Washing-
ton’s announcement that it was now prepared to allot a fair share of the
troops needed to push it through; in view of the de facto partition of Pales-
tine which already was dissolving British authority; this amounted to pro-
posing that the United Nations take enforcement action against partition.
Other Members made no offer of troops. Skepticism about the practicality
of trusteeship was everywhere, and a considerable body of states main-
tained that the United Nations should still undertake to implement parti-
tion, rather than go on talking while time ran out. Sir Carl A. Berendsen,
the salty New Zealander, in one of his many penetrating United Nations
addresses, compellingly voiced this view. He so well expressed the thoughts
and feelings closest to my heart that—the first time I ever did such a thing
for a speech—I sent him an admiring bouquet of roses! Sir Carl called
upon the Assembly not to abandon partition in a capitulation to threats
and violence. Partition was the right solution in November, and it was the
right solution in April, but, in not making adequate plans for enforcement,
the Assembly had done “the right thing in the wrong way.” New Zealand,
90 Mandate of Destiny
for its part, would continue to support enforcing partition. “What the
world needs today,” he concluded, “is not resolutions, it is resolution.”
The Assembly, at any rate, did no more than adopt three resolutions.
One affirmed its support of the Security Council’s efforts to bring about a
truce in Palestine, and empowered a United Nations Mediator to use his
good offices, in cooperation with the Truce Commission which the Coun-
cil had appointed, to promote a peaceful adjustment of the situation in
Palestine, arrange for the operation of services necessary to the well-being
of the Palestinian population, and assure the protection of the Holy
Places. It relieved the Palestine Commission from further exercise of its
responsibilities and, in a separate resolution, thanked it for its efforts. But
the Assembly did not rescind or amend its resolution of November 29,
1947. The partition decision remained and remains valid.
As the Assembly debated on its closing day, May 14, word came that
Jewish authorities had, with the expiration of the Mandate, proclaimed
the existence of the State of Israel. While going beyond the November 29
resolution, this was essentially in accord with the partition decision. But
the report was bound to increase the tension, already high. What would
happen next?
The bombshell came from an entirely unexpected quarter. Minutes
later, as the Assembly discussed a Franco-American proposal for the
establishment of a temporary international regime for Jerusalem, the news
flashed through Flushing Meadow that the United States had recognized
“the Provisional Government as the de facto authority of the new State of
Israel.” Another reversal of policy! The press spread the story before the
United States Delegation had been informed of President Truman’s
action, and the mortification of the American representatives was under-
standably acute.
During the next hours and days, events crowded upon us. The Arab
states launched their invasion of Palestine with the end of the Mandate.
This was armed defiance of the United Nations, and they openly pro-
claimed their aggression by telegraphing news of it to United Nations
headquarters. The Security Council, when it met on May 15, had before it
a cable from the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, which brazenly
announced, “Egyptian armed forces have started to enter Palestine to
establish security and order.”
Document 16: Abba Eban:
Israel: The Case for Admission to the United Nations
In a comprehensive speech to the Ad Hoc Political Committee of the United
Nations on May 5, 1949, Abba Eban makes the case for Israel’s entrance into the
UN. Eban, who would later serve as Israel’s ambassador to the UN and foreign min-
ister, stresses that Israel has fulfilled the requirements of Article Four of the UN
Charter. He says that a solution to the conflict can only be found in cooperation
between Israel and its neighbors.
I. Israel’s Application
On 29 November, 1948, Israel’s application for membership in the
United Nations was submitted to the Security Council in accordance with
Article 4, paragraph 2, of the Charter. This was the anniversary of the
General Assembly’s original Resolution which had “called upon the
inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be necessary on their
part to put this plan (of partition) into effect.” On 14 May, 1948—just one
year ago yesterday according to the Hebrew calendar—the State of Israel
proclaimed its independence, responding both to its own right of self-
determination as a distinctive political and cultural unit, and to the explic-
it instruction of the General Assembly itself. The Resolution of November
29, 1947, contained a recommendation that when either State envisaged
by that Resolution had made its independence effective, “sympathetic con-
sideration should be given to its application for admission to membership
in the United Nations in accordance with Article 4 of the Charter of the Unit-
ed Nations.”
A year later the State of Israel had successfully withstood a violent
and aggressive onslaught organized and launched against it by seven
States, including six members of the United Nations, in an effort to over-
throw the Assembly’s Resolution by force. Israel had established the foun-
dations of its government. It had secured recognition by nineteen States. It
had persistently made efforts directly and through the agencies of the
United Nations to negotiate with the neighboring Arab States for an end
of the war and the establishment of peace. Alone amongst the States
involved in that war, Israel had undertaken to comply with the Security
Council’s Resolution of November 16, 1948, calling upon the govern-
91
92 Mandate of Destiny
and sentiment of the world had been profoundly impressed by the specta-
cle of Israel’s swift consolidation. Israel had now secured recognition by an
overwhelming majority of other States, in all the five Continents, in the
Old World and the New. It had conducted the only democratic election
with full popular participation which this part of the Near East had seen
for several years. It had established a legislature based on popular suffrage.
It had formed a government dedicated to the principles of parliamentary
democracy and social reform. It had elected as the head of the State its
most respected and venerated citizen to symbolize both Israel’s concern
for international prestige and its vision of scientific humanism. It had suc-
cessfully concluded its first experience in the most crucial task of all. For
on February 24, after direct and intricate negotiations under the skilful
direction of the Acting Mediator, the Government of Israel had conclud-
ed an agreement of armistice with the leading power in the Arab world. In
an official statement the Government of Israel declared that it wished to
regard this most notable agreement as the prelude to peace between Israel
and Egypt.
Such were the circumstances in which the Security Council met on
March 3 and March 4 at its 413th and 414th meetings. By nine votes to
one with one abstention it adopted the following Resolution:
The Security Council, having received and considered the application of
Israel for membership in the United Nations;
Decides that in its judgment Israel is a peace-loving State and is able and
willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter, and
accordingly
Recommends to the General Assembly that it admit Israel to member-
ship in the United Nations.
In every other case of admission such a resolution of the Security
Council has had a decisive effect when Assembly confirmation has been
sought. But this particular Resolution of the Security Council has a special
authority deriving from circumstances which did not attend the Council’s
judgment on other applications. For Israel’s claim for admission to mem-
bership was hotly contested within the Council itself by one of the States
which had felt themselves entitled to make war—violent and brutal war—
for the extermination of Israel and the overthrow of a General Assembly
Resolution by force. The majority in the Security Council was thus not
94 Mandate of Destiny
An Unprecedented Procedure
Mr. Chairman, in response to the requests of this Committee and at
the insistence of the distinguished Representative of El Salvador, I pro-
pose first of all to make a formal and authoritative statement of my Gov-
ernment’s views on the problems of Jerusalem and Arab refugees. In doing
so, I am obliged to reserve Israel’s opinion with regard to the relevance of
extraneous issues to the question of admission to membership. I am aware
that the procedure followed by this Committee today establishes a new
precedent.
98 Mandate of Destiny
II. Jerusalem
Mr. Chairman, the responsibilities of the United Nations in the City
of Jerusalem originated in the General Assembly Resolution of 29
November, 1947. That Resolution envisaged the establishment of a special
regime designed primarily “to protect and preserve the unique spiritual
and religious interests located in the City.” In establishing that regime, the
United Nations pledged itself to undertake the most solemn and critical
responsibility for the welfare and development, nay, for the very lives of
tens of thousands of people. The United Nations pledged itself: “to ensure
that peace and order reign in Jerusalem.” It undertook “to promote the
security, the well-being and any constructive measures of development for
the residents.” According to the terms of the Resolution, the exercise of
these heavy responsibilities required the establishment of a “special police
force of adequate strength, the members of which shall be recruited out-
side of Palestine.” The United Nations undertook to appoint a Governor
at the head of a large military and administrative staff, charged with the
duty “of preserving the Holy Places and religious buildings, and of main-
taining free access to the Holy Places and religious buildings or sites.” The
Trusteeship Council was instructed to elaborate and approve the detailed
statute of the City. The Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine were
called upon to take all necessary steps to put this plan into effect.
last year. “Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are
defying the Resolution of the General Assembly, and are engaged in a
deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein. Armed
Arab bands from neighboring Arab States ... together with local Arab
forces, are defeating the purposes of the Resolution by acts of violence.
The Jews, on the other hand, are determined to ensure the establishment
of the Jewish State as envisaged by the Resolution.”
Mr. Chairman, these grave words, unprecedented in the international
literature of our time, were conveyed by the United Nations Palestine
Commission to the General Assembly in April, 1948. A few weeks later
this monstrous aggression took official form when the Secretary-General
of the Arab League, acting on behalf of seven States, six of them members
of the United Nations, informed the Security Council that those Govern-
ments had undertaken what he called “military intervention.” Unless we
keep in our minds a clear vision of initial responsibility for this war, no
single aspect of the Near East situation can be evaluated in its true per-
spective. Around your table sit the representatives of six States who have
the blood of martyred thousands on their hands and the misery and exile
of tens of thousands upon their consciences. I shall have occasion, in the
course of my remarks, to comment upon the fantastic paradox whereby the
only States which have ever taken up arms to overthrow a General Assem-
bly resolution by force, solemnly sit in this Committee to accuse their
intended victim of a lack of concern for General Assembly resolutions. If
any State’s eligibility for membership should be under question, it should
be the eligibility of those who consciously selected war as a method of
contesting the authority of international judgment.
The distinguished Representative of Lebanon informed us this
morning that an attitude of compliance with General Assembly Resolu-
tions should be a condition of membership in the United Nations. If that
were so, he would not be here at all. I shall circulate the statements of the
Lebanese Prime Minister urging that the General Assembly Resolution of
29 November, 1947, should be drowned in blood.
For the moment it is sufficient to recall to this Committee that the
Arab States took up arms not only against the establishment of Israel, but
also with equal fervor and with greater success against the establishment
of an international regime in Jerusalem. The opposition of the Arabs took
Abba Eban: Israel: The Case for Admission to the United Nations 101
Mr. Chairman, the people of Jerusalem to this very day look back
with a sense of deliverance and escape to the horrors which faced them in
those unforgettable weeks. As the bombardment of the New and Old
Cities took a heavy toll of life, the Holy Places themselves came under
converging fire. In the Old City of Jerusalem in the Jewish Quarter,
corpses lay piled up unburied, since there was no access to the Jewish
cemetery on the Mount of Olives, or, indeed, to any part of the City out-
side the walls. Arab forces from Transjordan, immediately on the termina-
tion of the Mandate, crossed into Palestine and laid waste to the Jewish
villages in the Kfar Etzion group, with the death of most of their inhabi-
tants and the capture of the rest.
clusion that the Statute was no longer realistic in the existing conditions of
the United Nations and in the context of Arab-Jewish war. On the 21st of
April the Trusteeship Council passed a Resolution referring the future of
the Statute to the General Assembly for such further instructions as it
might see fit to give. The General Assembly saw fit to give no further
instructions. Early in May a Municipal Commissioner was appointed to
assume on behalf of the United Nations such functions and prerogatives as
he could secure. The Commissioner was appointed, arrived in Jerusalem at
the height of the siege and warfare, and turned away.
On June 16, 1948, the Trusteeship Council opened its Third Session
with a provisional agenda which prudently avoided all mention of the
Statute of Jerusalem. On July 28, 1948, the Representative of the Soviet
Union urging consistent fidelity to the November Resolution again sought
action by the Trusteeship Council on the Jerusalem Statute. A Belgian
proposal for postponement sine die was adopted by eight votes to one, with
three abstentions. Nothing has been heard of the Statute ever since.
culture and other forms of natural allegiance, but also of that link forged
by a fight for survival in those desperate days. The battle of Jerusalem was
won, in a victory snatched from the very imminence of defeat, but it was
not a victory lightly or cheaply achieved. As you travel from the coastal
plain to Jerusalem through Bab-el-Wad, you can see to this day the over-
turned hulks of trucks, lorries and cars ambushed and set on fire. The
ashes which litter the roadside are not those of lorries alone. The youth of
Israel fell in their hundreds to save Jerusalem from the disaster and
reproach of famine and surrender.
It cannot be seriously doubted that in saving Jerusalem from capture
by the combined Arab forces, the Jews of that City and of Israel not only
preserved Jewish rights in the very cradle of the Jewish tradition; they also
kept Christian interests alive. For it is beyond all question that had the
assault upon the City succeeded, it would have become incorporated
immediately and irrevocably in an Arab State which explicitly and
avowedly asserted its own undisputed right to wield complete sovereignty
over the whole City, including its Holy Places. If today it is still possible to
make plans for giving statutory expression to the international interest, as
it is, that possibility derives solely from the success of this Jewish resist-
ance at that time.
For at the time that the Arab position on internationalization was
clear both in theory and in practice, Dr. Malik was expressing the “deep
stirrings” of his soul by sharing in a warlike coalition, raining down
shells—unholy shells—and bullets—unsacred bullets—upon both parts of
the City of Jerusalem.
I will not harry the feelings of this Committee any further by descrip-
tions of the ordeals and perils out of which Jerusalem has now emerged.
Nothing is more splendid or impressive in the whole record of Israel’s
achievement than the swift rehabilitation of the City and its return to nor-
mal and dignified life. A year ago there was anarchy; today there is effec-
tive administration, both in the Jewish and Arab parts of the City. A year
ago there was bloodshed; today there is peace. A year ago there was
famine; today there is relative plenty. A year ago there was devastation;
today there are all the symptoms of recovery. A year ago the Holy Places
were imperilled by the clash of arms; today they are at peace and all the
facilities of access and worship to all the Holy Places except the Jewish
106 Mandate of Destiny
Holy Places are being gradually restored. This restoration of peace and
normality to Jerusalem is by far the most significant factor to be borne in
mind in any consideration of the question and future of the Holy Places.
Unless there is peace in Jerusalem between Arabs and Jews, no juridical
status can assure the protection of the City or the immunity of its sacred
shrines. If there is peace in Jerusalem between Arabs and Jews, then the
assurance of safeguards for the Holy Places becomes a task easily respon-
sive to the processes of bilateral and international agreement.…
VI. Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, in my final remarks I must say that I could have
wished that this clarification of our views might have proceeded to the end
without the introduction of any polemical note. Yet I should be giving the
Committee a false impression of public sentiment in Israel if I did not
express the indignation aroused by the extraordinary spectacle of Israel’s
application for membership in the United Nations being challenged by
the Arab States. I profoundly envy the easy assurance whereby these dis-
tinguished representatives come forward as the advocates of compliance
with General Assembly Resolutions. For in the earliest and most tender
years of its existence, this United Nations was assaulted at the very foun-
dations of its authority by the first and, happily, the only attempt of mem-
ber States to overthrow a General Assembly Resolution by force. It is not
long since these very rooms echoed with dire threats from Arab represen-
tatives of their intention to offer armed resistance to the Assembly’s policy
for the establishment of a Jewish State. “Any line drawn by the United
Nations,” declared an Arab representative, “shall be nothing but a line of
fire and blood.” These threats, which were destined to be translated into
destruction and slaughter, rested upon the doctrine of the optional charac-
ter of Assembly Resolutions. On the 24th February, 1948, the Representa-
tive of Syria declared: “In the first place, the recommendations of the
General Assembly are not imperative on those to whom they are
addressed. We have numerous precedents during the short past life of the
General Assembly: The Indo-South African dispute, the Balkan situation,
the Interim Committee, the Korean question, the admission of new mem-
bers.” He went on to say: “The General Assembly only gives advice, and
the parties to whom the advice is addressed accept it when it does not
Abba Eban: Israel: The Case for Admission to the United Nations 107
A Cynical Maneuver
Even if the exercise of this “privilege” had been confined to this con-
tribution to international jurisprudence, the Arab States would still have
been disqualified to lecture to others on the binding force of Assembly
Resolutions. But, as is well known, their defiance went further. They took
up arms, they crossed their frontiers, they launched a war for the purpose
of overthrowing that Resolution by force. The next step was persistently to
exercise a “privilege” not to stop fighting when ordered by the Security
Council. International morality and law in our generation recognize those
who initiate and those who choose war as solely responsible for the entire
sequence of bloodshed and suffering which ensues from that choice. Here
sit representatives of the only States which have deliberately used force
against an Assembly Resolution; the only States which have ever been
determined by the Security Council to have caused a threat to the peace
under Chapter VII of the Charter, posing as the disinterested judges of
their own intended victim in his efforts to secure a modest equality in the
family of nations. It is a cynical maneuver. It cannot be allowed to succeed
without bequeathing a mood of disillusion to all equitable men. In the
name of those who have been killed, maimed, blinded, exiled or bereaved
by the exercise of that cynicism, we must express our most passionate
resentment at this gross Arab insincerity.
I do not wish to enter into a discussion of the exact degree of legal
compulsion inherent in a General Assembly Resolution. Certain it is that
108 Mandate of Destiny
modernist element in Near Eastern life, striving for progress by the results
of modern technology and science. But no less potent an influence in the
life of the new Republic is its sense of continuous association with the tra-
ditions of Israel’s past. It is no accident that the coins and stamps of the
State revive memories of those early periods of Israel’s independence
which have left so profound an impression on the course of human civi-
lization. It is no accident either that our national Hebrew language evokes
the memories and associations of the golden period of Israel’s literary
achievement.
But quite apart from a deep historic affinity between Israel’s ideals
and the basic concepts of the Charter, we can point to a more recent expe-
rience of common interest and endeavor. This is the only State in the
world which sprang into existence at the summons and behest of the
international community. The General Assembly is now called upon by
the Security Council to acknowledge a State to whose establishment it
gave the sanction and incentive of its own prior approval. The episodes of
Israel’s life have a way of entering into historical records. And the story of
this brave and unequal struggle for independence of a people, which lost
six million of its sons in the cause of the victorious United Nations against
Nazi despotism, is enshrined in the very documents and archives of this
organization. Israel’s battle for sheer survival has gone hand in hand with
the most successful effort of the United Nations to solve an international
conflict by judgment, mediation and conciliation. It would be an extraor-
dinary paradox, not understood by the peoples of the world, if the United
Nations were to close its doors upon a State which it helped to quicken
into active and vigorous life. And the question whether the United
Nations now confirms or defers this application is not a matter of proce-
dure. It is a grave issue of substance. It affects the prospects of peace. It
affects the future authority of the United Nations in the solution of out-
standing problems. It affects the question whether the Arab world will
receive from this Committee the implicit counsel to regard Israel as a per-
manent international fact with which it has to make peace on the basis of
the Charter, or whether, by hesitating now, the Assembly will confirm the
Arab peoples in their hesitations about Israel’s existence and Israel’s rights.
The General Assembly could do nothing more calculated to persuade the
Arab States not to break off the juridical strife by the conclusion of peace
110 Mandate of Destiny
too grave. The foundations of peace, improvised as they have been by skill-
ful mediation, are not so strong that they can easily withstand another
unnecessary period of juridical uncertainty and strife.
The problems of Jerusalem and of Arab refugees can only be solved
within the United Nations; and this requires the presence in your midst of
those who must contribute to their solution. Does anybody imagine that
either problem can find an easier solution if the organic links between
Israel and the United Nations are not speedily and formally closed? The
bare provisions of Article 4 of the Charter are thus reinforced in this case
by unique considerations of history and sentiment, of practical statesman-
ship, of equity and of deep concern for an immediate prospect of stability
which if surrendered might not easily recur. I have tried, without obscur-
ing honest difficulties and differences, to reassure the Committee on the
basic issue of Israel’s good will. We cannot now do more. The banner of
Israel is inscribed with the struggle and the achievement of the youngest
nation on earth. Its progress has been followed with signs of ardent sym-
pathy amongst the peoples of the world. Whatever intellectual or spiritual
forces Israel evokes anywhere in the world are at the service of the United
Nations as a potential reinforcement of its activity and prestige. You will
certainly lose nothing, and you perhaps may gain some modest asset, if you
join this banner to your honored company. Whatever happens, we shall
cherish this banner above everything else; we shall dedicate it to the ideals
of peace and national independence; of social progress, of democracy and
of cultural dynamism. A great wheel of history comes full circle today as
Israel, renewed and established, offers itself, with its many imperfections
but perhaps with a few virtues, to your common defense of the human
spirit against the perils of international conflict and despair.
Document 17: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 273
(III) of 11 May 1949, Admitting Israel to Membership in the UN
Having received the report of the Security Council on the application
of Israel for membership in the United Nations,
Noting that, in the judgment of the Security Council, Israel is a
peace-loving State and is able and willing to carry out the obligations con-
tained in the Charter,
Noting that the Security Council has recommended to the General
Assembly that it admit Israel to membership in the United Nations,
Noting furthermore the declaration by the State of Israel that it
“unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and
undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a Member of
the United Nations,”
Recalling its resolutions of 29 November 1947 and December 1948
and taking note of the declarations and explanations made by the repre-
sentative of the Government of Israel before the Ad Hoc Political Com-
mittee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions,
The General Assembly,
Acting in discharge of its functions under Article 4 of the Charter and
Rule 125 of its rules of procedure,
1. Decides that Israel is a peace-loving State which accepts the obliga-
tions contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those
obligations;
2. Decides to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations.
Adopted at the 207th plenary meeting:
In favour: 37
Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Chile,
China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia , Dominican Repub-
lic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Liberia, Lux-
emburg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pana-
ma, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Ukrainian S.S.R., Union of
South Africa, U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia
Against: 12
Afghanistan, Burma, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen
Abstained: 9
Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, El Salvador, Greece, Siam, Sweden,
Turkey, United Kingdom
112
JBI Council Members