Folke Bernadotte

Count Folke Bernadotte

Folke Bernadotte, circa 1945
Born January 2, 1895(1895-01-02)
Stockholm, Sweden
Died September 17, 1948(1948-09-17) (aged 53)
Jerusalem, Israel
Occupation Soldier, diplomat and vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross
Known for White Buses expeditions, mediation in Palestine

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg; in Swedish: Greve af Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 423 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945.[1][2][3] In 1945, he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.

After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the militant Zionist group Lehi, while pursuing his official duties.

Contents

Early life

Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm into the House of Bernadotte. He was the son of Count Oscar Bernadotte of Wisborg (formerly Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Gotland) and his spouse Ebba Munck af Fulkila. Bernadotte's grandfather was King Oscar II of Sweden.

Bernadotte attended school in Stockholm, after which he entered training to become a cavalry officer at the Military Academy Karlberg. He took the officer's exam in 1915, and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1918, subsequently moving up to the rank of major.

Bernadotte represented Sweden in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, and later served as Swedish commissioner general at the New York World's Fair in 1939-40. Bernadotte had long been involved with the Swedish Boy Scouts (Sveriges Scoutförbund), and took over as director of the organization in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, Bernadotte worked to integrate the scouts into Sweden's defense plan, training them in anti-aircraft work and as medical assistants. Bernadotte was appointed vice chairman of the Swedish Red Cross in 1943.[4]

Diplomatic career

World War II

Count Folke Bernadotte (left) talking to Australian Prisoners of War in Germany, 1943

While vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945, Bernadotte attempted to negotiate an armistice between Germany and the Allies. He also led several rescue missions in Germany for the Red Cross. During the autumns of 1943 and 1944, he organized prisoner exchanges which brought home 11,000 prisoners from Germany via Sweden.

In April 1945, Heinrich Himmler asked Bernadotte to convey a peace proposal to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry S. Truman without the knowledge of Adolf Hitler. The main point of the proposal was that Germany would only surrender to the Western Allies (Great Britain and the United States), but would be allowed to continue resisting the Soviet Union. According to Bernadotte, he told Himmler that the proposal had no chance of acceptance, but nevertheless he passed it on to the Swedish government and the Western Allies. It had no lasting effect.[5][6]

The White Buses

Upon the initiative of the Norwegian diplomat Niels Christian Ditleff in the final months of the war, Bernadotte acted as the negotiator for a rescue operation transporting interned Norwegians, Danes and other western European inmates from German concentration camps to hospitals in Sweden.

In the spring of 1945, Bernadotte was in Germany when he met Heinrich Himmler, who had become commander for the entire German army following the assassination attempt on Hitler the year before. Bernadotte had originally been assigned to retrieve Norwegian and Danish POWs in Germany. He returned on May 1, 1945, the day after Hitler's death. Following an interview, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Bernadotte succeeded in rescuing 15,000 people from German concentration camps, including approximately 8000 Danes and Norwegians and 7000 women of French, Polish, Czech, British, American, Argentinian and Chinese nationalities. (SvD 2/5-45). The missions took approximately two months, and exposed the Swedish Red Cross staff to significant danger, both due to political difficulties and by taking them through areas under Allied bombing.

The mission became known for its buses, painted entirely white except for the Red Cross emblem on the side, so that they would not be mistaken for military targets. In total it included 308 personnel (approximately 20 medics and the rest volunteer soldiers), 36 hospital buses, 19 trucks, 7 passenger cars, 7 motorcycles, a tow truck, a field kitchen, and full supplies for the entire trip, including food and gasoline, none of which were permitted to be obtained in Germany. A count of 21,000 people rescued included 8,000 Danes and Norwegians, 5,911 Poles, 2,629 French, 1,615 Jews and 1,124 Germans.

After Germany's surrender, the White Buses mission continued in May and June to save approximately 10,000 additional people.

In total, around 31,000 people were taken to safety in the "White Buses" of the Bernadotte expedition[2], including between 6,500 and 11,000 Jews.[7][8][9]

Bernadotte recounted the White Buses mission in his book The End. My Humanitarian Negotiations in Germany in 1945 and Their Political Consequences, published on June 15, 1945 in Swedish. In the book, Bernadotte recounts his negotiations with Himmler and others, and his experience at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Felix Kersten and the White Buses Controversy

Following the war, some controversies have arisen regarding Bernadotte's leadership of the White Buses expedition, some personal and some as to the mission itself. One aspect involved a long-standing feud between Bernadotte and Himmler's personal masseur, Felix Kersten, who had played some role in facilitating Bernadotte's access to Himmler,[10] but whom Bernadotte resisted crediting after the War.[11] The resulting feud between Bernadotte and Kersten came to public attention through British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper.[12] In 1953, Trevor-Roper published an article based on an interview and documents originating with Kersten.[13] The article stated that Bernadotte's role in the rescue operations was that of "transport officer, no more." Kersten was quoted as saying that, according to Himmler, Bernadotte was opposed to the rescue of Jews and understood "the necessity of our fight against World Jewry."

Shortly following the publication of his article Trevor-Roper began to retreat from these charges. At the time of his article, Kersten had just been nominated by the Dutch government for the Nobel Peace Prize for thwarting a Nazi plan to deport the entire Dutch population, based primarily on Kersten's own claims to this effect.[14] A later Dutch investigation concluded that no such plan had existed, however, and that Kersten's documents were partly fabricated.[15] Following these revelations and others, Trevor-Roper told journalist Barbara Amiel in 1995 that he was no longer certain about the allegations, and that Bernadotte may merely have been following his orders to rescue Danish and Norwegian prisoners.[16] A number of other historians have also questioned Kersten's account, concluding that the accusations were based on a forgery or a distortion devised by Kersten.[17][18]

Some controversy regarding the White Buses trip has also arisen in Scandinavia, particularly regarding the priority given to Scandinavian prisoners.[19] Political scientist Sune Persson judged these doubts to be contradicted by the documentary evidence. He concluded, "The accusations against Count Bernadotte ... to the effect that he refused to save Jews from the concentration camps are obvious lies" and listed many prominent eyewitnesses who testified on Bernadotte's behalf, including the World Jewish Congress representative in Stockholm in 1945.[20]

UN mediator

On 20 May 1948, Folke Bernadotte was appointed the United Nations' mediator in Palestine, the first official mediator in the UN's history. This was necessitated by the immediate violence that followed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the subsequent unilateral Israeli Declaration of Independence. In this capacity, he succeeded in achieving an initial truce during the subsequent 1948 Arab-Israeli War and laid the groundwork for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The specific proposals showed the influence of the previously responsible British government, and to a lesser extent the U.S. government.[21]

First proposal

On 28 June 1948, Bernadotte submitted his first formal proposal in secret to the various parties. It suggested that Palestine and Transjordan be reformed as "a Union, comprising two Members, one Arab and one Jewish." He wrote that: "in putting forward any proposal for the solution of the Palestine problem, one must bear in mind the aspirations of the Jews, the political difficulties and differences of opinion of the Arab leaders, the strategic interests of Great Britain, the financial commitment of the United States and the Soviet Union, the outcome of the war, and finally the authority and prestige of the United Nations.[22]

As far as the boundaries of the two Members were concerned, Bernadotte thought that the following "might be worthy of consideration."[23]

  1. Inclusion of the whole or part of the Negev in Arab territory.
  2. Inclusion of the whole or part of Western Galilee in the Jewish territory.
  3. Inclusion of the City of Jerusalem in Arab territory, with municipal autonomy for the Jewish community and special arrangements for the protection of the Holy Places.
  4. Consideration of the status of Jaffa.
  5. Establishment of a free port at Haifa, the area of the free port to include the refineries and terminals.
  6. Establishment of a free airport at Lydda.

Second proposal

After the unsuccessful first proposal, Bernadotte continued with a more complex proposal that abandoned the idea of a Union and proposed two independent states. This proposal was completed on September 16, 1948, and had as its basis seven "basic premises" (verbatim):[24]

  1. Peace must return to Palestine and every feasible measure should be taken to ensure that hostilities will not be resumed and that harmonious relations between Arab and Jew will ultimately be restored.
  2. A Jewish State called Israel exists in Palestine and there are no sound reasons for assuming that it will not continue to do so.
  3. The boundaries of this new State must finally be fixed either by formal agreement between the parties concerned or failing that, by the United Nations.
  4. Adherence to the principle of geographical homogeneity and integration, which should be the major objective of the boundary arrangements, should apply equally to Arab and Jewish territories, whose frontiers should not therefore, be rigidly controlled by the territorial arrangements envisaged in the resolution of 29 November.
  5. The right of innocent people, uprooted from their homes by the present terror and ravages of war, to return to their homes, should be affirmed and made effective, with assurance of adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not to return.
  6. The City of Jerusalem, because of its religious and international significance and the complexity of interests involved, should be accorded special and separate treatment.
  7. International responsibility should be expressed where desirable and necessary in the form of international guarantees, as a means of allaying existing fears, and particularly with regard to boundaries and human rights.

The proposal then made specific suggestions that included (extracts):[25]

  1. The existing indefinite truce should be superseded by a formal peace, or at the minimum, an armistice.
  2. The frontiers between the Arab and Jewish territories, in the absence of agreement between Arabs and Jews, should be established by the United Nations.
  3. The Negev should be defined as Arab territory.
  4. The frontier should run from Faluja north northeast to Ramleh and Lydda (both of which places would be in Arab territory).
  5. Galilee should be defined as Jewish territory.
  6. Haifa should be declared a free port, and Lydda airport should be declared a free airport.
  7. The City of Jerusalem, which should be understood as covering the area defined in the resolution of the General Assembly of 29 November, should be treated separately and should be placed under effective United Nations control with maximum feasible local autonomy for its Arab and Jewish communities with full safeguards for the protection of the Holy Places and sites and free access to them and for religious freedom.
  8. The United Nations should establish a Palestine conciliation commission.
  9. The right of the Arab refugees to return to their homes in Jewish-controlled territory at the earliest possible date should be affirmed by the United Nations, and their repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation, and payment of adequate compensation for the property of those choosing not to return, should be supervised and assisted by the United Nations conciliation commission.

Bernadotte's second proposal was prepared in consultation with British and American emissaries. The degree to which they influenced the proposal is poorly known, since the meetings were kept strictly secret and all documents were destroyed,[26] but Bernadotte apparently "found that the U.S.-U.K., proposals were very much in accord with his own views" and the two emissaries expressed the same opinion.[27] The secret was publicly exposed in October, only nine days before the U.S. presidential elections, causing President Truman great embarrassment. Truman reacted by making a strongly pro-Zionist declaration, which contributed to the defeat of the Bernadotte plan in the UN during the next two months. Also contributing was the failure of the cease-fire and continuation of the fighting.[28]

After Bernadotte's death, his assistant American mediator Ralph Bunche was appointed to replace him. Bunche eventually negotiated a ceasefire, signed on the Greek island of Rhodes. See 1949 Armistice Agreements.

Reception

The Israeli government criticized Bernadotte's participation in the negotiations. In July 1948, Bernadotte said that the Arab nations were reluctant to resume the fighting in Palestine and that the conflict now consisted of "incidents." A spokesman for the Israeli government replied: "Count Bernadotte has described the renewed Arab attacks as 'incidents.' When human lives are lost, when the truce is flagrantly violated and the SC defied, it shows a lack of sensitivity to describe all these as incidents, or to suggest as Count Bernadotte does, that the Arabs had some reason for saying no... Such an apology for aggression does not augur well for any successful resumption by the mediator of his mission."[29]

Assassination

Folke Bernadotte Memorial in Kruså, Denmark.

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the Jewish militant Zionist group Lehi (commonly known as the Stern Gang or Stern Group).

A three man 'center' of this extreme Jewish group had approved the killing: Yitzhak Yezernitsky (the future Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir), Nathan Friedmann (also called Natan Yellin-Mor) and Yisrael Eldad (also known as Scheib). A fourth leader, Emmanuel Strassberg (Hanegbi) was also suspected by the Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion of being part of the group that had decided on the assassination.[30][31][32][33] The assassination was planned by the Lehi operations chief in Jerusalem, Yehoshua Zettler. By most accounts, it was carried out by six young members of the Lehi group: Yehoshua Cohen, Shmuel Rosenblum, David Ephrati, Yitzhak Markovitz, Yehoshua Zettler, and Meshulam Makover. By other accounts, a three-man team ambushed Bernadotte's motorcade in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood. Two of them, Yitzhak Ben Moshe (Markovitz) and Avraham Steinberg, shot at the tires of the UN vehicles. The third, Yehoshua Cohen, opened the door of Bernadotte's car and shot him at close range. The bullets also hit a French officer who was sitting beside him, U.N. Observer Colonel André Serot. Both were killed. In the immediate confusion, Col. Serot was mistaken for Dr. Ralph Bunche, the American aide to Bernadotte. Meshulam Makover, the fourth accomplice, was the driver of the getaway car.[34][35] General Åge Lundström, who was in the UN vehicle, described the incident as follows:

“In the Katamon quarter, we were held up by a Jewish Army type jeep placed in a road block and filled with men in Jewish Army uniforms. At the same moment, I saw an armed man coming from this jeep. I took little notice of this because I merely thought it was another checkpoint. However, he put a Tommy gun through the open window on my side of the car, and fired point blank at Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot. I also heard shots fired from other points, and there was considerable confusion… Colonel Serot fell in the seat in back of me, and I saw at once that he was dead. Count Bernadotte bent forward, and I thought at the time he was trying to get cover. I asked him: 'Are you wounded?' He nodded, and fell back… When we arrived [at the Hadassah hospital], … I carried the Count inside and laid him on the bed…I took off the Count's jacket and tore away his shirt and undervest. I saw that he was wounded around the heart and that there was also a considerable quantity of blood on his clothes about it. When the doctor arrived, I asked if anything could be done, but he replied that it was too late."[36]

The murders took place at Ben Zion Guini Square, off Hapalmah Street.[37]

Folke Bernadotte Memorial in Uppsala, Sweden.
Nathan Yellin-Mor (center) and Matityahu Shmueliwitz in front of the Acre prison, after their release in 1949.

The following day the United Nations Security Council condemned the killing of Bernadotte as "a cowardly act which appears to have been committed by a criminal group of terrorists in Jerusalem while the United Nations representative was fulfilling his peace-seeking mission in the Holy Land."[38] After his death, Bernadotte's body was returned to Sweden, where the state funeral was attended by Abba Eban on behalf of Israel. Folke was survived by a widow and a 14 year old son. He was buried at the Northern Cemetery in Stockholm.[39]

Lehi leaders initially denied responsibility for the attack.[40] Later Lehi took responsibility for the killings in the name of Hazit Hamoledet (The National Front), a name they copied from a war-time Bulgarian resistance group.[41] The group regarded Bernadotte as a stooge of the British and their Arab allies, and therefore as a serious threat to the emerging state of Israel.[42] Most immediately, a truce was currently in force and Lehi feared that the Israeli leadership would agree to Bernadotte's peace proposals, which they considered disastrous.[43][44] They did not know that the Israeli leaders had already decided to reject Bernadotte's plans and take the military option.[45][46]

Lehi was forcibly disarmed and many members were arrested, but nobody was charged with the killings. Yellin-Mor and another Lehi member, Schmuelevich, were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. They were found guilty but immediately released and pardoned. Yellin-Mor had meanwhile been elected to the first Knesset.[47] Years later, Cohen's role was uncovered by David Ben-Gurion's biographer Michael Bar Zohar, while Cohen was working as Ben-Gurion's personal bodyguard. The first public admission of Lehi's role in the killing was made on the anniversary of the assassination in 1977.[48] The statute of limitations for murder had expired in 1971.[32][49]

The Swedish government believed that Bernadotte had been assassinated by Israeli government agents.[50] They publicly attacked the inadequacy of the Israel investigation and campaigned unsuccessfully to delay Israel's admission to the United Nations.[51] In 1950, Sweden recognized Israel but relations remained frosty despite Israeli attempts to console Sweden such as the planting of a Bernadotte Forest by the JNF in Israel.[52] At a ceremony in Tel-Aviv in May 1995, attended by the Swedish deputy prime minister, Israeli Foreign Minister and Labor Party member Shimon Peres issued a "condemnation of terror, thanks for the rescue of the Jews and regret that Bernadotte was murdered in a terrorist way," adding that "We hope this ceremony will help in healing the wound."[53]

Ralph Bunche, Bernadotte's American deputy, succeeded him as U.N. mediator. Bunche was ultimately successful in bringing about the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, for which he would later receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1998, Bernadotte was posthumously awarded one of the first three Dag Hammarskjöld Medals, given to UN peacekeepers who are killed in the line of duty.[54]

Ancestors, wife and descendants

On 1 December 1928 in New York City, Folke Bernadotte married Estelle Romaine Manville (born in Pleasantville, New York, 26 September 1904; died in Stockholm, 28 May 1984), whose family had founded part of the Johns-Manville Corporation. They had four sons, two of whom died in childhood, and seven grandchildren, all born after Folke's death. The older surviving son is also named Folke (born in Pleasantville in 1931), the younger one, Bertil Oscar (born in Stockholm in 1935).

In September 2008 it also became official that, before his 1928 marriage, Bernadotte had a daughter with the actress Lillie Ericson-Udde (Lillie Christina Ericson, 1892-1981):[55]

later adopted by Carl G.W. Matthiessen (1886–1951), who married Lillie Ericson in 1925.

Folke Bernadotte's widow (the former Estelle Manville, 1904–1984) remarried at the Oscarskyrkan church in Stockholm on 3 March 1973 to Karl Erik Sixten Ekstrand (1 November 1910 to 7 February 1988).

References

  1. ↑ http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje38/text18.htm A Jew talks to Himmler. Frank Fox. Accessed: 1 December 2009.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Macintyre, Donald (2008-09-18). "Israel's forgotten hero: The assassination of Count Bernadotte - and the death of peace". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-forgotten-hero-the-assassination-of-count-bernadotte--and-the-death-of-peace-934094.html. Retrieved 2008-12-11. 
  3. ↑ Sune Persson, Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses, Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol 9, Iss 2-3, 2000, 237-268. Also published in David Cesarani and Paul A. Levine (eds.), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation (Routledge, 2002). The precise number is nowhere officially recorded. A count of the first 21,000 included 8,000 Danes and Norwegians, 5,911 Poles, 2,629 French, 1,615 stateless Jews and 1,124 Germans. The total number of Jews was 6,500 to 11,000 depending on definitions. Also see A. Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948 (Macmillan, 1989), p37.
  4. ↑ Jewish Virtual Library, Folke Bernadotte Biography. Retrieved March 22, 2007
  5. ↑ F. Bernadotte, The fall of the curtain : last days of the Third Reich, English Edition: Cassell 1945.
  6. ↑ Ilan, p36-38.
  7. ↑ Werner, Emma. "A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews During World War II." Westview Press, 2002 ISBN 0813339065
  8. ↑ Buckser, Andrew. After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in Contemporary Denmark. Palgrave Macmillan 2003 ISBN 1403962707
  9. ↑ Persson, Sune. "Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses," Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol 9, Iss 2-3, 2000, 237-268. Also published in Cesarani, David & Levine, Paul A. (eds.), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation. Routledge, 2002.
  10. ↑ Raymond Palmer. Felix Kersten and Count Bernadotte: A Question of Rescue, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 29 (1994) pp 39-51. Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945. Yale University Press, 1994. pp 241-149.
  11. ↑ Palmer, pp 46-48.
  12. ↑ Amitzur Ilan. Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948, MacMillan 1989, p41.
  13. ↑ H.R. Trevor-Roper. Kersten, Himmler and Count Bernadotte, The Atlantic, vol 7 (1953), pp 43-45.
  14. ↑ Trevor-Roper (1953).
  15. ↑ Louis de Jong, 1972, reprinted in German translation: H-H. Wilhelm and L. de Jong. Zwei Legenden aus dem dritten Reich : quellenkritische Studien, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1974, pp 79-142.
  16. ↑ Trevor-Roper stated, "I am not certain that Bernadotte refused to take Jews. I have some reservations about the documentation here. If he did, it may well have been that he simply had no instructions except in respect of Norwegians and Danes." Barbara Amiel. A Death in Jerusalem (book review), The National Interest, Summer 1995. [1]; also see Ilan, p262, for earlier concessions by Trevor-Roper. See also H.R. Trevor-Roper. Introduction to Felix Kersten: The Kersten Memoirs 1940-1945, English Edition: Hutchinson 1956. Reprinted with minor changes in: H.R. Trevor-Roper. The Strange Case of Himmler's Doctor, Commentary, vol. 23 (1957) pp 356-364.
  17. ↑ Ilan, pp 43-45.
  18. ↑ G. Fleming. Die Herkunft des 'Bernadotte-Briefs' an Himmler vom 10. März 1945, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, vol. 24, 1978, pp 571-600.
  19. ↑ Sune Persson, Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses, J. Holocaust Education, Vol 9, Iss 2-3, 2000, 237-268. Also published in David Cesarani and Paul A. Levine (eds.), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation Routledge, 2002.
  20. ↑ Persson, p264.
  21. ↑ Sachar, Howard M. (1998). "Chapter 1: The Pangs of Withdrawal". Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45434-9. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sachar-israel.html. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 
  22. ↑ Bernadotte, Folke. To Jerusalem, Hodder & Stoughton, 1951, pp. 114-115; full report at [2] UN Doc S.863
  23. ↑ Bernadotte, Folke. To Jerusalem, Hodder & Stoughton, 1951, pp. 129-131; full report at [3]
  24. ↑ Bernadotte, Folke. To Jerusalem, pp. 238-239; full report at
  25. ↑ To Jerusalem, pp. 239-241; full report here
  26. ↑ Ilan, pp. 186-191.
  27. ↑ Gazit, Mordechai. American and British Diplomacy and the Bernadotte Mission. The Historical Journal, vol. 29, 1986, pp. 677-696.
  28. ↑ Ilan, pp244-247.
  29. ↑ The Palestine Post, July 12, 1948
  30. ↑ A. Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948 (Macmillan, 1989) p194
  31. ↑ J. Bowyer Bell, Assassination in International Politics, International Studies Quarterly, vol 16, March 1972, 59--82.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Haberman, Clyde (February 22, 1995). "Terrorism Can Be Just Another Point of View". Books of the Times (New York Times). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF153EF931A15751C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-12-28. "Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. Years later, when Ben-Gurion moved to a kibbutz in the Negev desert, Sdeh Bokker, one of his closest friends there was Yehoshua Cohen, who had been one of the assassins."  Review of Kati Marton's biography.
  33. ↑ Cowell, Alan (November 2, 1991). "THE MIDDLE EAST TALKS: REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK; Syria Offers Old Photo To Fill an Empty Chair". http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D71638F931A35752C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-12-28. "In recent years, several members of the group known by the British as the Stern Gang have acknowledged responsibility for the killing. Mr. Shamir, who was a member of the Stern Gang, has declined to discuss the killing, and one of his spokesman has said he had no role in it." 
  34. ↑ Kifner, John (September 12, 1988). "2 Recount '48 Killing in Israel". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF143DF931A2575AC0A96E948260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FOrganizations%2FU%2FUnited%20Nations. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 
  35. ↑ "A murder waiting to happen" book review in Haaretz, 1st Oct 2006. Verified 23rd Oct 2008.
  36. ↑ "General Lundstrom Gives Eyewitness Account of Bernadotte's Death". United Nations Department of Public Information. 1948-09-18. http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/23e5f866fe7393b585256a680061b348!OpenDocument. Retrieved 2008-08-19. 
  37. ↑ Aviva Bar Am, Katamon
  38. ↑ Security Council 57 (1948) Resolution of 18 September 1948.
  39. ↑ Folke Bernadotte (1895 - 1948) - Find A Grave Memorial
  40. ↑ "Jews launch great manhunt". Spokane Daily Chronicle. 1945-09-18. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19480918&printsec=frontpage. Retrieved 23 April 2010. 
  41. ↑ Heller, Joseph. The Stern Gang; Ideology, Politics and Terror 1940-1949. Frank Cass 1995 ISBN 0714641065, pp252-253. For the text of the announcement, see: Stanger, C.D. A haunting legacy: The assassination of Count Bernadotte. Middle East Journal, vol. 42, 1988, pp 260-272.
  42. ↑ Heller, pp239-255.
  43. ↑ Heller, passim
  44. ↑ Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. Political Assassinations by Jews. SUNY Press 1993 ISBN 0791411656, pp 267-274
  45. ↑ Ilan, Amitzur. Bernadotte in Palestine. MacMillan 1989 ISBN 0333472748, pp 200-201
  46. ↑ Shamir, loc. cit., p241.
  47. ↑ Heller, pp261-270.
  48. ↑ Yair Amikam, Yediot Aharonot, February 28, 1977: interview with Yehoshua Zetler and Yisrael Eldad. English translation in Journal of Palestine Studies, vol 6, no. 4 (1977) 145-147.
  49. ↑ Ilan, p193.
  50. ↑ Ilan, p224.
  51. ↑ Ilan, p238.
  52. ↑ Ilan, p241.
  53. ↑ "Israel belatedly condemns U.N. negotiator's murder" and "Israel tries to ease tensions with Sweden" (two articles), Reuters News, 15 May 1995. "Peres apologizes for assassination of Bernadotte," Jerusalem Post, 15 May 1995, page 1.
  54. ↑ The First Dag Hammarskjöld Medals: Biographical Notes.
  55. ↑ Folke Bernadotte had an illegitimate daughter, Fokus, Sep 12, 2008

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Former states
People involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict
Lester B. Pearson • Abd al-Hakim Amer • Hosni Mubarak • Gamal Abdel Nasser • Anwar Sadat • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Ali Khamenei • Ruhollah Khomeini • Faisal I • Saddam Hussein • Ehud Barak • Menachem Begin • David Ben-Gurion • Moshe Dayan • Levi Eshkol • Golda Meir • Benjamin Netanyahu • Ehud Olmert • Shimon Peres • Yitzhak Rabin • Yitzhak Shamir • Ariel Sharon • Chaim Weizmann • King Abdullah I • King Abdullah II • King Hussein • Emile Lahoud • Hassan Nasrallah • Fouad Siniora • Recep Tayyip Erdogan • Mona Juul • Johan Jørgen Holst • Terje Rød-Larsen • Mahmoud Abbas • Yasser Arafat • Marwan Barghouti • George Habash • Ismail Haniya • Amin al-Husayni • Khaled Mashal • Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi • Ahmed Shukeiri • Ahmed Yassin • King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) • King Abdullah • King Fahd • King Faisal • Folke Bernadotte • Hafez al-Assad • Bashar al-Assad • Shukri al-Quwatli • Salah Jadid • Ernest Bevin • Arthur Balfour • Tony Blair • Richard Crossman • Madeleine Albright • Ralph Bunche • George H. W. Bush • George W. Bush • Jimmy Carter • Bill Clinton • Henry Kissinger • Ronald Reagan • Condoleezza Rice • Dennis Ross • Harry S. Truman • Cyrus R. Vance
Arab-Israeli conflict engagements
Before 1947

1920 Jerusalem riots · 1921 Jaffa riots · 1929 Palestine riots · 1933 Palestine riots · 1936–1939 Arab revolt · 1938–1948 British–Zionist conflict (not related with Arabs)
1947–1949

1947 Jerusalem riots · 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine · 1948 Arab–Israeli War
1950s

1950s terrorism against Israel · Fedayeen · Retribution operations
1953 Qibya massacre · 1954 Operation Susannah · 1956 Suez Crisis
1960s

1962–1970 Operations Porcupine and Gravy (North Yemen Civil War) · 1964–1967 War over Water · 1966 Samu incident · 1967 Six-Day War · 1967–1970 War of Attrition · 1968 Battle of Karameh · 1968 Operation Gift 1969 Cherbourg Project
1970s

1970 Black September in Jordan · 1972 Sabena Flight 571 (Operation Isotope) · 1972 Operation Crate 3 · 1972 Munich Olympics massacre · 1972–1979 Operation Wrath of God · 1972 Israeli aerial raid on Lebanon · 1973 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 · 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon · 1973 Yom Kippur War · 1974 Ma'alot massacre · 1975 Savoy Operation · 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War · 1976 Operation Entebbe · 1978 Coastal Road massacre · 1978 Operation Litani
1980s

1980 Misgav Am hostages rescue · 1981 Operation Opera · 1982 Lebanon War · 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict · 1984 Kav 300 affair · 1985 PLO ships bombing · 1985 Operation Wooden Leg · 1987–1990 First Intifada · 1988 Tunis raid · 1989 Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid kidnapping
1990s

1991 Gulf War · 1992 Operation Bramble Bush · 1992 Abbas al-Musawi killing · 1993–present Palestinian suicide attacks · 1993 Lebanon war · 1994 Airstrike on Lebanon · 1994 Mustafa Dirani kidnapping · 1994 Waxman rescue attempt · 1996 Lebanon war
2000s

2000–2005 Al-Aqsa Intifada (Second Intifada) · 2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict · 2001–present Rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel (2001-2006 · 2007 · 2008 · Gaza War · 2009 · 2010) · 2001 Santorini · 2002 Operation Noah's Ark · 2002 Operation Defensive Shield (Jenin · Nablus · Bethlehem) · 2002 Operation Determined Path · 2003–present West Bank barrier · 2003 Abu Hassan · 2003 Ain es Saheb airstrike · 2004 Israel–Gaza conflict · 2004 Operation Rainbow · 2004 Operation Days of Penitence · 2005 Shevet Ahim · 2006–present Fatah–Hamas conflict · 2006 Operation Bringing Home the Goods · 2006 Operation Summer Rains · 2006 Operation Autumn Clouds · 2006 Lebanon War · 2006–present Lebanese rockets · 2007–2008 Israel–Gaza conflict · 2007–present Blockade of the Gaza Strip · 2007 Operation Orchard · 2008 Operation Hot Winter · 2008–2009 Gaza War · 2009 Sudan airstrikes · 2009 Francop affair (Operation Four Species)
2010s

2010 Gaza flotilla raid (ships · participants · reactions · legal assessments) · 2010 Adaisseh incident
Diplomacy and peace proposals in the Arab–Israeli conflict
Damascus Protocol • McMahon–Hussein Correspondence • Sykes–Picot Agreement • 1917 Balfour Declaration • Declaration to the Seven • Anglo-French Declaration • 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement • 1920 San Remo conference • 1922 Churchill White Paper • 1939 White Paper • 1947 UN Partition Plan • 1948 Establishment of Israel • 1948 UNGA Resolution 194 • 1949 Armistice Agreements • 1964 Palestinian National Covenant • 1967 Khartoum Resolution • 1967 UNSC Resolution 242 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 339 • 1974 UNSC Resolution 350 • 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 • 1978 Camp David Accords • 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 • 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty • 1979 UNSC Resolution 452 • 1980 UNSC Resolution 478 • 1981 UNSC Resolution 497 • 1983 Israel-Lebanon agreement • 1991 Madrid Conference • 1993 Oslo Accords • 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace • 1998 Wye River Memorandum • 2000 Camp David Summit • 2000 Clinton's Parameters • 2001 Taba Summit • 2001 UNSC Resolution 1373 • 2002 Beirut Summit and Peace Initiative • 2002 Road map for peace • 2003 Geneva Accord • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1566 • 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 • 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh Summit • 2005 Israel's unilateral disengagement plan • 2006 Palestinian Prisoners' Document • 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701 • 2007 Annapolis Conference • 2010 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks