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UN General Assembly
Resolution 181 (II) |
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| Date: | November 29 1947 |
| Meeting no.: | 128 |
| Code: | A/RES/181(II) (Document) |
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| Vote: | For: 33 Abs.: 10 Against: 13 |
| Subject: | Future government of Palestine |
| Result: | Approved |
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a recommendation for partition by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine in 1947 to replace the British Mandate for Palestine with "Independent Arab and Jewish States" and a "Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem" administered by the United Nations. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947 as Resolution 181.[1]
Under the plan, the Mandate would be terminated as soon as possible and the United Kingdom would withdraw from Palestine no later than the previously announced date of 1 August 1948. The new states would come into existence two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948. The plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing movements, Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Arab nationalism. The plan included a detailed description of the recommended boundaries for each proposed state.[2] The plan also called for an economic union between the proposed states, and for the protection of religious and minority rights.
The proposed plan was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, through the Jewish Agency.[3][4] The plan was rejected by leaders of the Arab community (the Palestine Arab Higher Committee etc.),[3][5] who were supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League.
Under the plan, a transitional period under United Nations auspices was to begin with the adoption of the resolution, and last until the establishment of the two states. On the UN adoption of the Resolution the Civil War broke out [6] On 11 December 1947 Britain announced the Mandate would end at midnight 14 May 1948 and its sole task would be to complete withdrawal by 1 August 1948.[7] On May 14, an independent state of Israel was declared "from the moment of the termination of the Mandate". The 1948 Arab–Israeli War began on the Invasion of Palestine[8] by the Arab States on the 15th May 1948.
In 2011, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stated that the Arab rejection of the partition plan was a mistake he hoped to rectify.[9]
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In the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, Great Britain agreed to "recognize and support the independence of the Arabs within" a large portion of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. In exchange, the Arabs agreed to revolt against the Ottomans.[10] In November 1917, the British Foreign Office issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.[11] Based in part on these arguably contradictory[12] promises, both Jews and Arabs came to believe that the British had promised them an independent state in Palestine.
The Paris Peace Conference (including the Treaty of Sèvres), and the San Remo Conference, laid the foundations for the British Mandate of Palestine. After much debate concerning Jewish and Arab claims to the land, the following compromise language acknowledging the Balfour Declaration was included in the Mandate: "Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, and to the grounds for reconstituting their National Home in that country." On 24 July 1922, the Mandate was approved by the League of Nations. On 16 September 1922 the League approved the Transjordan memorandum exempting the portions of the Mandate east of the Jordan River from the provisions concerning a Jewish National Home and Immigration. This territory eventually became the nation of Jordan.
Increased Jewish immigration and rising Arab nationalist sentiment led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, prompting the creation of The British Peel Commission.
On 7 July 1937, the Peel Commission proposed a Palestine divided into a small Jewish state (about 15%), a much larger Arab state, and an international zone. The Arab leadership rejected the plan. The Jewish Agency also rejected the borders in the British plan, but established their own committees on borders and population transfer so that they could offer an alternative plan of their own.[13] Both of the proposals contained provisions for the relocation of Arab population to areas outside the borders of the new Jewish state, modeled on the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey. These proposals were rejected by the Arab side.
The British Woodhead Commission was charged with investigating the implementation of the Peel Plan. They considered several additional plans for partition. On 9 November 1938, based largely on the Woodhead Commission's work, the British government issued a policy statement declaring that "the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable", and inviting representatives of Arabs and Jews to London for additional talks regarding Palestine.[14] These talks, known as the St. James Conference, were unsuccessful.
With war looming, and Britain needing to shore up Arab support and access to oil, Parliament approved the MacDonald White Paper on 17 May 1939. The White Paper declared "unequivocally that it is not part of [the British government's] policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State" and sought to eliminate Jewish immigration to Palestine. This was seen as a contradiction of the terms of the Mandate (according to which, the government of Palestine "shall facilitate Jewish immigration"), and an anti-humanitarian catastrophe, in light of the increasing persecution in Europe.
Jewish reaction to the White Paper was varied. The Jewish Agency, which represented the mainstream Zionist leadership, still hoped to persuade the British to restore Jewish immigration rights, and cooperated with the British in the war against Fascism. Aliyah Bet was organized to spirit Jews out of Nazi controlled Europe, despite the British prohibitions. The White Paper also led to the formation of Lehi, a small Jewish terrorist organization which opposed the British during most of the war.
After World War II, despite pressure to allow the immigration of large numbers of Jewish Holocaust survivors to Palestine, the British maintained limits on Jewish immigration imposed in the aftermath of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt. In response, the Jewish community began to wage increased campaigns of illegal immigration and armed resistance. These and United States pressure to end the anti-immigration policy led to the establishment of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. In April 1946, the committee reached a unanimous decision. The Committee approved the American condition of the immediate acceptance of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine. It also recommended that there be no Arab, and no Jewish State. US President Harry S. Truman angered the British government by issuing, without forewarning, a statement supporting the 100,000 refugees, but refusing to acknowledge the rest of the committee's findings. The British government had conditioned the implementation of the report's recommendations on the US providing assistance if force would be required to do so, but that was not offered. The US War Department had issued an earlier report which stated that an open-ended US troop commitment of 300,000 personnel would be necessary to assist the British government in maintaining order against an Arab revolt.[15]
On 7 February 1947, Britain announced its intent to terminate the Mandate for Palestine. On 2 April 1947, Britain formally asked the United Nations to make recommendations regarding the future government of Palestine.[16] On 15 May 1947, the UN appointed the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), composed of representatives from eleven states. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented. The UNSCOP spent three months conducting hearings and a general survey of the situation in Palestine.
On 18 July 1947, the SS Exodus, a ship packed with Holocaust Survivors wanting to immigrate to Palestine, arrived off the coast. The ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy and a struggle ensued in which two passengers and a crew member died. UNSCOP members watched as the Exodus passengers were forcibly transferred to ships bound for France. The passengers refused to disembark in France, and the British ultimately decided to transfer the passengers to Hamburg, Germany. The voyage resulted in spectacularly bad press for the British and was followed by UNSCOP members as they deliberated in Geneva.
On 31 August 1947, the UNSCOP officially released its report. The only unanimous recommendation was that the United Kingdom terminate their mandate for Palestine and grant it independence at the earliest possible date. A majority of nations (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay) recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. A minority (India, Iran, Yugoslavia) supported the creation of a federal union (composed of an Arab state and a Jewish state) based upon the US Constitutional model.[17]
The two states envisioned in the UNSCOP plan were each composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads. The Jewish state would receive the Coastal Plain, stretching from Haifa to Rehovot, the Eastern Galilee (surrounding the Sea of Galilee and including the Galilee panhandle) and the Negev, including the southern outpost of Umm Rashrash (now Eilat). The Arab state would receive the Western Galilee, with the town of Acre, the hill country of Samaria and Judea, and the southern coast stretching from north of Isdud (now Ashdod) and encompassing what is now the Gaza Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. The Corpus Separatum included Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the surrounding areas.
The plan tried its best to accommodate as many Jews as possible into the Jewish state. In many specific cases, this meant including areas of Arab majority (but with a significant Jewish minority) in the Jewish state. Thus the Jewish State would have an overall large Arab minority. Areas that were sparsely populated (like the Negev), were also included in the Jewish state to create room for immigration in order to relieve the "Jewish Problem".[18] According to the plan, Jews and Arabs living in the Jewish state would become citizens of the Jewish state and Jews and Arabs living in the Arab state would become citizens of the Arab state.
The UNSCOP plan would have had the following demographics (data based on 1945). This data does not reflect the actual land ownership by Jews, local Arabs, Ottomans and other land owners. This data also excludes the land designated to Arabs in Transjordan.
| Territory | Arab and other population | % Arab and other | Jewish population | % Jewish | Total population | |
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| Arab State | 725,000 | 99% | 10,000 | 1% | 735,000 | |
| Jewish State | 407,000 | 45% | 498,000 | 55% | 905,000 | |
| International | 105,000 | 51% | 100,000 | 49% | 205,000 | |
| Total | 1,237,000 | 67% | 608,000 | 33% | 1,845,000 | |
| Data from the Report of UNSCOP — 1947 | ||||||
The land allocated to the Arab state in the final plan included about 43% of Mandatory Palestine[19] and consisted of all of the highlands, except for Jerusalem, plus one third of the coastline. The highlands contain the major aquifers of Palestine, which supplied water to the coastal cities of central Palestine, including Tel Aviv.[20] The Jewish state was to receive 56% of Mandatory Palestine, a slightly larger area to accommodate the increasing numbers of Jews who would immigrate there.[19] The state included three fertile lowland plains — the Sharon on the coast, the Jezreel Valley and the upper Jordan Valley. The bulk of the proposed Jewish State's territory, however, consisted of the Negev Desert. The desert was not suitable for agriculture, nor for urban development at that time. The Jewish state was also given sole access to the Red Sea.
A number of changes were made to the plan before it was voted on by the General Assembly.
The predominantly Arab city of Jaffa, previously located within the Jewish state, was constituted as an enclave of the Arab State.
The Bedouin settlement and population figures were revised in a report submitted by a representative of the government of the United Kingdom on 1 November 1947. The Palestine Administration conducted an investigation and used the Royal Air Force to perform an aerial survey of the Beersheba District. They reported that the Bedouins had the greater part of two million dunams under cereal grain production. The administration counted 3,389 Bedouin houses together with 8,722 tents. The report explained that:
"It should be noted that the term Beersheba Bedouin has a meaning more definite than one would expect in the case of a nomad population. These tribes, wherever they are found in Palestine, will always describe themselves as Beersheba tribes. Their attachment to the area arises from their land rights there and their historic association with it."[21]
On the basis of that investigation, the Palestine Administration estimated the Bedouin population at approximately 127,000. The report noted that the earlier population "estimates must, however, be corrected in the light of the information furnished to the Sub-Committee by the representative of the United Kingdom regarding the Bedouin population. According to the statement, 22,000 Bedouins may be taken as normally residing in the areas allocated to the Arab State under the UNSCOP's majority plan, and the balance of 105,000 as resident in the proposed Jewish State. It will thus be seen that the proposed Jewish State will contain a total population of 1,008,800, consisting of 509,780 Arabs and 499,020 Jews. In other words, at the outset, the Arabs will have a majority in the proposed Jewish State."[21] The boundary of the Arab state was modified to include Beersheba and a large section of the Negev desert within the Arab State while a section of the Dead Sea shore was added to the Jewish State.
The proposed boundaries would also have placed 54 Arab villages on the opposite side of the border from their farm land. In response, the United Nations Palestine Commission was empowered to modify the boundaries "in such a way that village areas as a rule will not be divided by state boundaries unless pressing reasons make that necessary". These modifications never occurred.
The majority of the Jewish groups, and the Jewish Agency subsequently announced their acceptance of the proposed Jewish State, and by implication the proposed international zone, and Arab State. However, it had been stipulated that the implementation of the plan did not make the establishment of one state or territory dependent on the establishment of the others.[22]
The Jewish Agency criticized the UNSCOP majority proposal concerning Jerusalem, saying that the Jewish section of modern Jerusalem (outside the Walled City) should be included in the Jewish State.[23] During his testimony Ben Gurion indicated that he accepted the principle of partition, but stipulated: "'To partition,' according to the Oxford dictionary, means 'to divide a thing into two parts'. Palestine is divided into three parts, and only in a small part are the Jews allowed to live. We are against that."[24]
A minority of extreme nationalist Jewish groups like Menachem Begin's Irgun Tsvai Leumi and the Lehi (known as the Stern Gang), which had been fighting the British, rejected the plan. Begin warned that the partition would not bring peace because the Arabs would also attack the small state and that "in the war ahead we'll have to stand on our own, it will be a war on our existence and future".[25]
Numerous records indicate the joy of Palestine's Jewish inhabitants as they attended to the U.N. session voting for the division proposal. Up to this day, Israeli history books mention November 29 (the date of this session) as the most important date in Israel's acquisition of independence, and many Israeli cities commemorate the date in their streets' names. However, Jews did criticize the lack of territorial continuity for the Jewish state.
Mehran Kamrava says Israeli sources often cite Jewish acceptance and Arab rejection of the U.N. partition plan as an example of the Zionists' desire for peaceful diplomacy and the Arabs' determination to wage war on the Jews. But he notes that more recent documentary analysis and interpretation of events leading up to and following the creation of the state of Israel fundamentally challenged many of the "myths" of what had actually happened in 1947 and 1948."[26] Simha Flapan wrote that it was a myth that Zionists accepted the UN partition and planned for peace, and that it was also a myth that Arabs rejected partition and launched a war.[27]
Chaim Weizmann commented on outside Arab interference with earlier partition proposals. He noted that Arab states, like Egypt and Iraq, had no legal standing in Palestinian affairs.[28] During the 1947 General Assembly Special Session on Palestine "The Egyptian representative explained, in reply to various statements, that the Arab States did not represent the Palestinian Arab population."[29] Avi Plascov says that the Arab countries had no intention of permitting the Palestinians a decisive role in the war or establishing a Palestinian state. He notes that the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) could not carry out its decisions and could not count on local Palestinian support.[30]
The Arab leadership (in and out of Palestine) opposed partition and claimed all of Palestine.[31] The Arabs argued that it violated the rights of the majority of the people in Palestine, which at the time was 67% non-Jewish (1,237,000) and 33% Jewish (608,000).[17]
A few weeks after UNSCOP released its report recommending partition, Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League, was quoted by an Egyptian newspaper as predicting that Palestine would be overrun by Muslim volunteers.[32] According to the reporter, he said "Personally I hope the Jews do not force us into this war because it will be a war of elimination and it will be a dangerous massacre which history will record similarly to the Mongol massacre or the wars of the Crusades."[32] A version of this quotation has often been incorrectly reported as a threat that Azzam made on May 15, 1948.[33]
Arab leaders threatened the Jewish population of Palestine, speaking of "driving the Jews into the sea" and ridding Palestine "of the Zionist Plague".[34] On 20 May 1948, Azzam told reporters "We are fighting for an Arab Palestine. Whatever the outcome the Arabs will stick to their offer of equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine and let them be as Jewish as they like. In areas where they predominate they will have complete autonomy."[35]
John Wolffe says that while Zionists tend to attribute Palestinian rejection of the plan to a mere intransigence, Arabs have always reiterated that it was rejected because it was unfair: it gave the majority of the land (56 percent) to the Jews, who at that stage legally owned only 7 percent of it,[36] and remained a minority of the population.[37] Mehran Kamrava also notes the disproportionate allocation under the plan, and adds that the area under Jewish control contained 45 percent of the Palestinian population. The proposed Arab state was only given 45 percent of the land, much of which was unfit for agriculture. Jaffa, though geographically separated, was to be part of the Arab state.[37] Eugene Bovis says that the Jewish leadership had rejected an earlier partition proposal because they felt it didn't allocate enough territory to the proposed Jewish state.[38]
Ian Bickerton says that few Palestinian Arabs joined the Arab Liberation Army because they suspected that the other Arab States did not plan on an independent Palestinian state. Bickerton says for that reason many Palestinians favored partition and indicated a willingness to live alongside a Jewish state.[39] He also mentions that the Nashashibi family backed King Abdullah and union with Transjordan.[40] Abdullah appointed Ibrahim Hashem Pasha as the Governor of the Arab areas occupied by troops of the Arab League. He was a former Prime Minister of Transjordan who supported partition of Palestine as proposed by the Peel Commission and the United Nations. Fakhri Nashashibi and Ragheb Bey Nashashibi were leaders of the movement that opposed the Mufti during the mandate period. Both men accepted partition. Bey was the mayor of Jerusalem. He resigned from the Arab Higher Committee because he accepted the United Nations partition proposal. Fu’ad Nasar, the Secretary of Arab Workers Congress, also accepted partition. The United States declined to recognize the All-Palestine government in Gaza by explaining that it had accepted the UN Mediator's proposal. The Mediator had recommended that Palestine, as defined in the original Mandate including Transjordan, might form a union.[41] Bernadotte's diary said the Mufti had lost credibility on account of his unrealistic predictions regarding the defeat of the Jewish militias. Bernadotte noted "It would seem as though in existing circumstances most of the Palestinian Arabs would be quite content to be incorporated in Transjordan."[42]
The plan was vigorously debated in the British parliament. Thomas Reid, the MP for Swindon known for his strong views on the subject, called it an "iniquitous scheme" and suggested that the motive was the weight of Jews in the United States electorate.[43]
Britain ultimately announced that it would accept the partition plan, but refused to implement the plan by force, arguing it was not acceptable to both sides. In September 1947, the British government announced that the Mandate for Palestine would end on 14 May 1948.[44] Britain refused to share the administration of Palestine with the UN Palestine Commission during the transitional period or to assist in smoothly handing over territory or authority to any successor.[45]
Passage of the resolution required a two-thirds majority of the valid votes, not counting abstaining and absent members, of the UN's then 56 member states. On November 26, the vote was postponed. According to multiple sources, had the vote been held at that time, it would have received a majority, but less than the required two-thirds.[43][46]
Both sides put pressure on member countries to vote for or against the partition. A telegram signed by 26 US senators with influence on foreign aid bills was sent to wavering countries, seeking their support for the partition plan.[47] Many nations reported pressure directed specifically at them:
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions and 1 absent, in favour of the modified Partition Plan. The final vote was as follows:
The five conventional United Nations Regional Groups showed relatively aligned voting styles in the final vote. All Western nations voted for the resolution, with the exception of the United Kingdom (the Mandate holder), and the former Ottoman countries of Greece and Turkey. The Soviet bloc also voted for partition, with the exception of Yugoslavia, who was to be expelled from Cominform the following year. The majority of Latin American nations voted for partition, with a sizeable minority abstaining. Asian countries voted against partition, with the exception of the Philippines.[52]
| Regional Group | Members 2011 | Members in UNGA181 vote | UNGA181 For | UNGA181 Against | UNGA181 Abstained |
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| African | (54) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Asia-Pacific | (53) | 11 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
| Eastern European | (23) | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| LatAm and Caribb. | (33) | 20 | 13 | 1 | 6 |
| Western Eur. & Others | (28) | 15 | 12 | 2 | 1 |
| None | (2) | - | - | - | - |
| Total UN members | (193) | 56 | 33 | 13 | 10 |
The Palestine Liberation Organization said that its 1988 Declaration of Statehood was a direct consequence of resolution 181, which continues to provide international legitimacy for the right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty and national independence.[53] A number of scholars have written in support of this view.[54][55][56]
A General Assembly request for an advisory opinion, Resolution ES-10/14 (2004), specifically cited resolution 181(II) as a "relevant resolution", and asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) what are the legal consequences of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions? Judge Abdul Koroma explained the majority opinion: "The Court has also held that the right of self-determination as an established and recognized right under international law applies to the territory and to the Palestinian people. Accordingly, the exercise of such right entitles the Palestinian people to a State of their own as originally envisaged in resolution 181 (II) and subsequently confirmed."[57] In response, Prof. Paul De Waart said that the Court put the legality of the 1922 League of Nations Palestine Mandate and the 1947 UN Plan of Partition beyond doubt once and for all.[58]
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