United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine

UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II)
Date:	November 29 1947
Meeting no.:	128
Code:	A/RES/181(II) (Document)
Vote:	For: 33 Abs.: 10 Against: 13
Subject:	Future government of Palestine
Result:	Approved

UN 1947 partition plan for Palestine

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was created 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 evacuate Palestine no later than the previously announced date of 1 August 1948. The new states would come into existence two months after the evacuation, but no later than 1st Oct 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 Civil War broke out ^[6]. On 11 December 1947 Britain announced the Mandate would end at midnight 14th May 1948 and its sole task would be to complete withdrawal by 1 August 1948.^[7] On May 14th, 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.

Competing Jewish and Arab Claims

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.^[9] In November 1917, the British Foreign Office issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.^[10] Based in part on these arguably contradictory^[11] 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.

Early proposals for partition

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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.

UN Involvement

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.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

Proposed division

See also: Land ownership of the British Mandate of Palestine

Borders defined in the UN partition plan of 1947:

  Area assigned to a Jewish state;

    Area assigned to an Arab state;

    Corpus separatum of Jerusalem (neither Jewish nor Arab).

---

Borders under the armistice of 1949:

    Arab territory from 1949 to 1967;

      Israel in the 1949 armistice lines.

The Jewish population was concentrated in settlement areas in 1947. The borders were drawn to encompass them, placing most of the Jewish population in the Jewish state. (Map reflects Jewish owned land not the size and number of settlements. It does not imply that only Jews lived here or that all other land was owned or exclusively populated by Arabs.)

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 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".^[17] 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
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^[18] 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.^[19] 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.^[18] 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.

Changes

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."^[20]

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."^[20] 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.^{[citation needed]}

The proposed boundaries would also have placed 54 Arab villages on the opposite side of the border from their farm land.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Reactions to the plan

Jewish reaction

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.^[21]

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.^[22] 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."^[23]

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".^[24]

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."^[25] 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.^[26]

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.^[27] 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."^[28] 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.^[29]

Arab reaction

The Arab leadership (in and out of Palestine) opposed partition and claimed all of Palestine.^[30] 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).^[31]

Arab leaders threatened the Jewish population of Palestine, speaking of "driving the Jews into the sea" and ridding Palestine "of the Zionist Plague".^[32] On the eve of the Arab armies invasion, Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League, "describing the fate of the Jews" is said to have declared: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".^[33][34][35] However, doubt has been cast on this report.^[36] Six days later, 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."^[37]

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,^[38] and remained a minority of the population.^[39] 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.^[39] 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.^[40]

Ian Bickerton says that few Palestinians 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.^[41] He also mentions that the Nashashibi family backed King Abdullah and union with Transjordan.^[42] 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.^[43] 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."^[44]

British reaction

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.^[45]

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^{[citation needed]}. In September 1947, the British government announced that the Mandate for Palestine would end on 14 May 1948.^[46] 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. ^[47]

The vote

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.

Reports of pressure

Both sides put pressure on member countries to vote for or against the partition. According to British MP Richard Stokes in a speech in Parliament two weeks after the vote, "had the votes been taken on 26th November, partition would have been defeated by 30 votes in favour, and 18 votes against, because there would not have been the necessary two-thirds majority".^[48] A telegram signed by 26 US senators with influence on foreign aid bills was sent to wavering countries.^[49]

• United States: President Truman later noted, "The facts were that not only were there pressure movements around the United Nations unlike anything that had been seen there before, but that the White House, too, was subjected to a constant barrage. I do not think I ever had as much pressure and propaganda aimed at the White House as I had in this instance. The persistence of a few of the extreme Zionist leaders—actuated by political motives and engaging in political threats—disturbed and annoyed me."^[50]
• India: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke with anger and contempt for the way the UN vote had been lined up. He said the Zionists had tried to bribe India with millions and at the same time his sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, had received daily warnings that her life was in danger unless "she voted right".^[51]
• Liberia: Liberia's Ambassador to the United States complained that the US delegation threatened aid cuts to several countries.^[52] Harvey Firestone, President of Firestone Natural Rubber Company, with major holdings in the country, also pressured the Liberian government^[49][48]
• Philippines: In the days before the vote, the Philippines' representative General Carlos P. Romulo stated "We hold that the issue is primarily moral. The issue is whether the United Nations should accept responsibility for the enforcement of a policy which is clearly repugnant to the valid nationalist aspirations of the people of Palestine. The Philippines Government holds that the United Nations ought not to accept such responsibility". After a phone call from Washington, the representative was recalled and the Philippines' vote changed.^[49]
• Pakistan: Pakistan's representative Muhammad Zafarullah Khan later stated in his memoirs: "At about lunch time [on 26 November] a rumour was heard that the president [of the Assembly] did not intend to proceed to the vote that day... His excuses were flimsy, but he was adamant. At the end of the afternoon sitting he adjourned the session to Friday morning. On Thursday President Truman put through personal telephone calls to certain heads of state and persuaded them to shift their position on the question of the partition of Palestine from opposition to support."^[53]

Final vote

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, in favour of the modified Partition Plan. The final vote was as follows:

In favour, (33 countries, 59%):

•  Australia,  Belgium,  Bolivia,  Brazil,  Byelorussian SSR,  Canada,  Costa Rica,  Czechoslovakia,  Denmark,  Dominican Republic,  Ecuador,  France,  Guatemala,  Haiti,  Iceland,  Liberia,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  New Zealand,  Nicaragua,  Norway,  Panama,  Paraguay,_ Paraguay,  Peru,  Philippines,  Poland,  Sweden,  South Africa,  Ukrainian SSR,  United States,  Soviet Union,  Uruguay,  Venezuela.

Against, (13 countries, 23%):

•  Afghanistan,  Cuba,  Egypt,  Greece,  India,  Iran,  Iraq,  Lebanon,  Pakistan,  Saudi Arabia,  Syria,  Turkey,  Yemen.

Abstentions, (10 countries, 18%):

•  Argentina,  Chile,  Republic of China,  Colombia,  El Salvador,  Ethiopia,  Honduras,  Mexico,  United Kingdom,  Yugoslavia.

Absent, (1 country, 0%):

•  Thailand

The Resolution as a legal basis for Palestinian Statehood

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.^[54] A number of scholars have written in support of this view.^[55][56][57]

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."^[58] 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.^[59]

See also

• 1949 Armistice Agreements
• Balfour Declaration of 1917
• Churchill White Paper, 1922
• Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948
• Faisal-Weizmann Agreement
• Hussein-McMahon Correspondence
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Minority Treaties
• Proposals for a Palestinian state
• Sykes-Picot Agreement
• British Mandate of Palestine
• Lausanne Conference, 1949

References

1. ^ "Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine"[1]
2. ^ Part II. - Boundaries recommended in UNGA Res 181 Molinaro, Enrico The Holy Places of Jerusalem in Middle East Peace Agreements Page 78
3. ^ ^{a b} Best, Antony (2004). International history of the twentieth century and beyond.. London: Routledge. pp. 120. ISBN 0-4-5-20739. 
4. ^ Gilbert, Martin (1998). Israel: A History. UK: Doubleday. pp. 149. ISBN 0-688-12362-7. 
5. ^ Lenczowski, George (1962). The Middle East in World Affairs. Cornell University Press. pp. 396. ISBN 62-16343. 
6. ^ Article "History of Palestine", Encyclopaedia Britannica (2002 edition), article section written by Walid Ahmed Khalidi and Ian J. Bickerton.
7. ^ Roza El-Eini (2006). Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929-1948. http://books.google.com/books?id=ekQOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA367&dq=Mandate+Britain+11+December+1947&hl=en&ei=3UC1TuHuMYWWiQevrczlAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQuwUwAQ#v=onepage&q=Mandate%20Britain%2011%20December%201947&f=false: Routledge. pp. 367. ISBN 9780714654263. 
8. ^ Security Council document S/745
9. ^ http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS094.pdf p.8
10. ^ Balfour Declaration. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 12, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
11. ^ New Statesman Interview - Jack Straw
12. ^ Partner to Partition: The Jewish Agency's Partition Plan in the Mandate Era, Yosef Kats, Chapter 4, 1998 Edition, Routledge, ISBN 0-7146-4846-9
13. ^ Palestine. Statement by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. November, 1938. Cmd. 5893. [2]
14. ^ Gurock, Jeffrey S. American Jewish History American Jewish Historical Society, page 243
15. ^ http://www.trumanlibrary.org/israel/palestin.htm
16. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100820165212/http://www.geocities.com/savepalestinenow/miscdocuments/fulltext/unscopsummaryreport.htm
17. ^ The Jewish Problem at MidEastWeb.
18. ^ ^{a b} UN Partition Plan at Merip.
19. ^ http://www.geopolitics.us/?p=640
20. ^ ^{a b} A/AC.14/32, dated 11 November 1947, page 41
21. ^ Rabbi Silver's remarks to the Security Council
22. ^ Yearbook of The United Nations 1947-48
23. ^ ORAL EVIDENCE PRESENTED AT PUBLIC MEETING, 7 July 1947, A/364/Add.2 PV.19
24. ^ Begin, Menachem, The Revolt 1978, p. 412.
25. ^ Kamrava, Mehran. The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War. University of California Press. pp. 79–81. ISBN 978-0520241503. 
26. ^ The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities, by Simha Flapan, Pantheon, 1988, ISBN 0-679-72098-7, Myth One pages 13-54, Myth Two pages 55-80
27. ^ Palestine's Role in the Solution of the Jewish Problem, Chaim Weizmann, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jan., 1942), pp. 324-338
28. ^ See YEARBOOK of the UNITED NATIONS, 1946-47
29. ^ Plascov, Avi (2008). The Palestinian refugees in Jordan 1948-1957. Routledge. p. 2. ISBN 978-0714631202. http://books.google.com/books?id=daLPXTYcoewC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-12-11. 
30. ^ The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA)
31. ^ Report of UNSCOP — 1947
32. ^ Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, 2008
33. ^ Sachar, 1979, p. 333
34. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=sj5DqVLshOUC&pg=PA154
35. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=awq8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA60
36. ^ A. H. Joffe and A. Romirowsky (2010). "A Tale of Two Galloways: Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography". Middle Eastern Studies 46 (5): 655–675. doi:10.1080/00263206.2010.504554. http://www.romirowsky.com/7948/a-tale-of-two-galloways. "cannot be confirmed from cited sources" ; Benny Morris (2010). "Revision on the West Bank". The National Interest (July/August): 73–81. "its pedigree is dubious" 
37. ^ Palestine Post, May 21, 1948, p. 3.
38. ^ "Palestinian And Zionist Land Ownership Per District as of 1945." The Palestine Remembered.
39. ^ ^{a b} Wolffe, John (2005). Religion in History: Conflict, Conversion and Coexistence (Paperback). Manchester University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0719071072. 
40. ^ Bovis, H. Eugene (1971). The Jerusalem question, 1917-1968. Hoover Institution Press,U.S.. p. 40. ISBN 978-0817932916. http://books.google.com/books?id=1L49R1xKA6QC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-12-11. 
41. ^ See "A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict,(4th Edition), Ian J. Bickerton, and Carla L. Klausner, Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN 0-13-090303-5, page 88.
42. ^ ibid, page 103
43. ^ See memo from Acting Secretary Lovett to Certain Diplomatic Offices, Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume VI, pages 1447-48
44. ^ See Folke Bernadotte, "To Jerusalem", Hodder and Stoughton, 1951, pages 112-13
45. ^ Hansard, Dec 11 1947
46. ^ Brooks, Stefan (2008). "Palestine, British Mandate for". In Tucker, Spencer C.. The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 3. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 770. ISBN 978-1-85109-842-2. 
47. ^ Arthur Koestler (March 2007). Promise and Fulfilment - Palestine 1917-1949. READ BOOKS. pp. 163–168. ISBN 978-1-4067-4723-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=XEqTMSzQYUIC&pg=PA163. Retrieved 13 October 2011. 
48. ^ ^{a b} Hansard, Dec 11, 1947
49. ^ ^{a b c} Before & after: U.S. foreign policy and the September 11th crisis By Phyllis Bennis
50. ^ Lenczowski, George (1990). American Presidents and the Middle East. Duke University Press. pp. 157. ISBN 0-8223-0972-6. , p. 28, cite, Harry S. Truman, Memoirs 2, p. 158.
51. ^ Heptulla, Najma (1991). Indo-West Asian relations: the Nehru era. Allied Publishers. pp. 158. ISBN 8170233402. http://books.google.com/books?id=BXWFlKwemEQC&lpg=PA158&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
52. ^ Quigley, John B. (1990). Palestine and Israel: a challenge to justice. Duke University Press. pp. 37. ISBN 0822310236. http://books.google.com/books?id=GX8jX9dJXIAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
53. ^ Servant of God: a personal narrative, Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, 1983
54. ^ See "Request for the admission of the State of Palestine to Unesco as a Member State", UNESCO, 12 May 1989 [3]
55. ^ See The Palestine Declaration To The International Criminal Court: The Statehood Issue [4] and Silverburg, Sanford R. (2002), "Palestine and International Law: Essays on Politics and Economics", Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, ISBN 0-7864-1191-0, pages 37-54
56. ^ See Chapter 5 "Israel (1948-1949) and Palestine (1998-1999): Two Studies in the Creation of States", in Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, and Stefan Talmon, eds., The Reality of International Law: Essays in Honour of Ian Brownlie (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999)
57. ^ Sourcebook on public international law, by Tim Hillier, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 1859410502, page 217; and Prof. Vera Gowlland-Debbas, “Collective Responses to the Unilateral Declarations of Independence of Southern Rhodesia and Palestine, An Application of the Legitimizing Function of the United Nations”, The British Yearbook of International Law, l990, pp.l35-l53
58. ^ See paragraph 5, Separate opinion of Judge Koroma
59. ^ See De Waart, Paul J.I.M., "International Court of Justice Firmly Walled in the Law of Power in the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process", Leiden Journal of International Law, 18 (2005), pp. 467–487

Bibliography

• Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN
• Arieh L. Avneri (1984). The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the Arabs, 1878–1948. Transaction Publishers. ISBN
• Fischbach, Michael R. (2003). Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Columbia University Press. ISBN
• Gelber, Yoav (1997). Jewish-Transjordanian Relations: Alliance of Bars Sinister. London: Routledge. ISBN-X
• Khalaf, Issa (1991). Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration,. University at Albany, SUNY. ISBN
• Louis, Wm. Roger (1986). The British Empire in the Middle East,: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism. Oxford University Press. ISBN
• "Palestine". Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition, 15 May 2006.
• Sicker, Martin (1999). Reshaping Palestine: From Muhammad Ali to the British Mandate, 1831–1922. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN

External links

• Text of the resolution
• Legal Status of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem
• Maps of Palestine
• Ivan Rand and the UNSCOP Papers
• Official Map prepared by UNSCOP
• November 29th Quiz
• Firsthand testimonies from the men and women who helped found the State of Israel