1947 UN Partition Plan

1947 November 29, New York, USA , UN World Headquarters

1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine

On 29 November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly, at the UN World Headquarters in New York, approved a plan to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict over the British Mandate of Palestine. The plan partitioned mandated Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, with the Greater Jerusalem area (encompassing Bethlehem) coming under international control (Map More Detailed Map). The failure of this plan led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Table of contents

1 Creation of the plan
2 Reactions to the plan
3 Text of the Resolution
4 Related Articles
5 External links

Creation of the plan

The United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians. The UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from several states. None of the Great Powers were represented, in order to make the committee more neutral. UNSCOP considered two main proposals. The first called for the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The second called for the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. A majority of UNSCOP adopted the first option, although several members supported the second option instead and one member (Australia) said it was unable to decide between them. The UN General Assembly largely accepted UNSCOP's proposals, though they made some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal.

Israel was to receive 55% of Mandatory Palestine. This included the fruitful shore plain and the Negev desert. The desert was not suitable for agriculture, and was not suitable for urban development at that period. Much of the land reserved for the Jewish state was already acquired by Jews, had a Jewish majority, or was under state control. (Map)

The UN made the recommendation for a three-way partition of Palestine into a Jewish State, an Arab State and a small internationally administered zone that would have included Jerusalem. The two states envisioned in the plan were each composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads. the Jewish state would receive the Coastal Plain, stretching from Haifa to Rehobot, 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 Samarian highlands and the Judean highlands, and the southern coast stretching from north of Majdal (now Ashkelon) and encompassing what is now the Gaza Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. It was also to control the coastal port of Jaffa as an enclave just south of Tel Aviv. The UNSCOP report placed the mostly-Arab town of Jaffa in the Jewish state, but it was moved to the Arab State before the proposal went before the UN.

The plan was a compromise position based on two other plans, giving more or less land to each state.

Reactions to the plan

Political pressure by the proponents of partition was used to get the UN to pass the partition proposal. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal, in particular the Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation but the Irgun Tsvai Leumi ( Begin's terrorist army) and the Stern Group (LEHI) (the terrorist force commanded by Yitzhak Shamir) rejected the plan. 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 29th (the date of this session) as the most important date in the Israel's acquisition of independence. However Jews did criticise the lack of territorial continuity for the Jewish state.

The Arabic leadership opposed the plan. The plan violated the rights of the majority of the people in Palestine which at the time was 67% non-Jewish compared to 33% Jewish. They criticised the amount and quality of land given to Israel, given that they made only a quarter of the population. The Jews had been offered 55% percent of the land when they only owned 7%. The population for the proposed Jewish State was to be 498,000 Jews and 325,000 non-Jews. The population for the proposed Arab State was to be 807,000 non-Jews and 10,000 Jews. The population for the proposed International Zone was to be 105,000 non-Jews and 100,000 Jews.

Palestinians also feared that this Zionist state would be a stepping stone for further advancement; this view is supported by statements from David Ben Gurion and other leaders recently discovered by Israel's New Historians and other independent scholars. From the beginning it is clear that key Zionists had no intention of accepting the three-way partition the UN plan proposed, that of the Jewish State, Arab State and the International Zone encompassing Jerusalem and including Bethlehem.

[David Ben-Gurion] declared in 1938, "after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand into the whole of Palestine" In 1948, Menachem Begin said, "The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature of institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) will be restored to the people of Israel, All of it. And forever."