United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine - November 1947

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations to partition Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. Drafted by the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on 3 September 1947, the Plan was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947 as Resolution 181 (II). The resolution recommended the creation of independent but economically linked Arab and Jewish states and an extraterritorial "Special International Regime" for the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings.

The Partition Plan, a four-part document attached to the resolution, provided for the termination of the Mandate; the gradual withdrawal of British armed forces by no later than 1 August 1948; and the delineation of boundaries between the two states and Jerusalem at least two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948. The Arab state was to have a territory of 11,592 square kilometres, or 42.88 percent of the Mandate's territory, and the Jewish state a territory of 15,264 square kilometres, or 56.47 percent; the remaining 0.65 percent or 176 square kilometres—comprising Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would become an international zone. The Plan also called for an economic union between the proposed states and for the protection of religious and minority rights.

By the 1940s, Mandatory Palestine represented a fraction of the territory Zionists identified as the Jewish homeland, parts of which had already been transferred to Egypt (1906), Jordan (1922), Syria (1920–1923) and Lebanon (1918–1926). The 1947 Plan applied to what remained.

The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing movements: Palestinian nationalism and Jewish nationalism in the form of Zionism. Jewish organizations collaborated with UNSCOP during the deliberations, while Palestinian Arab leadership boycotted the committee.

Background

The British administration was formalized by the League of Nations under the Palestine Mandate in 1923, as part of the Partition of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. The Mandate reaffirmed the 1917 British commitment to the Balfour Declaration, for the establishment in Palestine of a "national home for the Jewish people", with the prerogative to carry it out. A British census of 1918 estimated 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews.

In 1937, following a six-month-long Arab General Strike and armed insurrection which aimed to pursue national independence and secure the country from foreign control, the British established the Peel Commission. The Commission concluded that the Mandate had become unworkable, and recommended partition into an Arab state linked to Transjordan; a small Jewish state; and a mandatory zone. To address problems arising from the presence of national minorities in each area, it suggested a land and population transfer involving the forced relocation of 225,000 Arabs and 1,250 Jews. The Palestinian Arab leadership rejected partition as unacceptable, given the inequality in the proposed population exchange and the transfer of one-third of Palestine, including most of its best agricultural land.

The Twentieth Zionist Congress emphatically rejected the Commission's proposal but empowered the executive "to enter into negotiations with a view to ascertaining the terms of His Majesty's Government for the implementation of the Peel recommendations."

With the war looming, the British government withdrew the partition proposal and in 1939 White Paper shifted its policy to a promise of independence for Palestine as a single state within ten years, with Jewish immigration limited to 75,000 for five years and further immigration dependent on Arab consent.

UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)

The British government asked the United Nations to address the issue in February 1947. The General Assembly created the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on 15 May 1947, with representatives from 11 countries. UNSCOP visited Palestine and conducted hearings with various stakeholders. The committee's deliberations considered various proposals, including a single binational state with proportional representation or cantonization.

On 3 September 1947, the majority of the committee (representing Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, and Uruguay) supported the Plan of Partition with Economic Union, proposed by the working group of the committee. Australia abstained. The minority plan (representing India, Iran, and Yugoslavia) supported a federal state plan. The majority proposal was largely based on a proposal developed by the Zionist Organization.

UN General Assembly Vote

The General Assembly voted on the resolution on 29 November 1947. The final vote, which required a two-thirds majority, was:

In favor (33): 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, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian SSR, South Africa, Soviet Union, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela

Against (13): Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen

Abstained (10): Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia

Absent: Siam (Thailand)

The resolution was carried by the required two-thirds majority.

Reactions and Aftermath

The Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted the plan, though with reservations about the internationalization of Jerusalem. The Arab Higher Committee rejected the plan entirely, arguing that it violated the rights of the Arab majority and the principles of self-determination.

Violent clashes between Arab and Jewish communities broke out almost immediately after the vote. The Arab Liberation Army entered Palestine in January 1948 to support local Arab forces. By the time the British Mandate ended on 15 May 1948, civil war had been raging for months, and the state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The Partition Plan never came into effect in the way it was envisioned. Instead, the 1948 war resulted in the establishment of Israel, the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Egyptian military administration of the Gaza Strip. The proposed international regime for Jerusalem was never implemented.

The resolution remains significant as the first international recognition of the right to Jewish statehood in Palestine, and as a reference point in ongoing discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the two-state solution.