The Establishment of Israel

1947 UN Partition Plan

On 29 November 1947 the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine, was approved by the United Nations General Assembly, at the UN World Headquarters in New York. The plan partitioned the territory into Jewish and Arab states, with the Greater Jerusalem area, encompassing Bethlehem, coming under international control. The failure of this plan led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Creation of the plan
The United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine. On May 15 1947 the UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from eleven states. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented. After spending three months conducting hearings and general survey of the situation in Palestine, UNSCOP officially released its report on August 31. 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 single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. Australia abstained.

On November 29, the UN General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, in favor of the Partition Plan, while making some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal. The 33 countries that voted in favor of [

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) State of Israel The UN General Assembly made a non-binding recommendation for a three-way partition of Palestine into a Jewish State, an Arab State and a small internationally administered zone including the religiously significant towns Jerusalem and Bethlehem. 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 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 Samarian highlands and the Judean highlands, 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 UNSCOP report placed the mostly-Arab town of Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, in the Jewish state, but it was moved to form an enclave part of 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. 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". Territory Arab population % Arab 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 UNSCOP Report also noted that "in addition there will be in the Jewish State about 90,000 Bedouins, cultivators and stock owners who seek grazing further afield in dry seasons." [2] Reactions to the plan The majority of the Jews and Jewish groups accepted the proposal, in particular the Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation. A minority of extreme nationalist Jewish groups like Menachem Begin's Irgun Tsvai Leumi and Yitzhak Shamir's Lehi, (known as the Stern Gang) which had been fighting the British, rejected it. 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 Arab leadership opposed the plan, arguing 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). While some Arab leaders opposed the right of the Jews for self-determination in the region, others criticised the amount and quality of land given to Israel.(The proposal, however, was not solely for the Jews in Palestine but for a secure homeland for Jews outside of Palestine.) Fighting began almost as soon as the plan was approved, beginning with the Jerusalem Riots of 1947. The fighting would have an effect on the Arab population of Palestine, as well the Jewish populations of neighboring Arab countries.

The problem with "history" is that it does not sit easily in a confined historical window....My point is that you should examine why you seek to confine this question.

Brandon,

If your focus is related to the current challenge to "the right to exist", then I would suggest that as far as the situation on the ground is concerned "history is bunk" regarding the legal niceties. Israel is fighting under its usual post holocaust "never again" banner and its enemies as usual are seeking to remove "the aggressive infidel occupation of muslim lands". The tragedy is that with Israeli brains and Arab oil who knows what benefits could have come to the region from co-operatation instead of belligerence.

If my assumption about your focus is not the case then by all means ignore the above.

I would like to start a thread to discuss only one subject - the establishment of Israel. Please don't discuss history more than 2 or 3 years beyond its establishment.

Brandon9000 wrote:

I would like to start a thread to discuss only one subject - the establishment of Israel. Please don't discuss history more than 2 or 3 years beyond its establishment.

I suppose, this is rather diificult, if not impossible to do.

Modern Israel springs from both religious and political sources. Those can't be put aside.

I think, the Balfour Declaration, Palestine under British League of Nations mandate, the pre-Holocaust Zionist struggle to secure international support for a new state etc etc are too important for the further development of Israel than it could be totally neglected.

Seriuosly debating such a topic without regarding history is impossibel. At least, I think so.

It begins to sound rather as though you fear a fact based, and orderly discussion of this topic.

You may obviously involve any aspect of prior history that pertains to the founding of Israel ... . I only requested that things completely irrelevant to the founding not be discussed here.

Please don't discuss history more than 2 or 3 years beyond its establishment.

Brandon9000 wrote:

You may obviously involve any aspect of prior history that pertains to the founding of Israel ... . I only requested that things completely irrelevant to the founding not be discussed here.

Originally you said different:

Brandon9000 wrote:

Please don't discuss history more than 2 or 3 years beyond its establishment.

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:

You may obviously involve any aspect of prior history that pertains to the founding of Israel ... . I only requested that things completely irrelevant to the founding not be discussed here.

Originally you said different:

Brandon9000 wrote:

Please don't discuss history more than 2 or 3 years beyond its establishment.

By "beyond," I meant after. I was not trying to limit earlier history.