Behind the Headlines 30 Years Since the Partition Plan

On Nov. 29, 1947, the news flashed around the world that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Partition Plan which established the Jewish State in Palestine. Chaim Weizmann called it “a moment unfading in the memory of man.” There was wild rejoicing throughout the Jewish world. A Hebrew poet wrote: “He that hath not seen the joy of that night hath never in his life seen joy.” What had seemed un- attainable on the eve of World War II became an imperative act of restitution as the world contemplated the horror of the Nazi Holocaust. But although the UN’s resolution echoed around the world, the UN was powerless to implement it.

Within hours of the partition vote, Jews in Palestine and the Arab states were being murdered. And before the State of Israel was formally proclaimed the following May, the details of the partition plan–including provisions for a new Arab state economically federated with Israel–were forgotten. To this very day, much of the Arab world was to remain implacably opposed to Israel’s existence.

Within only a few weeks of the vote, the United States was to withdraw its support from it, only to rally again, thanks to the interventions of the aged Weizmann with President Truman. To the surprise of Britain, however, which had calculated on the UN being hopelessly deadlocked, the Soviet Union gave the Jewish independence struggle steadfast support, not only at the UN, but also with vital arms supplies (through Czechoslovakia) while the Americans ordered a general arms embargo.

DIFFICULTIES FOR BRITAIN

Britain had begun wearily to acknowledge the difficulty of remaining in Palestine at the end of the previous year. Another London round-table conference had ended in failure. The Jewish underground was harrying the British army and the tidal wave of displaced persons surged towards the land of Israel. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, not a man easily to admit defeat, bitterly threatened to “wash his hands of the whole business” and thrust it in the lap of the United Nations.

He did so at the end of April when the General Assembly convened at Flushing Meadow, New York, in special session. It decided, after a fortnight’s discussion, to establish a special international committee to make recommendation on “all issues relevant to the problem of Palestine.”

The Arabs immediately made a monumental error by deciding to boycott the UN Special Committee on Palestine, to be known by its initials UNSCOP. The Jewish Agency, however, assigned to it two gifted liaison officers–Abba Eban and David Horowitz. They were instructed by Moshe Sharett, the head of the Agency’s political department, to work for the creation of “a Jewish State in a suitable area of Palestine.”

DRAMATIC EVENTS UNFOLD

Meanwhile, the pressure on the British was increasing, as the British government doggedly refused to increase the monthly immigration quotas from 1500 set in 1945. In March, a British officers’ club was blown up in Jerusalem. Other terrorist attacks on troops were no less spectacular.

UNSCOP’s arrival in May coincided, too, with the drama of the immigrant ship Exodus. UNSCOP members witnessed the squalid scenes as the 4500 Jews were turned back after a bitter fight at Haifa, first’ to Toulon and finally to Hamburg.

The committee also heard eloquent appeals by Weizmann and David Ben Gurion. Dr. Ralph Bunche, the American diplomat, said that Weizmann’s description of Jewish suffering had aroused in him an emotional identity.

At the end of July, UNSCOP left Palestine for Geneva to work on its report. As they did so, they became deeply attracted to the 10-year-old Peel Commission report favoring partition. By the end of August 1947 they had reached their own conclusions. A majority supported partition and a minority favored a federal Palestine consisting of Jewish and Arab regions.

DEBATE OVER MAJORITY PLAN

The majority plan provided for a Jewish State in the Negev, most of the coastal plain, the Jezreel Valley and Eastern Galilee. After a two-year period of British or international trusteeship, Arab and Jewish states in economic union would become independent. The plan also envisaged permanent UN trusteeship for Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Jewish Agency gave the majority plan a qualified welcome. The Arab League rejected not only the majority plan but the alternative as well.

The scene shifted back to the UN headquarters in New York for what Abba Eban termed “the most crucial political struggle in modern Jewish history.” Success for the Jews depended on uniting America and the Soviet Union in support of UNSCOP’s partition plan. Most observers thought this was unlikely.

Tension was increased on Sept. 20 when Arthur Creech-Jones, the British Colonial Secretary, said that Britain would not impose a settlement by force of arms and that in the absence of an agreed settlement British troops would evacuate the country.

WEIZMANN CALLED IN

In October, Weizmann, although no longer the president of the World Zionist Organization, was called to join the struggle in New York. His task, Eban has recalled, “was to make an impact on the uncommitted and wavering delegates who were being shaken by the strong blasts of Arab pressure.”

Weizmann’s first emergency came when the Americans suggested reducing the area of the Jewish State by depriving it of the Negev. On Nov. 19, Zionism’s ailing leader went to see Truman in Washington. On the basis of a memorandum prepared by Eliahu Elat, he successfully persuaded the President about the need for a maritime outlet to the east at Aqaba.

NECESSARY VOTES SECURED

As Nov. 26, the date for the fateful vote, drew near, it still appeared that the Jewish Agency would not win the necessary two-thirds of the Assembly’s 57 members. Sharett secured a three-day respite because of Thanksgiving Day. During the interlude, four nations changed their position–Greece, Haiti, Liberia and the Philippines.

On Nov. 29, the General Assembly voted for partition by 33-13 with 10 abstentions, thus providing the necessary support for a Jewish State. The Soviet Union and the United States, together with many European states and most of the Latin Americans, were in favor. So were Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. But India, with its large Moslem population, backed the Arabs in opposing partition. Britain did not take part in the vote.

Palestinian Jewry rejoiced throughout the night, but on the next day Arab gangs killed Jews in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Lydda, Jerusalem and on the roads. Pogroms broke out in Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad, Beirut and Aden. From Damascus, the Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, proclaimed an Arab general strike in Palestine.

A little over a week later, on Dec. 11, Britain announced that the Mandate would be terminated on May 15, 1948, when the last British forces would leave. But Britain would not allow United Nations forces to supervise the partition plan. Israel’s war for independence had begun.