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| Why did Arabs reject the proposed UN GA partition plan which split Palestine into Jewish and Arab states? Post Your Comment (15 comments) |
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Posted on August 10, 2001
The 1947 UN GA proposed partition plan of Palestine is often used by Israelis and Zionists to obscure facts from those new to the argument. As demonstrated below, the myth has been concocted to legitimize Israel in the eyes of many Jews and Western people. It should be noted that each of the facts below can be independently verified either from the Zionist archives in Jerusalem, or from the British Mandate books.
The best way to present the facts concerning this question is by asking the following questions:
Are you aware that Palestine's Jewish population was under 8% of the total
population as of 1914? (Righteous Victims, p. 83)
It should be noted that the mass majority of the Jews residing in Palestine
were not citizens of the country, but they recently fled anti-Semitic Tsarist Russia.
Are you aware that in 1914 Jewish land ownership in Palestine was under 2%?
Despite the active British assistance to
establish a "Jewish National home" in Palestine (based on the British commitment
in the Balfour Declaration), Palestine's Jewish population
in 1947 was increased to 33%
of its total population. (Righteous Victims, p. 83). Click
here for a map illustrating Palestine's population distribution per
district as of 1946. Again, prior to the 1948 war less than one third of the Jews in
Palestine were recognized as legal citizens by the Government of
Palestine (Survey
of Palestine P. 208), however, they mostly maintained citizenship of their respective
countries, such as Russian, Polish, Romanian, and Germany citizenships.
It's worth noting that even after five decades of ethnic
cleansing, occupation, and dispossession, the demographic ratio between Palestinians
(8.5 million) and
Israeli Jews (4.5-5 million) is still the same as it was in December 1947,
which was (and still is) 2 to 1 in favor of the Palestinian people. However, for Israel to maintain its
democratic "Jewish state", and above all its "Jewish character", it
opted to ETHNICALLY CLEANSE 80% of the
Palestinian people out of their homes, farms, businesses.
Are you aware that Jewish land ownership in Palestine was
under 7% as of 1947? (Benny
Morris, p. 170) Click
here for a map illustrating Palestine's land ownership
per district as of 1945.
Are you aware that the United States of America arm twisted
the arms of dozens
of small nations to get their support for the partitioning of Palestine? For example,
Greece and France were threatened with a foreign aid cutoff, Liberia was
threatened with a rubber embargo plus Firestone Company's
president threatened to revoke his company's planned expansion in Liberia, bribing several Latin American
countries by hinting at the possibility that the U.S. might fund the
construction of a Pan-American
highway, ... etc. (Righteous Victims p. 184
, Jerusalem Post, and America And The Founding Of Israel
p. 141-143)
Are you aware that two US Supreme Court justices, Frank
Murphy and Felix Frankfurter, contacted the Philippine's ambassador in
Washington D.C. and sent telegrams to the Philippine's president, Carlos Rojas, warning that a vote against the proposed partition plan would alienate millions of Americans. Ten senators also cabled Rojas (Jerusalem Post).
Are you aware that the Jewish Agency budgeted a million
dollars for its own bribery campaign? The money allocation appeared in the Jewish Agency's budget as "irregular political activity." (One
Palestine Complete, p. 496)
Are you aware that the Zionist leaders enjoyed a clandestine advantage by BUGGING the rooms of
the UN Special Committee On
Palestine (UNSCOP), and they knew what every committee member and witness was
saying? (Righteous
Victims, p. 182)
Are you aware that in March 1948 the United States, along with China and France, was withdrawing from its earlier commitments to partition Palestine, and was pressing for "trusteeship" - an extension of Great Power rule- in Palestine beyond May 15th, 1948? (Benny Morris, p. 61) And on March 19th, 1948, Ben-Gurion responded to the idea of UN trusteeship in a press conference in Tel-Aviv with as follows:
"It is we who will decide the fate of Palestine. We cannot agree to any sort of Trusteeship, permanent or temporary. The Jewish State exists because we defend it." (Israel: A History, p. 165)
It should be noted that since November 1947 the UN GA has failed to reaffirm the 1947 UN GA proposed partition plan.
Are you aware that the 20th Zionist Congress, which convened
in Zurich in August 1937, almost UNANIMOUSLY REJECTED the British
proposed partition plan of Palestine (which became known as the Peel
Commission Partition plan)? (Israel: A
History, p. 88, and One
Palestine Complete, p. 414). Although the proposed Peel Commission's
partition plan was rejected because the areas allocated to the "Jewish
state" was "too small," the concept of partitioning the
country was adopted by the 20th Zionist Congress. Click
here to view the map proposed by the Peel Commission which was rejected
by the 20th Zionist Congress, and click
here to view a map proposed by the U.N. GA in 1947 for the partition of
Palestine. While inspecting both maps, note the following:
1) The Jewish
population in Palestine as of 1937 was under 27% of the total
population.
2) The Jewish
population in Palestine as of 1947 was under 33% of the total
population.
3) The Negev Desert was populated with Zionist Jews only in few isolated
colonies.
4) The Peel Commission allocated the most fertile regions of Palestine to
the "Jewish state," which included all of Galilee and a much wider area in the
coastal region compared to the areas proposed by the UN GA in 1947.
5) The 1947 UN GA proposed Partition
plan did not advocate compulsory population transfer
(ethnic cleansing) for Palestinians out of the areas allocated to the "Jewish State", where
Palestinians made up 45% of the total population. On
the contrary, compulsory population transfer was a major pillar for the
success of the Peel Commission Partition plan.
We call upon your sense of fairness while contemplating the following
questions:
1) If the Peel Commission plan had been accepted by the Zionists in 1937, how
many Jews might have been saved from the Nazi holocaust? In that respect, it's worth quoting Ben-Gurion,
who wrote twenty years later:
"Had partition [referring to the Peel Commission partition plan] been carried out, the history of our people would have been different and six million Jews in Europe would not have been killed---most of them would be in Israel" (One Palestine Complete, p. 414).
2) Why is the rejection of the 1937 Peel Partition plan justifiable according to many Zionists, but the Arabs' rejection of the 1947 UN GA Partition plan is not?
To give a different perspective on the issue, it's worth contemplating what Moshe Sharett, the 1st Israeli Foreign Minister, said in justification of why the Palestinian people would reject any Partition to their country. Sharett stated behind closed doors to the Zionist Actions Committee on April 22nd, 1937:
"...in contrast to us they [Palestinian Arabs] would lose totally that part of Palestine which they consider to be an Arab country and are fighting to keep it such ... They would lose the richest part of Palestine [referring Peel Commission Partition plan]; they would lose major Arab assets, the orange plantations, the commercial and industrial centers and the most important sources of revenue for their government which would become impoverished; they would lose most of the coastal area, which would also be loss to the hinterland [Palestinian] Arab states. .... This would be such an uprooting, such a shock, the likes of which had never occurred and could drown the whole thing in rivers of blood. " (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 59-60), click here to read the full quote.
Are you aware that the Syrian proposal to refer the
Palestine issue to the International Court of Justice at The Hague was
defeated by a single vote, twenty one votes against twenty. (Simha
Flapan, p. 123)
Are you aware that the 1947 UN GA proposed partition was outside the competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United
Nations? Nowhere in the UN's charter was there the power to partition any country,
especially based on racial or religious grounds. Even if the UN had the power,
the resolution to partition Palestine was not binding since it was
indorsed by the General Assembly rather than the Security Council.
Notwithstanding the above facts, are you aware that the 1947
UN GA proposed partition granted the "Jewish state"
ABOUT 60% of the total area of Palestine?
Assuming that you are an American, based on the above facts, would
you concede sovereignty and land ownership over 60% of your country to a
foreign minority, such as Canadians and Mexicans, who owns under 7% of U.S.'s lands? Click
here for a map illustrating such comparative partition of the U.S.
in favor of one of its ethnic or religious minorities.
If you do not accept such a plan for yourself as an American, then
Why ask the Palestinian people to concede 60% of their land in favor of an
ALIEN foreign minority?
For a moment, let's assume that the above arguments and
facts are nonsense to the average Israeli and Zionist, and ask
the following question:
Assuming that as of 1947 Israeli Jews constituted a 2/3 majority of
the total population, owned and operated 93% of Israel's lands,
and contributed 55%-60% of the Israeli Gross Domestic Product (GDP), would you accept a U.N.
IMPOSED partition of Israel in
favor of an alien minority?
It should be NOTED that currently Palestinian-Israeli citizens make up 20-22% of the total Israeli population,
so is it acceptable for
the U.N. to partition Israel in a favorable way to its Palestinian-Israeli
minority? As an Israeli Jew, would you accept a UN GA imposed partition of
your country?
We cannot help it but to a draw similarity with a famous Old
Testament story, when two women disputed the motherhood of a baby. They took
their dispute to King Solomon, who decided to settle the dispute by cutting
the baby in half. The baby's mother quickly objected the King's decision and
preferred giving up that baby rather than killing it. That is when the wise
King recognized that she must be the mother, and the other woman is an
imposter. In a similar fashion, the Palestinian people refused the unjust
resolution that called for the division of their country with an alien
colonizers.
Dr. Walid Khalidi articulated the Palestinians position as
follows:
"The native people of Palestine, like the native people of every other
country in the Arab world, Asia, Africa and Europe, refused to divide the
land with a settler community."
As it will be demonstrated below, the decision by the Zionist leadership to accept the 1947 proposed UN GA Partition plan was nothing but a smoke screen, which was done solely to gain international recognition and support. This deception was a political ploy to gain initial international legitimacy for the existence of the "Jewish state", and this was well known to the Palestinian people. The reader is urged to contemplate the following Zionist leaders' quotes in an open mind. Note that most, if not all, of the quotes below are dated before the entry of any single Arab Army into British Mandated Palestine:
In a letter Chaim Weizmann sent to the Palestine-British high
Commissioner, while the Peel Commission was convening in 1937, he stated:
"We shall spread in the whole country in the course of time ..... this
is only an arrangement for the next 25 to 30 years." (Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 66)
Ben-Gurion
emphasized that the acceptance of the Peel Commission
would not imply static borders for the future "Jewish state". In a letter Ben-Gurion sent to his son in
1937, he wrote:
"No Zionist can forgo the smallest portion of the Land Of Israel. [A] Jewish
state in part [of Palestine] is not an end, but a beginning ..... Our possession
is important not only for itself ... through this we increase our power,
and every increase in power facilitates getting hold of the country in its
entirety. Establishing a [small] state .... will serve as a very potent lever in
our historical effort to redeem the whole country." (Righteous Victims,
p. 138)
In 1938, Ben-Gurion
made it clear of his support for the "Jewish state" on part of Palestine was
only as a stepping ground
for a complete conquest. He wrote:
"[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the
assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of
the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to
the whole Land of Israel." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p.
107 & One Palestine
Complete, p. 403)
One day after the UN vote to partition Palestine, Menachem
Begin, the commander of the Irgun gang and Israel's future Prime
Minister between
1977-1983, proclaimed:
"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized
.... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be
restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever." (Iron
Wall p. 25)
Ben-Gurion was happy and sad when the U.N. voted to partition Palestine into
two states, Palestinian and Jewish. He was happy because "finally"
Jews could have a "country" of their own. On the other hand, he was
sad because they have "lost" almost half of Palestine, and because they would have
to contend with a sizable Palestinian minority, well over 45% of the total
population. In the following few quotes, you will see how he also stated that a
"Jewish state" cannot survive being 60% Jewish; implying that
something aught to be done to remedy the so called "Arab demographic
problem". He stated on November 30, 1947:
"In my heart, there was joy mixed with sadness: joy that the nations at
last acknowledged that we are a nation with a state, and sadness that we lost half of the country, Judea and Samaria, and , in addition, that we [would] have
[in our state] 400,000 [Palestinian] Arabs." (Righteous Victims,
p. 190)
While addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut on December 30,
1947, Ben-Gurion stated:
"In the area allocated to the Jewish State there are not more than
520,000 Jews and about 350,000 non-Jews, mostly Arabs. Together with the Jews
of Jerusalem, the total population of the Jewish State at the time of its
establishment, will be about one million, including almost 40% non-Jews. such
a [population] composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish State.
This [demographic] fact must be viewed in all its clarity and acuteness. With
such a [population] composition, there cannot even be absolute certainty that
control will remain in the hands of the Jewish majority .... There can be no
stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only
60%." (Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 176)
Ben-Gurion commented
on the proposed Peel Commission Partition plan as follows in 1937:
"We must EXPEL ARABS and take their places .... and, if we have to use
force-not to dispossess the Arabs of the Negev and Transjordan, but to guarantee
our own right to settle in those places-then we have force at our disposal."
(Expulsion Of The
Palestinians, p. 66). Note the premeditated plan to ethnically
cleanse the Negev and Transjordan which were not allocated to the Jewish
State by the Peel Commission, click
here to view a map illustrating the areas allocated to the "Jewish
State" by the Peel Commission in 1937.
Moshe
Sharett, director of the Jewish Agency's Political
Department who later became Israel's first foreign minister,
declared:
"[W]hen the Jewish state is established--it is very possible that the
result will be [population] transfer of [the Palestinian] Arabs." (Righteous Victims, p.
254)
While addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut
on December 30th, 1947, Ben-Gurion said:
"In the area allocated to the Jewish State there are not more than 520,000
Jews and about 350,000 non-Jews, mostly Arabs. Together with the Jews of
Jerusalem, the total population of the Jewish State at the time of its
establishment, will be about one million, including almost 40% non-Jews.
such a [population] composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish
State. This [demographic] fact must be viewed in all its clarity and
acuteness. With such a [population] composition, there cannot even be
absolute certainty that control will remain in the hands of the Jewish
majority .... There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as
it has a Jewish majority of only 60%."(Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 176 & Benny
Morris p. 28)
On February 7th, 1948, while addressing the Mapai Council he
responded to a remark that the "Jews have no land in the Jerusalem
corridor" with the following:
"The war will give us the land. The concept of 'ours' and 'not ours'
are only concepts for peacetime, and during war they lose all their
meaning." (Benny
Morris, p. 170 & Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 180)
And on February 8th, 1948 Ben-Gurion also stated to the Mapai
Council:
"From your entry into Jerusalem, through Lifta,
Romema [East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood]. . . there are no
[Palestinian] Arabs. One hundred percent Jews. Since Jerusalem was destroyed
by the Romans, it has not been Jewish as it is now. In many [Palestinian]
Arab neighborhoods in the west one sees not a single [Palestinian] Arab. I
do not assume that this will change. . . . What had happened in Jerusalem. .
. . is likely to happen in many parts of the country. . . in the
six, eight, or ten months of the campaign there will certainly be great
changes in the composition of the population in the country." (Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 180-181)
"We will not be able to win the war if we do not, during the war,
populate upper and lower, eastern and western Galilee, the Negev and Jerusalem
area, even if only in an artificial way, in a military way. . . . I believe that war will also bring in its wake a great change in
the distribution of [Palestinian] Arab population." (Benny
Morris, p. 181 & Expulsion
Of The Palestinians, p. 181)
Note the premeditated plan to occupy and ethically cleanse areas, such as Galilee and Jerusalem, which were not allotted to the "Jewish State" by the 1947 UN GA Partition plan. Click here to view a map illustrating the areas allocated to the "Jewish State" by the 1947 UN GA partition plan.
For moment, let assume that the above are pure Arab propaganda, and lets contemplate what Ben-Gurion told Nahunm Goldman (a prominent Zionists leader before he died):
"I don't understand your optimism.," Ben-Gurion declared. "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army. Our whole policy is there. Otherwise the Arabs will wipes us out".
I was stunned by this pessimism, but he went on:
"I will be seventy years old soon. Well, Nahum, if you asked me whether I shall die and be buried in a Jewish state I would tell you Yes; in ten years, fifteen years, I believe there will still be a Jewish state. But ask me whether my son Amos, who will be fifty at the end of this year, has a chance of dying and being buried in a Jewish state, and I would answer: fifty-fifty.""But how can you sleep with that prospect in mind," I broke in, "and be Prime Minister of Israel too?"
"Who says I sleep? he answered simply". (The Jewish Paradox by Nahum Goldman, p. 99)
Finally, it's hypocritical when on one hand Zionists use UN GA partition plan as a pretext to legitimize Israel's existence,
while they've rejected almost every other UN resolution since Israel's creation, chief among them UN GA resolution 194 that called for the immediate return to all Palestinian refugees to their homes in Israel. To suit Zionists' political agenda, they have deliberately chosen to ignore most, if not all, of UN resolutions concerning Palestine and its people, of course with the exception of withdrawing from occupied southern Lebanon in May 2000. Sadly, Israel has accepted that UN resolution not because it was influenced by a UN, a U.S., or even a European diplomatic pressure, but because it was compelled to do so by the heroic Lebanese resistance.
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Post Your Comment *It should be NOTED that your email address won't be shared, and all communications between members will be routed via the website's mail server. | ||
It is obviously in dispute which people lived in the region first, so instead of arguing about that, can people actually begin forming ideas on how to go forward? Obviously the current policy of whoever controls the region kicking everyone else out is not working. In fact, it is only making life hard for EVERYONE! |
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"tim112867" the Jews that you say inhabitated Palestine first STOLE it from it's original inhabitants the Canaanites and other tribes! Also the White European Ashkenazi Jews that govern and make up much of "israeli" society are NOT Semitic people. They are at best INTERMARRIED Jew/Gentile mutts. It has also been shown that many White European Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of Khazar Jews with NO Semitic blood! |
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Hey this is a great site with lots of info, I have started building a site about Palestine and this site has been gteat help,
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How long must a people be disspossed before they can no longer claim the right of return? It is a historical fact that the Jews did inhabit Israel in the past. They where forcibly removed. Do they not have the right of return? If not why do the Palistinians have this right? The real point is that neither of these people will be leaving. They need to find a way to live together. |
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this a great website! i wanna truly thank the creators! im a teenager who has been trully enlightned |
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somaya, these "jews" are people too dont you think? and now, their population has reached millions so how are you expecting them to leave? and where? some of them want peace and want to share this land and live peacefully.i know that palestine is for the palestinians but the israelis came to it a reallly long time ago, so now, u cant fix anything, and ur generelizing when u say they kicked us out, this generation and the generations to come didnt do that, their ancestors did, so if they did a horrible move and a mistake like this why should we do it too?? why should we ruin lives ? cant we be better than that?why repeat history? i know we're better, and i know that there is some israelis that think the same thing. its reality and we have to live with it.that was history and we're about to make more history, why not make it good? enough fighting and destroying.and i hope palestine will eventually be a country and regain what it lost in the past, we'll always defend it and live for it |
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To Rola (& whoever shared the same opinion):
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why cant we live together? why cant we accept that nobody is willing to help us and try to fix it ourselves.. instead of fighting for all these years, why cant we just be why cant we just learn to live in peace and together, whats so wrong about sharing the land? we've had it for thousands of years, why dont we embrace it instead of destroying it and killing each other? we dont realize that this could be good, it good be beneficial and useful to both sides...we just need to let go, let go of the past, and let go of anything thats stopping us from living peacefully. The past was hurtful, to everybody, millions and billions were killed, why should this hurt and suffer go on? why should our kids and grand kids go through what we and our ancestors went through??we're supposed to make this life safe and peaceful for them...its really this simple...no need for big words or stupid negotiations...we could live side by side...share this land, this holy land... |
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We can't take control of the history, we can't do anything if the land was taken with killing in past centuries and we can't revert the history, we aren't responsible of the history or the past, but we are responsible of the present, we are responsible to build a good future, if we grow with the tendency to reject people and watch them like enemies this history will never end, but the world will change iF we understand the history carried till here, and iF we understand Jews or Palestinos or Christians or Africans are neighbors BECAUSE THE FORTUNE WHEEL turned it so, the present could bring us a good future for all us. That wheel of fortune was turned so by the past, by the people of the past and we can't change it, but we can change our present, our mind... but some people does not agree, some people rejects this kind of think . Peace. |
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As an American I had never read the history of Palestine. Clearly our small Jewish population exerted every influence to get the land for their fellow Jews and continue even today with their disproportionate representation in our congress. For my part I'll let my reps in congress know the Arabs need more fair treatment. |
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umm: EARLY BRONZE AGE CANAAN. City-states developed in Syria-Palestine around 3100, serving as mediators between the protoliterate culture of Mesopotamia and the Gerzean culture of Egypt. (From Bartleby Encyclopedia). |
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Willowdancer: not the Palestinians, they didnt arrive until after the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were established and even then, they came from Southern Greece. The word 'Palestine' comes from Philistine. Please get your facts straight. |
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Maccabee, who was living in palestine before the hebrews found it? What group of people were destroyed by the hebrews that were living there? Where did the hebrews come from before Eypgt? |
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But the Jews were already living in the Land in ancient times. So they don't need the UN to give them legitimacy! |
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After a carefull study of the palestine and the Isreal conlict over the years, evidences are rift that the U.S.A role in an attempt to resolve the conflict had been suspicious and lack sincerrity! why should the U.S.A recorgnized the state of Istreal as in a mad rush without examining the motive behind it, without questioning the legitimacy of such declaration! The United States was biased in this respect no doubt about that. America role till date proves that they have simpathy with Isreal as a race for reasons best known to them. It is my appeal to the international community to evaluate and review the position of the U.S.A henceforth, why the Isrealy Palestine conflict last. Thank you. jaybee obazee MULTIPPLE CONNECTIONS NIGERIA |
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