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The UN Partition
of Palestine
Why did the UN recommend the plan partitioning Palestine into a
Jewish and an Arab state?
"By this time [November 1947]
the United States had emerged as the most aggressive proponent
of partition...The United States got the General Assembly to
delay a vote 'to gain time to bring certain Latin American
republics into line with its own views.'...Some delegates
charged U.S. officials with 'diplomatic intimidation.' Without
'terrific pressure' from the United States on 'governments which
cannot afford to risk American reprisals,' said an anonymous
editorial writer, the resolution 'would never have passed.'"
John Quigley, "Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice."
Why was this Truman's
position?
"I am sorry gentlemen, but I
have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the
success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs
among my constituents." President Harry Truman, quoted in
"Anti Zionism", ed. by Teikener, Abed-Rabbo & Mezvinsky.
Was the partition plan fair
to both Arabs and Jews?
"Arab rejection was...based on
the fact that, while the population of the Jewish state was to
be [only half] Jewish with the Jews owning less than 10% of the
Jewish state land area, the Jews were to be established as the
ruling body - a settlement which no self-respecting people would
accept without protest, to say the least...The action of the
United Nations conflicted with the basic principles for which
the world organization was established, namely, to uphold the
right of all peoples to self-determination. By denying the
Palestine Arabs, who formed the two-thirds majority of the
country, the right to decide for themselves, the United Nations
had violated its own charter." Sami Hadawi, "Bitter Harvest."
Were the Zionists prepared
to settle for the territory granted in the 1947 partition?
"While the Yishuv's leadership
formally accepted the 1947 Partition Resolution, large sections
of Israel's society - including...Ben-Gurion - were opposed to
or extremely unhappy with partition and from early on viewed the
war as an ideal opportunity to expand the new state's borders
beyond the UN earmarked partition boundaries and at the expense
of the Palestinians." Israeli historian, Benny Morris, in
"Tikkun", March/April 1998.
Public vs private
pronouncements on this question.
"In internal discussion in 1938
[David Ben-Gurion] stated that '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 declared that: '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." Noam Chomsky, "The Fateful Triangle."
The war begins
"In December 1947, the British
announced that they would withdraw from Palestine by May 15,
1948. Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa called a general
strike against the partition. Fighting broke out in Jerusalem's
streets almost immediately...Violent incidents mushroomed into
all-out war...During that fateful April of 1948, eight out of
thirteen major Zionist military attacks on Palestinians occurred
in the territory granted to the Arab state." "Our Roots Are
Still Alive" by the People Press Palestine Book Project.
Zionists' disrespect of
partition boundaries
"Before the end of the mandate
and, therefore before any possible intervention by Arab states,
the Jews, taking advantage of their superior military
preparation and organization, had occupied...most of the Arab
cities in Palestine before May 15, 1948. Tiberias was occupied
on April 19, 1948, Haifa on April 22, Jaffa on April 28, the
Arab quarters in the New City of Jerusalem on April 30, Beisan
on May 8, Safad on May 10 and Acre on May 14, 1948...In
contrast, the Palestine Arabs did not seize any of the
territories reserved for the Jewish state under the partition
resolution." British author, Henry Cattan, "Palestine, The
Arabs and Israel."
Culpability for escalation
of the fighting
"Menahem Begin, the Leader of
the Irgun, tells how 'in Jerusalem, as elsewhere, we were the
first to pass from the defensive to the offensive...Arabs began
to flee in terror...Hagana was carrying out successful attacks
on other fronts, while all the Jewish forces proceeded to
advance through Haifa like a knife through butter'...The
Israelis now allege that the Palestine war began with the entry
of the Arab armies into Palestine after 15 May 1948. But that
was the second phase of the war; they overlook the massacres,
expulsions and dispossessions which took place prior to that
date and which necessitated Arab states' intervention." Sami
Hadawi, "Bitter Harvest."
The Deir Yassin Massacre of
Palestinians by Jewish soldiers
"For the entire day of April 9,
1948, Irgun and LEHI soldiers carried out the slaughter in a
cold and premeditated fashion...The attackers 'lined men, women
and children up against the walls and shot them,'...The
ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and
world opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab
population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from
their homes all over the country." Israeli author, Simha
Flapan, "The Birth of Israel."
Was Deir Yassin the only act
of its kind?
"By 1948, the Jew was not only
able to 'defend himself' but to commit massive atrocities as
well. Indeed, according to the former director of the Israeli
army archives, 'in almost every village occupied by us during
the War of Independence, acts were committed which are defined
as war crimes, such as murders, massacres, and rapes'...Uri
Milstein, the authoritative Israeli military historian of the
1948 war, goes one step further, maintaining that 'every
skirmish ended in a massacre of Arabs.'" Norman Finkelstein,
"Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict."