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confine it to the borders of Palestine itself… Jewish blood will
necessarily be shed elsewhere in the Arab world… to place in certain and serious danger a million Jews." Mahmud Bey Fawzi (Egypt) said: "…
imposed partition was sure to result in bloodshed in Palestine and in
the rest of the Arab world".[96]
In a speech at the General Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadow, New York,
on Friday, 28 November 1947, Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Fadel Jamall,
included the following statement: "Partition imposed against the will of
the majority of the people will jeopardize peace and harmony in the
Middle East. Not only the uprising of the Arabs of Palestine is to be
expected, but the masses in the Arab world cannot be restrained. The Arab-Jewish relationship in the Arab world will greatly deteriorate.
There are more Jews in the Arab world outside of Palestine than there
are in Palestine. In Iraq alone, we have about one hundred and fifty
thousand Jews who share with Moslems and Christians all the advantages
of political and economic rights. Harmony prevails among Moslems,
Christians and Jews. But any injustice imposed upon the Arabs of
Palestine will disturb the harmony among Jews and non-Jews in Iraq; it
will breed inter-religious prejudice and hatred."[97]
The Arab states warned the Western Powers that endorsement of the
partition plan might be met by either or both an oil embargo and
realignment of the Arab states with the Soviet Bloc.[98]

Final vote

The 1947 meeting at the General Assembly meeting place between 1946 and
1951 in Flushing, New York
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13,
with 10 abstentions and 1 absent, in favour of the modified Partition
Plan. The final vote, consolidated here by modern United Nations
Regional Groups rather than contemporary groupings, was as follows:[99]


How UN members voted on Palestine's partition in 1947
In favour
Abstained
Against
Absent
In favour (33 countries, 72% of total votes)
Latin American and Caribbean (13 countries):

Bolivia
Brazil
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Guatemala
Haiti
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
Western European and Others (8 countries):

Belgium
Denmark
France
Iceland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Eastern European (5 countries):

Byelorussian SSR
Czechoslovakia
Poland
Ukrainian SSR
Soviet Union
African (2 countries):

Liberia
South Africa
Asia-Pacific (3 countries)

Australia
New Zealand
Philippines
North America (2 countries)

Canada
United States
Against (13 countries, 28% of total votes)
Asia-Pacific (9 countries, primarily Middle East sub-area):

Afghanistan
India
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Yemen
Western European and Others (2 countries):

Greece
Turkey
African (1 country):

Egypt
Latin American and Caribbean (1 country):

Cuba
Abstentions (10 countries)
Latin American and Caribbean (6 countries):

Argentina
Chile
Colombia
El Salvador
Honduras
Mexico
Asia-Pacific (1 country):

China
African (1 country):

Ethiopia
Western European and Others (1 country):

United Kingdom
Eastern European (1 country):

Yugoslavia
Absent (1 country)
Asia-Pacific (1 country):

Thailand
Votes by modern region
If analysed by the modern composition of what later came to be known as
the United Nations Regional Groups showed relatively aligned voting
styles in the final vote. This, however, does not reflect the regional
grouping at the time, as a major reshuffle of regional grouping occurred
in 1966. All Western nations voted for the resolution, with the
exception of the United Kingdom (the Mandate holder), Greece and Turkey.
The Soviet bloc also voted for partition, with the exception of
Yugoslavia, which was to be expelled from Cominform the following year.
The majority of Latin American nations following Brazilian
leadership[citation needed], voted for partition, with a sizeable
minority abstaining. Asian countries (primarily Middle Eastern
countries) voted against partition, with the exception of the
Philippines.[100]

Regional Group Members in UNGA181 vote UNGA181 For UNGA181 Against
UNGA181 Abstained
African 4 2 1 1
Asia-Pacific 11 1 9 1
Eastern European 6 5 0 1
LatAm and Caribb. 20 13 1 6
Western Eur. & Others 15 12 2 1
Total UN members 56 33 13 10
Reactions
Jews
Most Jews in Palestine and around the world reacted to the UN resolution
with satisfaction, but some did not. Jews gathered in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem to celebrate the U.N. resolution during the whole night after
the vote. Great bonfires blazed at Jewish collective farms in the north.
Many big cafes in Tel Aviv served free champagne.[7][101] Mainstream
Zionist leaders emphasized the "heavy responsibility" of building a
modern Jewish State, and committed to working towards a peaceful
coexistence with the region's other inhabitants:[102][103] Jewish groups
in the United States hailed the action by the United Nations. Most
welcomed the Palestine Plan but some felt it did not settle the
problem.[104]

Some Revisionist Zionists rejected the partition plan as a renunciation
of legitimately Jewish national territory.[104] The Irgun Tsvai Leumi,
led by Menachem Begin, and the Lehi (also known as the Stern Group or
Gang), the two Revisionist-affiliated underground organisations which
had been fighting against both the British and Arabs, stated their
opposition. Begin warned that the partition would not bring peace
because the Arabs would also attack the small state and that "in the war
ahead we'll have to stand on our own, it will be a war on our existence
and future."[105] He also stated that "the bisection of our homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized."[106] Begin was sure that the
creation of a Jewish state would make territorial expansion possible,
"after the shedding of much blood."[107]

Some Post-Zionist scholars endorse Simha Flapan's view that it is a myth
that Zionists accepted the partition as a compromise by which the Jewish community abandoned ambitions for the whole of Palestine and recognized
the rights of the Arab Palestinians to their own state. Rather, Flapan
argued, acceptance was only a tactical move that aimed to thwart the
creation of an Arab Palestinian state and, concomitantly, expand the
territory that had been assigned by the UN to the Jewish state.[108][109][110][111][112] Baruch Kimmerling has said that Zionists "officially accepted the partition plan, but invested all their efforts
towards improving its terms and maximally expanding their boundaries
while reducing the number of Arabs in them."[113]

Addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut (the Eretz Israel
Workers Party) days after the UN vote to partition Palestine, Ben-Gurion expressed his apprehension, stating:

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%.[114]

Ben-Gurion said "I know of no greater achievement by the Jewish people
... in its long history since it became a people."[115]

Arabs
Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the
resolution and indicated that they would reject any other plan of
partition.[9] The Arab states' delegations declared immediately after
the vote for partition that they would not be bound by the decision, and
walked out accompanied by the Indian and Pakistani delegates.[116]

They argued that it violated the principles of national
self-determination in the UN charter which granted people the right to
decide their own destiny.[5][11] The Arab delegations to the UN issued a
joint statement the day after that vote that stated: "the vote in regard
to the Partition of Palestine has been given under great pressure and
duress, and that this makes it doubly invalid."[117]

On 16 February 1948, the UN Palestine Commission reported to the
Security Council that: "Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are
engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement
envisaged therein."[118]

Arab states
A few weeks after UNSCOP released its report, Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League, told an Egyptian newspaper "Personally I
hope the Jews do not force us into this war because it will be a war of elimination and it will be a dangerous massacre which history will
record similarly to the Mongol massacre or the wars of the
Crusades."[119] (This statement from October 1947 has often been
incorrectly reported as having been made much later on 15 May
1948.)[120] Azzam told Alec Kirkbride "We will sweep them [the Jews]
into the sea." Syrian president Shukri al-Quwatli told his people: "We
shall eradicate Zionism."[121]

King Farouk of Egypt told the American ambassador to Egypt that in the
long run the Arabs would soundly defeat the Jews and drive them out of Palestine.[122]

While Azzam Pasha repeated his threats of forceful prevention of
partition, the first important Arab voice to support partition was the influential Egyptian daily Al Mokattam [d]: "We stand for partition
because we believe that it is the best final solution for the problem of Palestine... rejection of partition... will lead to further
complications and will give the Zionists another space of time to
complete their plans of defense and attack... a delay of one more year
which would not benefit the Arabs but would benefit the Jews, especially
after the British evacuation."[123]

On 20 May 1948, Azzam told reporters "We are fighting for an Arab
Palestine. Whatever the outcome the Arabs will stick to their offer of
equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine and let them be as Jewish
as they like. In areas where they predominate they will have complete autonomy."[124]

The Arab League said that some of the Jews would have to be expelled
from a Palestinian Arab state.[125]

Abdullah appointed Ibrahim Hashem Pasha as Military Governor of the Arab
areas occupied by troops of the Transjordan Army. He was a former prime minister of Transjordan who supported partition of Palestine as proposed
by the Peel Commission and the United Nations.[126]

Arabs in Palestine
Haj Amin al-Husseini said in March 1948 to an interviewer from the Jaffa
daily Al Sarih that the Arabs did not intend merely to prevent partition
but "would continue fighting until the Zionists were annihilated."[121]

Zionists attributed Arab rejection of the plan to mere intransigence. Palestinian Arabs opposed the very idea of partition but reiterated that
this partition plan was unfair: the majority of the land (56%) would go
to a Jewish state, when Jews at that stage legally owned only 6–7% of it
and remained a minority of the population (33% in 1946).[127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135] There were also disproportionate allocations under the plan and the area under Jewish
control contained 45% of the Palestinian population. The proposed Arab
state was only given 45% of the land, much of which was unfit for
agriculture. Jaffa, though geographically separated, was to be part of
the Arab state.[135] However, most of the proposed Jewish state was the
Negev desert.[56][55] The plan allocated to the Jewish State most of the
Negev desert that was sparsely populated and unsuitable for agriculture
but also a "vital land bridge protecting British interests from the Suez
Canal to Iraq"[136][137]

Few Palestinian Arabs joined the Arab Liberation Army because they
suspected that the other Arab States did not plan on an independent
Palestinian state. According to Ian Bickerton, for that reason many of
them favored partition and indicated a willingness to live alongside a
Jewish state.[138] He also mentions that the Nashashibi family backed
King Abdullah and union with Transjordan.[139]

The Arab Higher Committee demanded that in a Palestinian Arab state, the majority of the Jews should not be citizens (those who had not lived in Palestine before the British Mandate).[93]

According to Musa Alami, the mufti would agree to partition if he were
promised that he would rule the future Arab state.[140]

The Arab Higher Committee responded to the partition resolution and
declared a three-day general strike in Palestine to begin the following day.[141]

British government
When Bevin received the partition proposal, he promptly ordered for it
not to be imposed on the Arabs.[142][143] The plan was vigorously
debated in the British parliament.

In a British cabinet meeting at 4 December 1947, it was decided that the Mandate would end at midnight 14 May 1948, the complete withdrawal by 1
August 1948, and Britain would not enforce the UN partition plan.[144]
On 11 December 1947, the British government publicly announced these plans.[145] During the period in which the British withdrawal was
completed, Britain refused to share the administration of Palestine with
a proposed UN transition regime, to allow the UN Palestine Commission to establish a presence in Palestine earlier than a fortnight before the
end of the Mandate, to allow the creation of official Jewish and Arab
militias or to assist in smoothly handing over territory or authority to
any successor.[146][147]

United States government
The United States declined to recognize the All-Palestine government in
Gaza by explaining that it had accepted the UN Mediator's proposal. The Mediator had recommended that Palestine, as defined in the original
Mandate including Transjordan, might form a union.[148] Bernadotte's
diary said the Mufti had lost credibility on account of his unrealistic predictions regarding the defeat of the Jewish militias. Bernadotte
noted "It would seem as though in existing circumstances most of the Palestinian Arabs would be quite content to be incorporated in Transjordan."[149]

Subsequent events
The Partition Plan with Economic Union was not realized in the days
following 29 November 1947 resolution as envisaged by the General
Assembly.[17] It was followed by outbreaks of violence in Mandatory
Palestine between Palestinian Jews and Arabs known as the 1947–48 Civil War.[16] After Alan Cunningham, the High Commissioner of Palestine, left Jerusalem, on the morning of 14 May the British army left the city as
well. The British left a power vacuum in Jerusalem and made no measures
to establish the international regime in Jerusalem.[150] At midnight on
14 May 1948, the British Mandate expired,[151] and Britain disengaged
its forces. Earlier in the evening, the Jewish People's Council had
gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum (today known as Independence Hall), and approved a proclamation, declaring "the establishment of a Jewish state
in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel".[5][152] The 1948 Arab–Israeli War began with the invasion of, or intervention in,
Palestine by the Arab States on 15 May 1948.[153]

Resolution 181 as a legal basis for Palestinian statehood
In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization published the Palestinian Declaration of Independence relying on Resolution 181, arguing that the resolution continues to provide international legitimacy for the right
of the Palestinian people to sovereignty and national independence.[154]
A number of scholars have written in support of this view.[155][156][157]

A General Assembly request for an advisory opinion, Resolution ES-10/14
(2004), specifically cited resolution 181(II) as a "relevant
resolution", and asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) what are
the legal consequences of the relevant Security Council and General
Assembly resolutions. Judge Abdul Koroma explained the majority opinion:
"The Court has also held that the right of self-determination as an
established and recognized right under international law applies to the territory and to the Palestinian people. Accordingly, the exercise of
such right entitles the Palestinian people to a State of their own as originally envisaged in resolution 181 (II) and subsequently
confirmed."[158] In response, Prof. Paul De Waart said that the Court
put the legality of the 1922 League of Nations Palestine Mandate and the
1947 UN Plan of Partition beyond doubt once and for all.[159]

Retrospect
In 2011, Mahmoud Abbas stated that the 1947 Arab rejection of United
Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a mistake he hoped to rectify.[160]

Commemoration

Monument commemorating 1947 UN Partition Plan, Netanya
A street in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem is named Kaf-tet
benovember (29th of November Street). On November 29, 2022, a monument
designed and executed by sculptor Sam Philipe was unveiled on a hilltop
in Netanya to mark the 75th anniversary of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine.[161] The date also marks the annual International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People.[162]

See also
Faisal–Weizmann Agreement
History of the State of Palestine
Israeli Declaration of Independence
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Lausanne Conference of 1949
Minority Treaties
Sykes–Picot Agreement
Two-state solution
United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights
United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine
References

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