Talk:United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine

Add India Partition to See Also

I currently don't have >500 edits, so I cannot edit this article due to it being locked with Extended Confirmed Protection. Instead, can someone with >500 edits please add the Partition of India to the "See Also" section? India/Pakistan was partitioned the year before this was voted-on, and this article states that both India and Pakistan voted against the Partition Plan for Palestine. I think the reader may want to read about what happened in India/Pakistan from their recent partition after reading this article. -- 03:21, 16 December 2022 Maltfield

Edit request: Ad hoc Committee, last section

• What I think should be changed (format using {{textdiff}}):

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Arab states requested representation on the UN ad hoc subcommittees of October 1947, but were excluded from Subcommittee One, which had been delegated the specific task of studying and, if thought necessary, modifying the boundaries of the proposed partition. [FN 1]

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The chairman [[H. V. Evatt]] excluded the Arab states from Subcommittee One, which had been delegated the specific task of studying and, if thought necessary, modifying the boundaries of the proposed partition. Initially, only this majority proposal was to be drafted, but an unnamed US politician maneuvered to also draft the minority proposal, thereby excluding the Arab states from the majority proposal's drafting. Instead, all Arab states were placed in Subcommittee 2 to draft the minority recommendation. [FN 2] Evatt also rejected a motion from Subcommittee 2 to balance this subcommittees' composition. [FN 3] He was later criticized for thereby preventing a compromise and a fairer partition proposal by creating these "unbalanced" subcommittees. [FN 4-6]

• Why it should be changed:
  This was in fact one of the major irregularities in the drafting of the partition resolution. The matter is referenced in the UN Yearbook 1947/1948. Cohen reports on it, cited by Thomas, who is cited by the Wikitext. Each source presents it slightly differently from the previous one, so the Wikitext is not accurate in the end. I mark the crucial point with a "[!]".
  • UN, Department of Public Information: Yearbook of the United Nations. 1947–48. p. 240: "On a preliminary review of the task assigned to it - the drafting of a detailed plan for the termination of the Mandate over Palestine and the establishment of Palestine as an independent unitary state - the Sub-Committee felt that it was somewhat unfortunate that both Sub-Committee 1 and Sub-Committee 2 were so constituted as to include in each of them representatives of only one school of thought, respectively, and that there was insufficient representation of neutral countries. Accordingly, it was proposed that the Chairman of the ad hoc Committee should be requested to reconstitute Sub-Committee 2 (irrespective of what might be done with regard to Sub-Committee 1) [!] by replacing two of the Arab States in the Sub-Committee (which were prepared to withdraw) by neutrals or countries which had not definitely committed themselves to any particular solution of the Palestine question. The Chairman of the ad hoc Committee, being approached in this connection, explained to the Sub-Committee that he could not see his way to accepting this recommendation. [!] In the circumstances, the representative of Colombia resigned from the Sub-Committee on October 28, and Sir Mohammed Zafrulla Khan (Pakistan) was elected as Chairman in his stead, at the same time retaining his position as Rapporteur of the Sub-Committee."
  • Michael J. Cohen (2016): Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945-1948. Princeton Legacy Library. p. 284: "On October 22, 1947, the Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine, chaired by Dr. Herbert E. Evatt of Australia, set up [!] two subcommittees, to study the majority and minority reports and to bring forward detailed proposals to the full assembly. Subcommittee One, with nine members, all supporters of partition, was deputed to work on the majority report; Subcommittee Two, composed of six Arab delegates and three supporters of the minority plan, was to work out the details of the unitary state scheme. [...] Subcommittee Two was not really taken seriously, and the unitary state scheme was never considered at any length by the assembly. Evatt found his freedom of choice severely limited by the right of delegates to opt out of subcommittees [!], but nevertheless he was criticized severely for composing them exclusively of delegates who already supported the schemes they were called upon to consider. The mutual exclusivity of the two reports was underlined by the fact that the Jewish Agency exploited to the full the opportunity afforded it to give evidence to Subcommittee One, while the HAC, which boycotted the first committee, was continually consulted by Subcommittee Two."
  • Thomas (see text): "The Arabs had boycotted the June 1947 UNSCOP inquiry [this is completely wrong; it was only the Arab Higher Committee (sc. Palestine's 'government') that boycotted UNSCOP] but wished to participate in the Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine's subcommittees of October 1947. They were excluded from Subcommittee One, responsible for studying and modifying the boundaries and other specifics of partition. The UN Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine placed only pro-partition, pro-Jewish countries (including the United States and U.S.S.R.) on this subcommittee. The chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, though limited in his freedom of choice concerning the assignment of delegates to various committees [!], 'was criticized severely for composing them exclusively of delegates who already supported the schemes that were called upon to consider.' The Arabs were included only in Subcommittee Two, dealing with the minority report (unitary Arab plan), which was not taken seriously. Cohen, Palestine, 284."

DaWalda (talk) 18:50, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Edit request: United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), First Section

• What I think should be changed (format using {{textdiff}}):

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The Arab states, convinced statehood had been subverted, and that the transition of authority from the League of Nations to the UN was questionable in law, wished the issues to be brought before an International Court, and refused to collaborate with UNSCOP, which had extended an invitation for liaison also to the [[Arab Higher Committee]]. [FN 1: Thomas] [FN 2]

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The Arab states, convinced statehood had been subverted, and that the transition of authority from the League of Nations to the UN was questionable in law, wished the issues to be brought before an International Court. The [[Arab Higher Committee]] even officially refused to cooperate with UNSCOP. [FN 2] [FN 3]

• Why it should be changed: The information in Thomas is wrong. I have actually found even more books where a boycott by 'the Arabs' is mentioned. However, the matter is thoroughly discussed by Levenberg: It was only some members of the Arab Higher Committee who wanted to boycott UNSCOP. The other Arab states were against it, did of course work together with UNSCOP, and even within the AHC, several individuals (e.g., Khalidi [cf., e.g., Morris: 1948. p. 45] and Alami [cf., e.g., Levenberg: Politics... p. 157]) unofficially collaborated with UNSCOP.
  
  

DaWalda (talk) 09:19, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Edit request: Proposed partition

• What I think should be changed and added (format using {{textdiff}}):

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The proposed Arab State would include the central and part of western [[Galilee]], with the town of [[Akko|Acre]], the hill country of [[Samaria]] and [[Judea]], an enclave at [[Jaffa]], 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. [...]

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The proposed Arab State would include the central and part of western [[Galilee]], with the town of [[Akko|Acre]], the hill country of [[Samaria]] and [[Judea]], and the southern coast stretching from north of Isdud (now [[Ashdod]]) and encompassing what is now the [[Gaza Strip]]. [...]

• Why it should be changed: This is not accurate. The Jaffa section was only added later, following the comments of later members of Sub-committee 2. The same is true for the desert section, which was added at the request of the USA. This is already stated in the Wikipedia article further below. UNSCOP instead proposed:
  • About Jaffa: "Jaffa, which has an Arab population of about 70,000, is entirely Arab except for two Jewish quarters. It is contiguous with Tel Aviv and would either have to be treated as an enclave or else be included in the Jewish State. On balance, and having in mind the difficulties which an enclave involves, not least from the economic point at view, it was thought better to suggest that Jaffa be included in the Jewish State, on the assumption that it would have a large measure of local autonomy and that the port would be under the administration of the Economic Union."
  • About the southern coastal plain and the Negev: "The proposed Arab State will include Western Galilee, the hill country of Samaria and Judea with the exclusion of the City of Jerusalem, and the coastal plain from Isdud to the Egyptian frontier. The proposed Jewish State will include Eastern Galilee, the Esdraelon plain, most of the coastal plain, and the whole of the Beersheba subdistrict, which includes the Negeb."
    
    

DaWalda (talk) 09:19, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi, you're right, thanks for noticing the error. I was about to make the change but then I wondered whether the statistics in the last paragraphs of the Proposed partition section refer to the initial plan or to the amended one (the part starting from The Plan would have had the following demographics (data based on 1945) and ending with The Jewish State allocated to the Jews, who constituted a third of the population and owned about 7% of the land, was to receive 56% of Mandatory Palestine, a slightly larger area to accommodate the increasing numbers of Jews who would immigrate there.) Alaexis_¿question? 20:56, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

You are right. The population statistics are from the UNSCOP report, the land statistics refer to the final partition (55,5% Jewish state, 43,8% Arab State, 0,7% Jerusalem. See Abu-Sitta 2010, p. 7). I've done a very rough measurement: the area along the border with Egypt (the largest change) is just ~7-8% of Palestine. According to the UNSCOP plan, therefore, roughly 62-63% would have been allocated to the Jewish state. But this would need a source. I can't find any calculations on how the areas of the Jewish and Arab states compared to each other before the adjustments. DaWalda (talk) 08:17, 11 June 2024 (UTC)