Jennifer
Loewenstein Archive |
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Interesting to read...
- ON THIS DAY -
On Nov. 29, 1947, the U.N.
General Assembly passed a resolution calling for
the partitioning of Palestine
between Arabs and Jews.
ASSEMBLY VOTES PALESTINE PARTITION; MARGIN IS
33 TO 13; ARABS WALK OUT;
ARANHA HAILS WORK AS SESSION ENDS
Proposal Driven Through by
U.S. and Soviet Will Set Up Two States
COMMISSION IS APPOINTED
Britain Holds Out Hand to It
- Arabs Fail in Last-Minute Resort to Federal
Plan
By THOMAS J. HAMILTON
RELATED HEADLINES
Arabs See U.N. 'Murdered,'
Disavow Any Partition Role: Angry Delegates
Stalk From Assembly Hall
Zioninst Audience Joyful
After Vote
he United Nations General
Assembly approved yesterday a proposal to
partition Palestine into two
states, one Arab and the other Jewish, that are
to become fully independent
by Oct.1. The vote was 33 to 13 with two
abstentions and one
delegation, the Siamese, absent.
The decision was primarily a
result of the fact that the delegations of the
United States and the Soviet
Union, which were at loggerheads on every other
important issue before the
Assembly, stood together on partition. Andrei A.
Gromyko and Herschel V.
Johnson both urged the Assembly yesterday not to
agree to further delay but to
vote for partition at once.
The Assembly disregarded last
minute Arab efforts to effect a compromise.
Although the votes of a dozen
or more delegations see-sawed to the last,
supporters of partition had
two votes more than the required two-thirds
majority, or a margin of
three.
How Members Voted
The roll-call vote was as
follows: For (33) - Australia, Belgium, Bolivia,
Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, France, Guatemala,
Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, New Zealand,
Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru
Philippines, Poland, Sweden,
Ukraine, South Africa, Uruguay, the Soviet
Union, the United States,
Venezuela, White Russia.
Against (13) - Afghanistan,
Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq,
Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen.
Abstentions (10) - Argentina,
Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador,
Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico,
United Kingdom, Yugoslavia.
Absent (1) - Siam.
All other questions before
the Assembly were disposed of a week ago, and it
ended its second regular
session at 6:57 P.M. after farewell speeches by Dr.
Oswaldo Aranha, its
President, and Trygve Lie, the Secretary General. The
Assembly's third regular
session is to open in a European capital on Sept.
21.
The vote on partition was
taken at 5:35 P. M. Representatives of Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, and
Yemen, four of the six Arab member states,
announced that they would not
be bound by the Assembly's decision and walked
determinedly out of the
Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadow. The Egyptian and
Lebanese delegates were
silent but walked out, too...
The United Nations commission
which will be responsible to the Security
Council in the event that the
Arabs carry out their threats to fight rather
than agree to partition, will
be composed of representatives of Bolivia,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark,
Panama and the Philippines.
This state, which is
understood to have the backing of the United States,
was proposed by Dr. Aranha
and approved without opposition after the Arab
delegates had walked out...
U.S. Efforts Praised
The United States delegation
played its part in persuading the delegate in
question not to present the
motion for recommittal, and supporters of
partition agreed that, after
long hesitation, it had sincerely done its best
to obtain Assembly approval
of partition.
It was still difficult to
account for the fact that Greece, which otherwise
followed United States
leadership throughout the long Assembly, voted
against partition and that
some Latin American countries abstained.
Britain, which brought the
Palestine question before the Assembly last
March, abstained on all votes
in the Palestine committee and in poling on
the issue in the Assembly.
It was expected that had the
Assembly failed to reach a decision the United
States would have asked
Britain to stay on in Palestine. Sir Alexander's
statement after the decision
was taken was welcomed as being more
cooperative than previous
ones. It was generally expected that the United
States and Britain would now
agree on a working arrangement to facilitate
the commission's work....
........
Jennifer Loewenstein
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