The Trusteeship Plan for Palestine
The following are excerpts from Security Council meeting records made in March 1948 in consideration of the General Assembly Partition Plan of Palestine (November 1947). It becomes clear by 19 March 1948 that the United States rejects the partition plan and favours a UN trusteeship for Palestine until such a time as the Jews and Arabs of Palestine can reach agreement.
The excerpts are from S/PV271 (19th March 1948), S/PV274 (24th March 1948), S/PV275 (30th March 1948).
UN Document Search (ODS- Official Document Search UN)
[As ODS does not have permalink you will need to search the documents individually ie. go to Advanced Search and search 'Symbol' S/PV271 - scroll down until 1948]
Statement by Ambassador Warren R. Austin, United States Representative in the Security Council, March 19, 1948 (Excerpts)
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/decad166.asp
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 271ST MEETING, 19 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
S/PV271
Palestine
Held at Lake Success, New York, on Friday, 19 March 1948, at 3.30pm.
President; Mr T. F. Tsiang (China).
Present: The representatives of the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Syria, Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, United Kingdom, United States of America.
Mr Austin (United States):
In addition, my Government believes that a temporary trusteeship for Palestine should be established under the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations to maintain the peace and to afford the Jews and Arabs of Palestine, who must live together, further opportunity to reach an agreement regarding the future government of that country…In our opinion, the Security Council should recommend the establishment of such a trusteeship to the General Assembly and to the Mandatory Power. This would require an immediate special session of the General Assembly, which the Security Council should instruct the Palestine Commission to suspend its efforts to implement the proposed partition plan. (p. 167)
Rabbi Silver replaced Mr Shertok at the Council table as representative of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Rabbi Silver (Jewish Agency for Palestine): (p. 168)
The proposal of the United States Government to suspend all efforts to implement the partition plan approved by the United Nations General Assembly last November, under the leadership of the United States, and to establish a temporary trusteeship for Palestine, is a shocking reversal of its position…We are at an utter loss to understand the reason for this amazing reversal…We can only assume from the statement of the United States delegation that the reason for scrapping a decision of the United Nations General Assembly, overwhelmingly approved by its members, was the threat on the part of some Member States to alter that decision by violence…It should be clear to everyone that the establishment of a trusteeship by the United Nations in Palestine will not automatically ensure peace in that country, and that force will have to be used to maintain that arrangement, just as it would have been necessary to carry out the partition decision of the United Nations (p. 169).
The President: Speaking as the representative of China, I would say that the proposals of the United States are in harmony with the stand which my delegation has consistently taken on the Palestine question.
Instead of furnishing such force or authorizing such a use of force, we should, consistent with our primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, order a truce, both military and political. By this time it is clear that a simple military truce cannot be secured without a simultaneous political truce or moratorium.
Mr Gromyko (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics):
The United States representative has tried repeatedly to emphasize that here seems to been general agreement on the fact that the General Assembly decision on Palestine cannot be put into effect by peaceful means. This statement is misleading, as there is no general agreement on this point.
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 274TH MEETING, 24 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
S/PV274
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/32/pdf/NL481232.pdf?OpenElement
PALESTINE
Two Hundred and Seventy-Forth Meeting
Held at Lake Success, New York, on Wednesday, 24 March 1948, at 10.30am
President; Mr T. F. Tsiang (China)
Present: The representatives of the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Syria, Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, United Kingdom, United States of America.
Mr El-Khouri (Syria): (p. 231).
General McNaughton (Canada): (p. 233)
“On the other hand, the cooling off period which a temporary trusteeship would provide would have the great merit of presenting an opportunity for moderate Jewish and Arab leaders to work out, in a less unfavourable atmosphere”
“A brief but vigorous effort has been made to give effect to the plan of partition. It is now proposed that this effort should be suspended, at least temporarily…” (p. 235).
Mr Parodi (France): p. 235.
“We have before us now a new United States proposal, put forward at the 271st meeting, which considerably changes the ground on which we have been working for the last few weeks. The French delegation is in favour of this new United States proposal in so far as it allows any possibility or time for seeking an agreement such as I spoke of a moment ago” (p. 238).
“The proposed provisional trusteeship arrangement would obviously give rise to a number of questions” (p. 238)
“we cannot at the present time pronounce ourselves either in favour or against the United Nations proposal” (p. 239).
Rabbi Silver (Jewish Agency for Palestine) (p. 244)
The Jewish Agency and the Vaad Leumi declare:
- The Jewish people and the Yishuv in Palestine will oppose any proposal designed to prevent or postpone the establishment of the Jewish State.
- We categorically reject any plan to set up a trusteeship regime for Palestine, even for a short period of time…
-
- Upon the termination of the Mandatory Administration and not later than 16 May next, a provisional Jewish Government will commence to function in cooperation with the representatives of the United Nations then in Palestine…
Mahmoud Fawzi Bey (Egypt):
Partition has brought nothing but trouble from the moment it was first talked about. It was only normal to reconsider and to review the whole position…I do wish to say that decision which mean suspending the implementation of partition will be a decision in the proper direction.
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 275TH MEETING, 30 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
S/PV275
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/33/pdf/NL481233.pdf?OpenElement
PALESTINE
Held at Lake Success, New York, on Friday, 30 March 1948, at 2.30pm.
President; Mr T. F. Tsiang (China).
Present: The representatives of the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Syria, Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, United Kingdom, United States of America.
At the invitation of the President, Mr Lisicky, Chairman of the United Nations Palestine Commission; Mahmoud Fawzi Bey, the representative of Egypt; and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, the representative of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, took their places at the Security Council table.
Mr Austin (United States): Such a truce should be based on two fundamental considerations. First it is absolutely essential that violence and bloodshed in Palestine cease…Secondly, both the Jews and Arabs of Palestine must be prepared to accept truce agreements…The truce should include suspension of political [author comment i.e suspend partition plan – try for trusteeship see China comment about a truce] as well as military activity.
…It will be noted that this resolution does not mention trusteeship. The United States adheres to the view I stated in the Security Council on 19 March at the 271st meeting, and which was reaffirmed by the Secretary of State on 20 March and again by the President of the United States on 25 March, that a temporary trusteeship should be used to maintain the peace. This trusteeship would be without prejudice to the character of the final political settlement in Palestine. We believe that a trusteeship is essential to establish order, without which a peaceful solution of this problem cannot be found or put into effect.
The exigencies of the time limit ..require prompt decision and issuance of the call for a special session. This should not be delayed by debate over details of the temporary trusteeship…
Mr Gromyko (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics):
It is obvious that the greatest complications have arisen from the submission of the United States proposals envisaging the abandonment of the already adopted partition plan and its replacement by the establishment of a United Nations trusteeship over Palestine.
…The Government of the USSR considers, as it has all along, that the decision adopted by the General Assembly on the partition of Palestine into two independent Jewish and Arab states is a just one…(p. 248).
…The United States representatives used all their influence in order to achieve adoption of their plan….The United States has changed its attitude towards its decision adopted with its active participation. Not only has it refused to support this decision, but it has raised the question of its revocation and introduced entirely new proposals to that effect. (p. 249)
…Now it has become apparent that all these arguments were aimed at preparing the ground to bury the partition plan and to justify the United States proposal on Palestine. (p. 250)
…that full responsibility for blocking the decision on the partition of Palestine falls on the United States…(p. 251)
It is not to difficult to understand what these new proposal mean, and what their authors are driving at. First of all it is necessary to note that these proposals are considered, not without reason as an attempt, under the pretext of maintaining order in Palestine, to convert that country into a military-strategic base for the United States and the United Kingdom. (p. 252)
Academic writing on the UN trusteeship
Truman and the State Department: The Palestine Trusteeship Proposal, March 1948
Michael J. Cohen
Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Spring, 1981), pp. 165-178
Published by: Indiana University Press
Truman and Israel / Michael J. Cohen (1940-)
Strategy and politics in the Middle East 1954-1960 : defending the Northern Tier / Michael J. Cohen
Palestine to Israel: From Mandate to Independence (Paperback)
http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/publications/jer_review/issue7_cohen.pdf
Michael J. Cohen. Michael J. Cohen is Professor Emeritus of history at Bar-Ilan University.
Harry S. Truman and the founding of Israel By Michael T. Benson
http://books.google.com/books?id=jmoab5xc9ogC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=michael+j+cohen+israel&source=bl&ots=bskGgVdwj7&sig=X67GD_bx_zVzjzmAIlo8WK99uqo&hl=en&ei=W-kpSr6rNZGEtAPS8rnoCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7
Yuen-li Liang, The Palestine Commission, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1948), pp. 649-656
Sonja Karkar, The partition of Palestine ushers in apartheid, IMEU, Nov 28, 2007
http://imeu.net/news/article007153.shtml
The 1948 War: A Cover up for Ethnic Cleansing Nizar Sakhnini, 16 November 2005
http://www.al-awda.org/zionists4.html
Creating a future trusteeship
Martin Indyk, A Trusteeship for Palestine?, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 82, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2003), pp. 51-66
Indyk proposes placing modern day West Bank and Gaza under a UN trusteeship led by the United States. He mentions nothing of the Trusteeship Plan proposed by the US in March 1948 once the US realized the partition plan could not succeed as it would lead to international conflict.
Security Council Meeting Records for March 1948
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 260TH MEETING, 2 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/43/pdf/NL480743.pdf?OpenElement
S/PV.261
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 261ST MEETING, 3 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/44/pdf/NL480744.pdf?OpenElement
S/PV.262
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 262ND MEETING, 5 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/45/pdf/NL480745.pdf?OpenElement
S/PV.263
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 263RD MEETING, 5 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/46/pdf/NL480746.pdf?OpenElement
S/PV.264
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 264TH MEETING, 8 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/47/pdf/NL480747.pdf?OpenElement
INDIA-PAKISTAN QUESTION
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
S/PV.265
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 265TH MEETING, 9 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/807/48/pdf/NL480748.pdf?OpenElement
TRIESTE (FREE TERRITORY)
APPOINTMENT OF OFFICIALS
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 266TH MEETING, 10 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
India Pakistan
S/PV.267
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 267TH MEETING, 16 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/25/pdf/NL481225.pdf?OpenElement
Palestine
S/PV268
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 268TH MEETING, 17 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
Czechoslovakia
S/PV269
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 269TH MEETING, 18 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
India Pakistan
S/PV270
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 270TH MEETING, 19 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
Palestine
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/28/pdf/NL481228.pdf?OpenElement
s/PV271
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 271ST MEETING, 19 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://ods@documents.un.org/mother.asp
Palestine
s/PV272
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 272ND MEETING, 22 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
Czechoslovakia
S/PV273
ECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 273RD MEETING, 23 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
Czechoslovakia
S/PV274
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 274TH MEETING, 24 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/32/pdf/NL481232.pdf?OpenElement
PALESTINE
S/PV275
ECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 275TH MEETING, 30 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/33/pdf/NL481233.pdf?OpenElement
PALESTINE
S/PV276
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 276TH MEETING, 31 MARCH 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
Czechoslovakia
S/PV277
SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS, 3RD YEAR : 277TH MEETING, 1 APRIL 1948, LAKE SUCCESS, NEW YORK
http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL4/812/35/pdf/NL481235.pdf?OpenElement
PALESTINE
posted by Stewart Mills at
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