Balfour, UN 1947 resolution, Declaration of Independence

BALFOUR DECLARATION (November 1917)
Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following
declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and
approved by, the Cabinet:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this
object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and
religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status
enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist
Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James Balfour
UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (Partition Plan)
November 29, 1947
The General Assembly, 􀀁
Having met in special session at the request of the mandatory Power to constitute and
instruct a Special Committee to prepare for the consideration of the question of the
future Government of Palestine at the second regular session; 􀀁
Having constituted a Special Committee and instructed it to investigate all questions
and issues relevant to the problem of Palestine, and to prepare proposals for the
solution of the problem, and 􀀁
Having received and examined the report of the Special Committee (document
A/364)(1) including a number of unanimous recommendations and a plan of partition
with economic union approved by the majority of the Special Committee, 􀀁
Considers that the present situation in Palestine is one which is likely to impair the
general welfare and friendly relations among nations; 􀀁
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Takes note of the declaration by the mandatory Power that it plans to complete its
evacuation of Palestine by l August 1948; 􀀁
Recommends to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all
other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to
the future Government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out
below; 􀀁
Requests that 􀀁
a. The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for in the plan for
its implementation;
b. The Security Council consider, if circumstances during the transitional period
require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine constitutes a threat
to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and in order to maintain
international peace and security, the Security Council should supplement the
authorization of the General Assembly by taking measures, under Articles 39 and
41 of the Charter, to empower the United Nations Commission, as provided in
this resolution, to exercise in Palestine the functions which are assigned to it by
this resolution;
c. The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or
act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter, any attempt to
alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution;
d. The Trusteeship Council be informed of the responsibilities envisaged for it in this
plan;
Calls upon the inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be necessary on their
part to put this plan into effect; 􀀁
Appeals to all Governments and all peoples to refrain from taking any action which
might hamper or delay the carrying out of these recommendations, and 􀀁
Authorizes the Secretary-General to reimburse travel and subsistence expenses of the
members of the Commission referred to in Part 1, Section B, Paragraph I below, on
such basis and in such form as he may determine most appropriate in the
circumstances, and to provide the Commission with the necessary staff to assist in
carrying out the functions assigned to the Commission by the General Assembly.* 􀀁
The General Assembly, 􀀁
Authorizes the Secretary-General to draw from the Working Capital Fund a sum not to
exceed 2,000,000 dollars for the purposes set forth in the last paragraph of the
resolution on the future government of Palestine.
PLAN OF PARTITION WITH ECONOMIC UNION 􀀁
Part I. - Future Constitution and Government of Palestine 􀀁
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1. The Mandate for Palestine shall terminate as soon as possible but in any case
not later than 1 August 1948.
2. The armed forces of the mandatory Power shall be progressively withdrawn from
Palestine, the withdrawal to be completed as soon as possible but in any case
not later than 1 August 1948.
The mandatory Power shall advise the Commission, as far in advance as
possible, of its intention to terminate the mandate and to evacuate each area.
The mandatory Power shall use its best endeavours to ensure that an area
situated in the territory of the Jewish State, including a seaport and hinterland
adequate to provide facilities for a substantial immigration, shall be evacuated at
the earliest possible date and in any event not later than 1 February 1948.
3. Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for
the City of Jerusalem, set forth in Part III of this Plan, shall come into existence in
Palestine two months after the evacuation of the armed forces of the mandatory
Power has been completed but in any case not later than 1 October 1948. The
boundaries of the Arab State, the Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem shall
be as described in Parts II and III below.
4. The period between the adoption by the General Assembly of its
recommendation on the question of Palestine and the establishment of the
independence of the Arab and Jewish States shall be a transitional 􀀁 period.
Adopted at the 128th plenary meeting: 􀀁
In favour: 33 􀀁
Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Costa Rica,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti,
Iceland, Liberia, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian S.S.R., Union of South Africa,
U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Uruguay, Venezuela. 􀀁
Against: 13 􀀁
Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Turkey, Yemen. 􀀁
Abstained: 10 􀀁
Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United
Kingdom, Yugoslavia. 􀀁
A. TERMINATION OF MANDATE, PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE 􀀁
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THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF
ISRAEL (May 14, 1948)
Text: 􀀁
ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish
people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first
attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and
gave to the world the eternal Book of Books. 􀀁
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their
Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the
restoration in it of their political freedom. 􀀁
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive
generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they
returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in
defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the
Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling
its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing
the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards
independent nationhood. 􀀁
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State,
Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the
Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country. 􀀁
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and reaffirmed
in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international
sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to
the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home. 􀀁
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of
Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem
of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would
open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people
the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations. 􀀁
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world,
continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers,
and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their
national homeland. 􀀁
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share
to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi
wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be
reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations. 􀀁
􀀁
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On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a
resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General
Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary
on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United
Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable. 􀀁
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all
other nations, in their own sovereign State. 􀀁
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST
MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF
THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR
NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE
STATE OF ISRAEL. 􀀁
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate
being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the
establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the
Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than
the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State,
and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional
Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel". 􀀁
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of
the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its
inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets
of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants
irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience,
language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it
will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. 􀀁
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and
representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General
Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic
union of the whole of Eretz-Israel. 􀀁
WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its
State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations. 􀀁
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months -
to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the
upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation
in all its provisional and permanent institutions. 􀀁
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace
and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and
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mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel
is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle
East. 􀀁
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of
Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great
struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel. 􀀁
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES
TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF
STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS
SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
􀀁
As leader of the Yishuv, David Ben-Gurion was the first person to sign. He was followed
by:
Daniel Auster, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Mordechai Bentov, Eliyahu Berligne, Fritz Bernstein,
Rachel Cohen-Kagan, Eliyahu Dobkin, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman, Rabbi
Wolf Gold, Meir Grabovsky, Dr Abraham Granovsky, Yitzhak Gruenbaum, Rabbi
Kalman Kahana, Eliezer Kaplan, Abraham Katznelson, Saadia Kobashi, Moshe
Kolodny, Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Levin, Meir David Loewenstein, Zvi Luria, Golda
Meyerson, Nahum Nir, David-Zvi Pinkas, Felix Rosenblueth, David Remez, Berl
Repetur, Zvi Segal, Mordechai Shatner, Ben-Zion Sternberg, Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit,
Haim-Moshe Shapira, Moshe Shertok, Herzl Vardi, Meir Vilner, Zerach Warhaftig and