United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (November 29, 1947)
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
It was approved on November 29, 1947 with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent (see list). Violence in the Holy Land broke out almost immediately after the UN announced partition on November 29, 1947.
The War of 1948 Myths & Facts
MYTH
“The Jews started the first war with the Arabs.”
FACT
The chairman of the Arab Higher Committee said the Arabs would "fight for every inch of their country."1 Two days later, the holy men of Al-Azhar University in Cairo called on the Muslim world to proclaim a jihad (holy war) against the Jews. 2 Jamal Husseini, the Arab Higher Committee’s spokesman, had told the UN prior to the partition vote the Arabs would drench "the soil of our beloved country with the last drop of our blood.
The Arabs were blunt in taking responsibility for starting the war. Jamal Husseini told the Security Council on April 16, 1948: The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight
MYTH
“The United States was the only nation that criticized the Arab attack on Israel.”
FACT
The United States, the Soviet Union and most other states recognized Israel soon after it declared independence on May 14, 1948, and immediately indicted the Arabs for their aggression. The United States urged a resolution charging the Arabs with breach of the peace. Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko told the Security Council, May 29, 1948: This is not the first time that the Arab states, which organized the invasion of Palestine, have ignored a decision of the Security Council or of the General Assembly. The USSR delegation deems it essential that the council should state its opinion more clearly and more firmly with regard to this attitude of the Arab states toward decisions of the Security Council
On July 15, the Security Council threatened to cite the Arab governments for aggression under the UN Charter. By this time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had succeeded in stopping the Arab offensive and the initial phase of the fighting ended.
MYTH
“The Arab economic boycott of Israel was imposed after the 1948 war.”
FACT
The Arab boycott was formally declared by the newly formed Arab League Council on December 2, 1945: “Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries.”
In 1977, Congress prohibited U.S. companies from cooperating with the Arab boycott. When President Carter signed the law,
The Arabs not only rejected partition, but attacked Israel from all sides. The armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq invaded Israel on May 15, 1947, the day after Israel’s Independence Day, with the clear intention of killing the infant state in its cradle.
On May 15, 1947 Azzam Pasha called for “jihad”, saying:
This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".
Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, agreed with Pasha:
I declare a holy war, my muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!
In a letter to the United Nations, the Transjordanian Prime Minister was quoted:
Our position is clear, and has been proclaimed on every occasion. It is never to allow the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine and to exclude partition. And our object is to cooperate with the other Arab States in her deliverance. Once this aim is attained, the determination of her future status is the right and concern of her own people. Theirs alone is the last word. We have no other object or aim in view.
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.
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/partition.html
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf4.html
palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_un_arabrejection.php