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59  Memorandum by M.A.Maksimov

COPY:AVP RF, F.06, OP.8, P.42,D.694, LL.1-4

Moscow, 15 May 1946 Secret

                THE PALESTINE QUESTION

On 13 Aprol 1946 the Anglo-American Committee [of Enquiry] which had been set up by Britain and the US to study the question of Palestine completed its work and published its report.1

   The committee made the following recommendations to the British and United States governments:

1.To transfer 100,000 Jews to Palestine in 1946, if possible. This immigration should take place as quickly as circumstances allow.

2.Neither a Jewish nor an Arab state should be created in Palestine, since this would lead to civil war. Ultimately Palestine must become a state which would guarantee equal rights to Christians, Jews and Arabs.

3.The existing British mandate should continue as the basis of government in Palestine until the United Nations reaches agreement on a UN trusteeship.

4.The existing regulations on the leasing and sale of land in Palestine must be replaced by others, based on a policy of free sale and leasing of land to all persons, irrespective of their race or religion.

5.There should be a declaration of principle, that the economic, cultural and political development of the Arabs in Palestine should be given as much importance as the development of the Jews.

These are the basic points of the recommendations worked out by the committee, and presented for the approval of the governments of the US and Britain.

   The published report of the committee roused a storm of protest in the Arab countries: Iraq, Syria, Lebannon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and in the Muslim part of India. In the countries of the Arab East there were strikes, public meetings and speeches against the committee’s report, which was

注释

1.See ‘Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry Regarding the Future of European Jewry and Palestine, 30 April 1946, in Cohen, the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine 1945-1946, pp.136-218.

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regarded as an effort by Britain, in collaboration with and under cover of the US, to organize a new military, economic and political bridgehead, a second 'independent Transjordan'2 in the Near East. 

    Britain’s position on the Palestine question is quite clear: side by side with Transjordan, the British government is trying to create in Palestine a new bridgehead in the Near East, which will ensure that British oil has an outlet to the Mediterranean, and to use Palestine to complete the chain of states under British control.

   The British have involved the US in the solution of the Palestine problem in order to divert from Britain the Arab countries’ attacks on the policy of gaining control of Palestine, and to set Arab public opinion against the US, thereby weakening the American position in the countries of the Arab East, in particular Saudi Arabia.

   However, the US has been drown into the Palestine tangle not only at the invitation of the British, but also in order to establish themselves, in addition to Saudi Arabia, on the shores of the Mediterranean, close to the sources of oil in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. The US is also interested in the Palestine ports for the export of its own Arabian oil. Lastly, the United States government is under great pressure from powerful American Zionist capitalists, who have invested considerable capital in Palestine, and who continue to do so. (At present, foreign capital in Palestine has reached the sum of $500,000,000 and American Zionist capitalists are working on a plan for the irrigation and electrification of Palestine,3 which will require new capital opened 432 new investment amounting to &43,700,000; during the war alone, Zionist capital opened 432 new industrial enterprises in Palestine.)

   Britain and the US are working together but outside the United Nations in an attempt to prolong the validity of the British mandate for Palestine, on the pretext that any radical solution of the Palestine problem would at the present moment result in civil war in Palestine. Their argument, that while the disorders there continue the country must remain under the British Mandate and military occupation, is clear evidence that they aim to prevent the interference of other states in the solution of the Palestine problem until Palestine is completely in British and American possession.

   Our silence on the Palestine question could be interpreted by the US, Britain, the Arabs and the Jews as a degree of compliance on the part of the Soviet Union with the committee’s proposals. Bearing this in mind, and also considering that official and unofficial representatives of the Arab countries and Jewish organizations are turning to the Soviet government for a solution to the Palestine problem, we think it expedient to present our point of view in two or three  articles in the press. Our diplomatic representatives could then

   注释

2. On 22 March 1946 Great Britain relinquished its mandatory rule over Transjordan and concluded with it a 25-year treaty of alliance which maintained British military rights in that country.

3. This presumably refers to the Jordan Valley Authority power and irrigation scheme elaborated by Walter Lowdermilk of the US Department of Agriculture in 1944 (See Doc.29 and n.2 there).

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refer to these articles in private conversation if Arab or Jewish representatives raise the matter with them.  

   Our position on the Palestine question should, evidently, consist of the following points:

1.The Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry, which was formed without the participation of the United Nations, was not competent to discuss this question, or to solve the Palestine problem without the participation of the directly interested parties.

2.The Jewish question in Europe can not be resolved by the immigration of Jews to Palestine, since only the complete destruction of all the roots of fascism and the democratization of the European countries can give the Jewish masses normal living conditions.

3.The British Mandate for Palestine must be annulled, since it makes the solution of the Palestine question more difficult, and creates a threat to security in the Middle East. Foreign troops must be withdrawn from Palestine.

4.There must be a United Nations trusteeship regime for Palestine, which will create the necessary conditions for the formation of an independent and democratic Palestine.

We ourselves must not raise the Palestine question for discussion at the United Nations. It must be raised by the Arab members of the UN, and we should only express our point of view and defend it.

   The publication of articles on the Palestine question may be expediently postponed until after the forthcoming session of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs has finished its work.4

                                                              M.Maksimov

注释

4.This session of the Counc 1 of Foreign Ministers was scheduled to take place from 15 June to 17 July 1946. At the top of the document the following typewritten notes are appended:’ To Comrade Molotov: For my part, I think these proposals are generally acceptable. I ask your instructions. V.Dekanozov, 20.5’; ‘ Comrade Vyshinskii, Lozovskii, Dekanozov: It should be discussed, 27.5, Molotov.’