77            Memorandum by M.A.Maksimov

COPY:AVP RF,F.0118,OP.2,P.2,D.8,LL.107-9

Moscow, 12 April 1947

Secret

A POSSIBLE POSITION FOR THE USSR IN DISCUSSION

OF THE PALESTINE QUESTION AT THE UNITED NATIONS

The USSR’s position on the Palestine question can be formulated briefly in the following propositions:

1.      The British Mandate must be annulled.

2.      British troops must be withdrawn from Palestine.

3.      The United Nations must work out a constitution for a single independent democratic Palestine, which will ensure that the peoples living there enjoy equal national and democratic rights.

4.      The Jewish question in Western Europe cannot be solved only by immigration to Palestine, since nothing short of the complete destruction of all the roots of fascism and the democratization of the countries of Western Europe will give the Jewish masses normal conditions of life.

I.The British Mandate for Palestine must be annulled, since it is an insuperable and fundamental obstacle to a basic solution of the Palestine problem.

  When the British government accepted the mandate for Palestine in 1922, it undertook the obligation to promote the development of the country towards the achievement of local self-government and local autonomy. The mandate gave Great Britain complete legislative and administrative rights in Palestine, including control of foreign relations and the judicial system. Britain also obtained the right to station its troops in Palestine. The absolute ruler of the country is the British high commissioner,who enjoys total legislative and executive power.

  In spite of this, Britain, which has ruled Palestine for almost a quarter of a centry, with all the considerable powers mentioned above, and an enormous state and military apparatus, has failed in the task of mandatory power and has been unable to establish order in the country or to prevent almost continuous bloodshed. This creates a threat to security in the Near East.

II.British troops must be withdrawn from Palestine in order to create a normal situation there. The urgent withdrawal of British troops must be carried out in order to create a situation which make it possible to prepare conditions for the organization of self-government in Palestine, since the presence of British troops in Palestine creates disturbances and sedition not only in Palestine itself, but also in neighbouring countries as well. Palestine, which has

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one of the main concentrations of British troops in the Near East, is include by Britain in its general plan for military measures in this part of the world which are intended to create a military bridgehead. This is not only unnecessary at present, but threatens to cause trouble for all the countries of the Near East.

III.We must support the demands of progressive groups for the creation of a single, independent and democratic Palestine, which will ensure that all the peoples living there will enjoy equal national and democratic rights.

  The United Nations must produce, within a fixed period, conditions for the creation of an independent, democratic Palestine draw up a constitution for that state. The United Nations must also act as guarantor for the implementation of the conditions which it has drawn up.

 The independent and democratic Palestinian state will be a member of the United Nations.

IV. Any attempts by a single state to get rights from the United Nations to a protectorate over Palestine cannot be accepted. Without doubts, Britain, claiming the right to retain the mandate or to be given trusteeship, will pursue the same policy in Palestine as under the mandate.

  It would be more fruitful to discuss the establishment of a collective protectorate under the auspices of the United Nations, although in this case, too, it must be remembered that the population of the country (both Arabs and Jews) is mature enough to be given full independence, that both are opposed in principle to a protectorate, and that Jews and Arabs call for full independence and the creation of, respectively, a Jewish or an Arab state.

                                                 M.Maksimov 1

1.Handwritten note at the top of the first page:’ Sent to Comrade Malik by the 10^th Section on 12 April 1947.’ The 10^th Section was in charge of transmitting cipher messages.

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