79 Memorandum by the Jewish Agency

COPY:ISA 93.03/2268/16

New York, 28 April 1947

Confidential

SPECIAL SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The Jewish [Agency] Delegation’s View of Questions on the Agenda:

1. The special session of the General Assembly, which opened on 28 April, was convened on the initiative of Great Britain, with the agreement of the majority of members of the United Nations, including the permanent members

180页

of the Security Council. At present there is only one point on the agenda: the formation of a special commission to prepare the Palestine question for consideration at the next regular session of the General Assembly, and to draw ip terms of reference for the commission.

  The Jewish delegation has no objection to this point on the agenda.

  2. According to the available information,  the Arabs states are proposing the addition of one more point to the agenda: the termination of the British Mandate and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The Jewish delegation is against examining the Arab proposal at this session, and therefore opposes any such addition to the agenda. This is merely one way of solving the Palestine problem. The United Nations can make recommendations only after exhaustive study of the problem in all its complexity, and this will take time. In the time between the special and regular sessions, the Special Commission will be in a position to prepare thoroughly considered proposals, which cannot be done at this session.

3. There sides have a direct interest in the Palestine question: the Jews, the Arabs and Great Britain. Great Britain takes part in the General Assembly; the interests of the Palestinian Arabs are represented by five Arab states; the Jews are absent. It is hard to imagine that the United Nation, acting according to the principles of justice and international law, could disregard these principles in a matter so vital to the Jewish people. The Jewish people is represented in its aspirations for Palestine by the Jewish delegation, which is also the authorized representative of the Jewish people of Palestine (see article 3 of the mandate, which was approved for implementation by article 80 of the United Nations charter).

The Jewish delegation will demand permission to take part in the work of the Assembly (without voting rights), and hopes for active support from other delegations.

4.As for membership of the Special commission, the Jewish delegation considers Arab participation in it as unacceptable. On the other hand, both the Jewish people and the Arab population of Palestine must be given every possible opportumity to appear before the commission and to present their views and wishes both in writing and orally.

5. The commission’s terms of reference should be : 1)to clarify the aims of the Palestine mandate; 2) to establish to what extent the administration and the mandatory power have fulfilled their international obligations; 3) to recommend so;utions in accordance with the spirt and the letter of the mandate, article 80 of the United Nations charter, the Balfour Declaration and the principles of international law (including the theory of ‘properly acquired rights’).

The commission must be instructed to leave for Palestine without delay, in order to study the matter on the spot.