This Week in Israel’s History: UN Approves Partition Plan for Jewish and Arab State

Exactly 68 years ago, the UN approved the partition of the Land of Israel, known then as Mandatory Palestine under British rule, into two states – one Jewish and one Arab. The Jews immediately accepted, but the Arabs rejected the decision and have been fighting the State of Israel ever since.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181, calling for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish and an Arab state. The resolution was approved by a vote that ended with 33 in favor of the partition, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent.

The resolution was accepted by the Jews in Palestine, yet rejected by the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab states. In fact, the land allocated for a new Arab state included Judea and Samaria – which Israel is now being pressured to negotiate by those in favor of a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many falsely claim that Israel’s “occupation” of these lands – which it won in the 1967 Six Day War under existential threat – is the root of the conflict.

The British mandate officially ended on May 15, 1948. On that same day, five Arab nations invaded the fledgling Jewish state.

This past Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the weekly cabinet meeting:

“Today is the 29th of November. Sixty-eight years ago today, on the 29th of November, the UN decided to recognize a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, a decision that advanced the establishment of the State of Israel. The next day, Jewish communities were under increasingly murderous attacks. As it was then, so it is today; we continue to fight terrorism. This terrorism has been with us for almost 100 years and we have defeated it time and again; we will defeat it this time as well.”

By: United with Israel Staff