Summary
The London Conference of September 1946 to February 1947 on the future of Palestine, at which the Arab countries proposed a unitary independent State and both that scheme’s alternatives and Britain’s own proposals were rejected, ending in Britain’s referral of the Palestine problem to the United Nations, in the United Nations study’s account (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 1293-1321).
Details
- The Conference met from September 1946 to February 1947, starting in the absence of representatives of either the Palestinian Arabs or the Jews, both of whom had refused the invitation; the Arab countries attending opposed the scheme for two autonomous provinces under a British High Commissioner that British and American officials had produced from the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry report (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 1289-1295).
- The Arab proposals were: (a) Palestine a unitary State with a permanent Arab majority, independent after a short transition of two or three years under British Mandate; (b) full civil rights for Jews who had acquired Palestinian citizenship, the qualification being ten years’ residence; (c) special safeguards for the Jewish community’s religious and cultural rights; (d) Jewish seats in the Legislative Assembly proportionate to the number of Jewish citizens, never exceeding one third of the total; (e) immigration and land-transfer legislation to require the consent of a majority of the Arab members of the Legislative Assembly, and the Jewish safeguards to be alterable only with the consent of a majority of its Jewish members (lines 1295-1305).
- The Zionist Congress, meeting in Basle, rejected the provincial autonomy scheme as “a travesty of Britain’s obligation under the Mandate”, rejected any form of trusteeship, and demanded a Jewish Commonwealth, open gates and Jewish Agency control of immigration (lines 1307-1313).
- In February 1947 the British Government presented its own proposals to the Arab representatives, by then joined by representatives of the Palestinian Arab Higher Executive, and to the Jewish Agency; both sides rejected them, and the Foreign Secretary announced in the House of Commons on 18 February 1947 that the problem would be submitted to the judgement of the United Nations (lines 1315-1321).
Related pages
Arab League, Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1939 London Round Table Conference, Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I)