Summary
The government of the State of Israel proclaimed on 14 May 1948, which in the Mediator’s progress report is exercising, without restrictions on its authority or power, all the attributes of full sovereignty, and which controlled the most important parts of the area allotted to the Jewish State by the resolution of 29 November 1947 when the Mandate ended (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 405, lines 805-819).
Details
-
Its Minister for Foreign Affairs was Mr. Shertok (Moshe Sharett), with whom the Mediator consulted in Tel-Aviv and corresponded throughout the period covered by Part One of the progress report (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 477, line 657).
-
By its letter of 5 July 1948 it objected to the Mediator’s 27 June suggestions as deviations from the General Assembly resolution of 29 November 1947, particularly on the regulation of immigration and the status of Jerusalem, offered no counter-suggestions, and urged reconsideration of his whole approach to the problem (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 581).
-
It claimed at first to be acting according to the resolution of 29 November as far as circumstances permitted and to make no claim to territory beyond that resolution’s boundaries, and invoked that resolution in its appeal to the Security Council when the Arab States’ armies entered Palestine on 15 May 1948; according to the Mediator, its recent pronouncements urge that the boundaries be modified for the present military situation and for more readily defensible frontiers, and press for the inclusion of at least the Jewish part of Jerusalem in the State of Israel (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, lines 805-821).
-
By its reply received on 1 August 1948 (S/949, at Annex II of the report) it rejected the Mediator’s proposal for a limited return of Arab refugees, especially from Jaffa and Haifa, from 15 August: security considerations alone made agreement impossible in the circumstances of the truce, and the problem could only be considered when the Arab States are ready to conclude a peace treaty with the State of Israel (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 785).
-
On 6 August 1948 its Foreign Minister asked the Mediator to transmit to the Arab States at war with Israel its offer of direct peace negotiations; no written Arab reply was received, and the offer was declined orally on 6 September (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 657).
-
The Mediator held its liability to restore private property to its Arab owners and to indemnify those owners for property wantonly destroyed to be clear, irrespective of any indemnities it may claim from the Arab States (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 797).
-
Annex I of the Mediator’s progress report gives its Foreign Minister’s letter of 5 July 1948 in full: the 29 November 1947 resolution “remains the only internationally valid adjudication on the question of the future government of Palestine”, the territory assigned to the Jewish State was an irreducible minimum whose provisions now need improvement, no derogation from Israel’s sovereignty over immigration can be accepted, and the Government will never acquiesce in Arab domination over Jerusalem (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, lines 1443-1479). Annex II gives its reply of 1 August 1948 rejecting, while a state of war exists, re-admission of the Arabs who fled “on any substantial scale” (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, lines 1527-1587). In Part Two it complains that truce supervision was confined almost exclusively to Palestine and inadequate in the Arab States, protests the Arab Legion’s failure to withdraw from Nabi Dawid and Deir Abu Tor, and is informed on 9 September 1948 that the Ein Ghazal and Jaba villagers should be allowed to return forthwith and their houses restored at its expense (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, line 1995, line 2159, line 2167).
Related pages
Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, Moshe Sharett, Folke Bernadotte, Right of Return