UN and Israel
The United Nations was established on October 24, 1945. Palestine was then administered under the internationally sanctioned League of Nations British Mandate. In February 1947, Britain decided to terminate its presence in the Mandate. It turned the issue of Palestine over to the United Nations. Then, in April 1947, the UN set up UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) to recommend proposals for Palestine’s future. In a failed effort to block UNSCOP’s work before it started, five Arab countries (Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria) called for an immediate UN vote for “the termination of the Mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its independence.” The effort was aimed at preventing the possibility that UNSCOP might call for the establishment of a Jewish state.