Documents and Sources | Page 2 of 14

U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Debate on Jewish National Home in Palestine, 1944 CIE+ members only

In four days of sharply presented testimony and debate, the House evaluated the pros and cons of whether to endorse Jewish immigration to Palestine. Pressure from the Executive Branch not to pass such a resolution was heeded. According to Chief of Staff George Marshall “such a resolution would have adverse effects on the Moslem world.” This was the same argument that the State Department used in trying but failing to persuade President Truman in 1947 not to vote in favor of Palestine’s partition into Arab and Jewish states. The debate in the Congress took place more than a year before World War II ended in Europe. Fear of Arab state retaliation against the US never materialized because the US endorsed Jewish immigration to Palestine and a two state solution.

Documents and Sources|February 18, 1944

Sir Harold MacMichael, High Commissioner of Palestine, to Oliver Stanley, Colonial Secretary, 1944 CIE+ members only

Before ending his term in 1944 as Palestine’s High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael suggested the partition of Palestine, “Jews and Arabs alike would enjoy the possession of their own respective territories, the former protected by international guarantees for their security, and the latter relieved from fear of further encroachments.”

Documents and Sources|July 17, 1944

Jewish Request at End of WWII: Let My People Go (to Palestine)! Moshe Sharett, 1945 CIE+ members only

Moshe Sharett urges the British and Americans to open Palestine to unimpeded Jewish immigration from Europe.

Documents and Sources|May 13, 1945

British Report Reveals “Separatist” Jewish Education System in Palestine, 1946 CIE+ members only

With the British spending local revenue on strategic needs — ports, roads and communication systems — scant funds were devoted to education in the Mandate. Already baked into diasporic habits, the Jewish community raced forward in educating its own in Palestine to inculcate penetrating attachments to Palestine as the Jewish national home. Arab youth literacy ran in place, with separatist education contributing mightily to communal divisions, as occurred simultaneously in the economic and geospatial spheres.

Documents and Sources|1946

Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, 1946 CIE+ members only

The report of a joint U.S.-British committee on the situation in Palestine and the fate of European Jewish refugees fails to offer solutions the British government will accept but does deliver vital data and insights on the situation between Arabs and Jews in the Land of Israel.

Documents and Sources|April 20, 1946

Foreign Relations of the United States in the Middle East and Israel, 1947-1978 CIE+ members only

These Foreign Relations of the United States collections provide an ongoing, in-depth view at issues and conflict in the Middle East and the U.S.-Israel relationship from 1947 to 1978.

Documents and Sources|1947-1978

1947 Truman Doctrine CIE+ members only

Fearing Communist penetration of the Eastern Mediterranean, Truman at the beginning of the Cold War defines the region as a sphere of US national interest.

Documents and Sources|March 1947

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko’s Remarks to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, 1947 CIE+ members only

Despite an officially anti-Zionist stance, the Soviet Union, hoping to adopt Israel as a Soviet proxy, takes a pragmatic stance and supports the U.N. partition plan of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.

Documents and Sources|May 14, 1947

Memorandum on the Administration of Palestine, June 1947 CIE+ members only

Published by the British Administration of Palestine, this summary emphasizes attempts at impartiality in governing the Mandate. It notes that in 1922, the Jewish community already possessed ‘national’ characteristics, while the Arab community’s composition was sociologically and economically divided and to a large degree impoverished by the war.

Documents and Sources|June 1947

Ben-Gurion and the Status-Quo Agreement: Jewish Laws to Be Protected in New State, 1947

The Status-Quo Agreement is an understanding reached between David Ben-Gurion, then the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, and the religious parties in the period before Israel became a state.

Documents and Sources|June 19, 1947|Spanish

Volume XXIII, Series A (August 1947-June 1952) CIE+ members only

The last of 23 volumes of Chaim Weizmann’s Letters summarized wonderfully by Aaron Klieman, recalls the Israeli first president’s views of those fateful years for Zionism and Israel from 1947-1952. Chaim Weizmann died at his home in Rehovot on 9 November 1952, shortly before his 78th birthday. All of the letters read together, provide ring side seat to Zionism as an idea to the reality of the Jewish state.

Documents and Sources|August 1, 1947

Report of the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, 1947 CIE+ members only

Earlier in 1947, Great Britain turned the future of the Palestine Mandate over to the newly established United Nations. Then in August 1947, the UN suggested that establishing an Arab and Jewish state with a federal union would be the best solution for the communal unrest there.

Documents and Sources|August 31, 1947|Spanish

Loy Henderson, State Department Director of Near Eastern and African Affairs, Vehemently Opposes Jewish State in Memo to Secretary of State George Marshall, 1947 CIE+ members only

Loy Henderson, Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, U.S. State Department, to U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall
Writing two months before the U.S. voted at the United Nations in favor of Palestine’s partition into Arab and Jewish states, Henderson voices profound dislike for Zionism and a Jewish state. He advocates for cultivating positive relations with Muslim and Arab states. He is one of many at the State Department at the time who saw Zionism as contrary to American national interests.

Documents and Sources|September 22, 1947

Saudi King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud to President Truman, 1947

No document better reveals the hostility which most Arab leaders and Arab states had in 1947 for Zionism and for a possible Jewish state. The Saudi King notes “that US support for Zionists in Palestine is an unfriendly act directed against the Arabs.” The King’s views were totally supported by US State Department officials including Loy Henderson and George Kennan who advocated strongly against Truman’s support of a Jewish state.

Documents and Sources|October 26, 1947|Spanish

UNGA (Palestine Partition) Resolution 181, 1947

The UN recommended establishing Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, with an international regime for Jerusalem. Zionists were jubilant; Arab states and the Palestinians were indignant and rejected two state solution. No Arab state is established, Israel is in 1948

George Kennan Memorandum Urges U.S. Government to Reverse Support for Partition of Palestine, 1948

In March 1948, two months before Israel’s establishment, the US State Department sought to reverse the US vote in favor of partition for the creation of Arab and Jewish states in Palestine.

Documents and Sources|February 24, 1948|Spanish

Israel’s Declaration of Independence, 1948

The Declaration recounts the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, the birth of Zionism and U.N. recognition of a Jewish state’s legitimacy. It also promises that the state will be a democracy for all its citizens.

Great Britain — Palestine: Termination of the Mandate, 1948 CIE+ members only

This 10-page report, written by the British Colonial and Foreign Office, along with the 1937 Peel (Royal) Commission Report, is one of the two best summaries of the British presence in Palestine. Both are substantial in terms of content, detail and analyses; both were written from Britain’s perspective. Read these along with 1931 Census for Palestine to have a fuller grasp of the politics and the populations that shaped Britain’s Palestine’s administration from 1918-1948

.

Documents and Sources|May 15, 1948|Spanish

Conclusions of U.N. Mediator for Palestine: Count Folke Bernadotte’s Report, 1948 CIE+ members only

Subsequent to Israel’s territorial successes from May 1948 forward, U.N. mediator Bernadotte is assassinated after suggesting smaller borders for Israel. He does not mention Palestinian Arabs in his interim report.

Documents and Sources|September 9, 1948

U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 on Palestinian Refugees, 1948 CIE+ members only

The resolution states that refugees “wishing to return to their homes and live at peace (with Israel) should do so or compensation be paid.” Israel opposes the idea because it jeopardizes Israel as a majority-Jewish state.

Documents and Sources|December 11, 1948

Israeli-Egyptian General Armistice Agreement Excerpts, 1949 CIE+ members only

One of four agreements Israel signed in 1949 with Arab neighbors, it does not end the state of war between Israel and Egypt. They do not sign a treaty until 1979.

Documents and Sources|February 24, 1949

Admission of Israel to the United Nations, UNGA Resolution 273, 1949 CIE+ members only

Upon admission to the U.N., Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett said, “It was
the consummation of a people’s transition from political anonymity to clear identity, from inferiority to equal status, from mere passive protest to active responsibility, from exclusion to membership in the family of nations.”

Documents and Sources|May 11, 1949

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett to the Knesset, 1949 CIE+ members only

Sharett gives an overview of Israeli foreign policy, key issues, and relationships with UN and Arab states.

Documents and Sources|June 15, 1949

American Jewish Relationship With Israel: Speech by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and Response by AJC President Blaustein, 1950 CIE+ members only

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and American Jewish Committee President Jacob Blaustein express a compromise in the American Jewish-Israel relationship: American Jews are excited and proud of Israel’s birth as a state but owe Israel no allegiance, and Israel does not speak for anyone but Israeli citizens.

Documents and Sources|August 23, 1950

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