Recalling the UN Partition Plan on its 70th anniversary
By SHIRLEY ZAUERUpdated: DECEMBER 1, 2017 12:30Jews celebrate in the streets of Tel Aviv moments after the United Nations voted on November 29, 1947, to partition Palestine which paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948.(photo credit: REUTERS)
WHEN THE Jewish people were given the Torah at Mount Sinai thousands of years ago, it is said that all future generations were present too, such was the import of the event.Over the years I have watched the vote – three minutes in total – for the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947 several times, and each time my heart jumps as this great moment in the history of the Jewish people unfolds in grainy shades of black and white.Though I was only born 13 months later, I felt as if I were there – an awe-filled participant in one of the most momentous events in modern history, paving the way for the declaration of independence of the State of Israel the following May.No matter how many times I watch that movie, I hold my breath as the roll call begins and the GA’s president, Oswaldo Aranha of Brazil (who lobbied intensively for the Partition Plan), solemnly repeats and records each country’s vote: Afghanistan – No, Argentina – Abstain, then Australia – the first Yes; 33 Yes votes in all, 13 No votes and 10 abstentions. With the required two-thirds majority achieved, the road is cleared for the termination of the British Mandate, the withdrawal of British troops, the establishment of a state for the Jews and a state for the Arabs living in Palestine, and an internationalized Jerusalem.It is recorded that Jews in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem celebrated the whole night of November 29th with song and dance, and free champagne.Zionist leaders in the United States breathed a sigh of relief as their monumental, possibly guilt-induced, efforts to influence this outcome had been realized, while post-World War II European Jewish survivors and other Jewish refugees were cautiously hopeful that they might one day have a home where they could rebuild their lives in safety.My Holocaust-survivor parents and my eight-month-old self were among those refugees as we left the Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany in 1949 for what was hoped to be a future in building the nascent Jewish state. But it was not to be. We lived in harsh conditions in the transit camp in Pardes Hanna, which was made up of tents and wood or asbestos shacks, with a poor supply of electricity and water, amid overcrowded conditions ripe for the spread of disease and difficulty in finding steady jobs. After two years, my mother’s sister, who had migrated to Australia soon after the war, sponsored us and, sadly, we left Israel.Of course, not everyone was thrilled by the prospect of a Jewish state in what became Israel: from the US State Department, which was traditionally anti-Jewish (as was the British Foreign Office) to the underground Jewish military organizations in Palestine, which felt that the Partition Plan excluded too much legitimate Jewish territory, with one of their leaders, future prime minister Menachem Begin, warning that the plan would not bring peace as it would be opposed by the Arabs both within and outside Palestine, and would in fact bring war.And so it was. As the final result of the Partition Plan vote on that November day in 1947 was announced, the Arab delegates stormed out, declaring that they were not bound by the outcome and would never agree to such a plan in any form. Thus began the official history of Arab rejectionism that has continued to this day.While Israel has thrived, thank God, albeit neighbored by states which only wish to see its demise, the “new” Palestinians wallow in self-pity, governed by a corrupt autocracy whose main mission in life is not the welfare of its citizens, who live in conditions of relative poverty and high unemployment, and with bleak prospects, but the destruction of the Jewish state – a state which supplies them with all the basic needs for its survival: water and electricity (on never-ending credit), jobs, security, and a constant flow of goods.Certainly, the 1947 Partition Plan was not ideal, but Israel has lived with its limitations and fought excruciating wars to protect its boundaries. The faux-Palestinians, on the other hand, have relentlessly rejected offers of any form of a state side by side with Israel.If they continue in this way, their time will never come, no matter what plans US President Donald Trump or his successors will produce.The writer is a journalist and freelance English-language editor who made aliya from Australia in 2000 and lives in Jerusalem.
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