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70 Years after UN Resolution 181: An Assessment

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Liora Chartouni - Seventy years ago, on November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 calling for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jews accepted the plan with a mixture of joy and hesitation, while the Arabs rejected it and launched a war to forcibly prevent its implementation. The Arabs denied the Jews any right whatsoever in their ancestral homeland, and a large majority still maintains this view to this day. Since the Arab states rejected the resolution upon its adoption and prevented its implementation, the Palestinian leadership can neither logically nor legally claim today that Resolution 181 can serve as a basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Finally, according to the UN Charter, General Assembly resolutions are simply recommendations and are not legally binding. Only resolutions adopted by the Security Council under Chapter 7 of the Charter may be obligatory. Thus, Resolution 181 cannot in any manner be considered to be a basis for a Palestinian claim to statehood. The writer is pursuing a Master's degree in Human Rights and Transitional Justice at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This was written under the supervision of Amb. Alan Baker.
2017-11-29 00:00:00
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