What was UN Resolution 181 and why is it important?

What was UN Resolution 181 and why is it important?

On May 15, 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created in response to a request from the British that the UN General Assembly “make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine.”

The committee arrived in Mandatory Palestine a month later. As it sought to speak to all parties in the Holy Land, it found the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Fund cooperated with the committee and its discussions, while the Arab Higher Committee, on the other hand, decided to boycott the discussions.

The UNSCOP report recommended the division of the British Mandate-controlled area of Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem to be an “international” city. According to the plan, the two states, roughly equal in size and natural resources, would cooperate on major economic issues, sharing their currency, roads, and government services over the territory.

The Zionist leadership accepted the partition plan. The Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab nations rejected it outright, refusing to accept the establishment of a Jewish state in the region.

Taking the recommendations of UNSCOP, the UN General Assembly voted on Resolution 181 to decide on the idea of partitioning the land to create Jewish and Arab states. On November 29, 1947, by a vote of 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, the vote passed. Jews all over the world rejoiced as the international community accepted the creation of a Jewish homeland. For the first time in over two thousand years, the Jewish people would be a sovereign nation in control of their own destiny.