Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

Editorial Note

At the opening meeting of the special session of the General Assembly on April 28, President Oswaldo Aranha requested that the General Committee consider the provisional agenda and the supplementary list of items and report on them to the General Assembly. The provisional agenda called for “Constituting and Instructing a Special Committee to prepare for the Consideration of the Question of Palestine at the Second Regular Session.” (General Assembly document A/293, April 24, 1947). The supplementary list dealt with “The termination of the mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its independence”, as proposed by Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (GA doc. A/294, April 25, 1947). At the same meeting, President Aranha announced that he would also submit for consideration by the General Committee pertinent communications from various organizations, if there were no objection by the General Assembly. There was no objection (GA (S–I), Plenary, volume I, pages 11–12).

The General Committee considered the first two items on April 29 and 30. The provisional agenda was adopted on the morning of April 29 (GA (S–I), Plenary, volume II: General Committee (hereafter called “GA (S–I), General Committee, volume II”), page 12.

Consideration of the supplementary list began the same afternoon and continued through both meetings on April 30. President Aranha invited Representatives of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia to come to the table (the Egyptian Representative was a member of the General Committee). The United States Representative, Herschel V. Johnson, spoke in opposition to inclusion of the item proposed by the Arab states (ibid., pages 17–19, 63–65). The proposal was defeated by an 8 to 1 vote, with 5 abstentions (ibid., page 81).

The General Committee, thereupon, recommended to the General Assembly that the British item be placed on the agenda of the Assembly and be referred for consideration to the First Committee and that the item of the Arab States not be included; for the text of its report, see GA (S–I), Plenary, volume I, page 194. The Assembly debated the British item on the morning of May 1, whereupon, President Aranha stated he considered it adopted (ibid., page 30). After extended debate on the item of the Arab states during the afternoon of the same day, the Assembly, in a roll-call vote, defeated inclusion of the item on the agenda by a vote of 24 to 15, with 10 abstentions (ibid., page 60).

The General Committee, on May 2, began consideration of the communications from various organizations. Among the four communications discussed was one from the Jewish Agency requesting authorization to participate in the meetings of the special session. A Polish resolution called for an invitation to the Jewish Agency to appear before the General Assembly for consultation (GA (S–I), General Committee, volume II, page 91). The Czechoslovak Representative proposed an amendment to the Polish resolution calling for the representatives of the Jewish Agency to appear before the plenary meeting of the Assembly to express the Agency’s views (ibid., page 99).

Senator Austin, on behalf of the United States, proposed informally that the four communications and others of similar nature should be dealt with by the Secretary General who would circulate lists of such communications and make them available to any member requesting them. He stated that “it has been and still is the position of the United States that this special session of the General Assembly should confine its activities to the procedural task of appointing a committee and instructing it to assemble data and draw up recommendations which would enable the General Assembly to give full consideration to all aspects … of the Palestine problem at the next regular session.” (ibid., page 102). He considered it inappropriate for the General Assembly to invite the views of organizations other than member states. He noted that the views of the Arab states had been heard and that it would be useful to obtain the views of the Jews on the work of the special session. He would limit the appearance of Jewish organizations, however, to the Jewish Agency and advocated that its views should not be presented before the plenary meetings of the Assembly but before the First Committee. Furthermore, he proposed that the Jewish Agency should not be regarded as speaking for all the Jews of the world or even for all the Jews in Palestine (ibid., pages 105–106).

The Polish proposal, as amended by the Czechoslovak Representative, was rejected by a vote of 8 to 3, with 3 abstentions (ibid., pages 125–126). The United States resolution, as amended by the British Representative, called for the General Committee to recommend to the Assembly that it refer the communications from the Jewish Agency and the other three communications, as well as any communications of a similar character, to the First Committee for its decision. The proposal was adopted by 11 votes, with 3 abstentions (ibid., page 126). The text of the report of the General Committee, dated May 2, is printed in GA (S–I), Plenary, volume I, page 195.

The report of the General Committee on this matter was considered by the General Assembly on May 3 and 5. The Delegations of Uruguay, Yugoslavia, Chile, Argentina, and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic submitted a joint resolution, which stated: “1. That the First Committee grant a hearing to the Jewish Agency for Palestine on the question before the Committee; 2. To send to that same Committee for its decision those other communications of a similar character from the Palestinian population which have been received by this special session of the General Assembly or may later be submitted to it.” (ibid., page 114) The Assembly on May 5 adopted the joint resolution by a vote of 44 to 7, with 3 abstentions and 1 absence (ibid., pages 114, 115).

The following day, the First Committee resolved to grant a hearing to the Jewish Agency, the Arab Higher Committee and to any other organization representative of a considerable element of the population of Palestine. The record of its deliberations on this matter is printed in GA (S–I), Plenary, volume III, Main Committees, pages 6–78.

The First Committee deliberated on constituting and instructing the special committee at successive meetings from May 7 to 13; the record of these deliberations is printed ibid., pages 78–362. Both matters produced dissent. United States Representative Austin began the preliminary debate on May 7 by advocating designation of a small special committee of seven nations, excluding the Big Five and the Arab states (ibid., pages 80–83). Soviet Representative Gromyko proposed that the permanent members of the Security Council become members of the special committee and indicated no objection to inclusion of an Arab state (ibid., pages 147–153). The Soviet proposal was rejected on May 13 by a vote of 26 to 6, with 21 abstentions and 2 absences (ibid., pages 343–344). A broadened special committee of eleven “neutral” nations was finally decided on (ibid., pages 347–356).

On May 10, Mr. Gromyko proposed that the special committee be instructed to submit proposals “on the question of establishing without delay an independent State of Palestine.” (ibid., pages 203–204) Mr. Johnson, representing the United States, dissented, stating that the Soviet proposal would prejudge the issue and that the Committee, without specific instruction, would be in a position to make such a recommendation if it thought fit (ibid., page 205). The matter came to a vote on May 13. The Soviet proposal was defeated by a vote of 26 to 15, with 2 abstentions and 2 absences (ibid., pages 312–313).