Office of the Historian

Report of the First Committee on a Special Committee on Palestine1

May 13, 1947
[Extract]

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Recommendation

The First Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following resolution:

Whereas the General Assembly of the United Nations has been called into special session for the purpose of constituting and instructing a Special Committee to prepare for the consideration at the next regular session of the Assembly a report on the question of Palestine,

The General Assembly Resolves That:

1.
A Special Committee be created for the above-mentioned purpose, consisting of the representatives of Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay and Yugoslavia;
2.
The Special Committee shall have the widest powers to ascertain and record facts, and to investigate all questions and issues relevant to the problem of Palestine;
3.
The Special Committee shall determine its own procedure;
4.
The Special Committee shall conduct investigations in Palestine and wherever it may deem useful, to receive and examine written or oral testimony, whichever it may consider appropriate in each case, from the mandatory Power, from representatives of the population of Palestine, from Governments and from such organizations and individuals as it may deem necessary;
5.
The Special Committee shall give most careful consideration to the religious interests in Palestine of Islam, Judaism and Christianity;
6.
The Special Committee shall prepare a report to the General Assembly and shall submit such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem of Palestine;
7.
The Special Committee’s report shall be communicated to the Secretary-General not later than 1 September 1947, in order that it may be circulated to the Members of the United Nations in time [Page 1084] for consideration by the second regular session of the General Assembly;

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  1. Reprinted from GA (S–I), Plenary, vol. i, pp. 197–203. The report is dated May 13.↩