Office of the Historian

Resolution 66 (1948) Adopted by the Security Council on December 29, 19481

December 29, 1948

The Security Council

Having considered the report of the Acting Mediator on the hostilities which broke out in southern Palestine on 22 December 1948,

Calls upon the Governments concerned:

(i)
To order an immediate cease-fire;
(ii)
To implement without further delay resolution 61 (1948) of 4 November 1948 and the instructions issued by the Acting Mediator in accordance with sub-paragraph (1) of the fifth paragraph of that resolution;
(iii)
To allow and facilitate the complete supervision of the truce by the United Nations observers;

Instructs the committee of the Council appointed on 4 November to meet at Lake Success on 7 January 1949 to consider the situation in southern Palestine and to report to the Council on the extent to which the Governments concerned have by that date complied with the present resolution and with resolutions 61 (1948) and 62 (1948) of 4 and 16 November 1948;

Invites Cuba and Norway to replace as from 1 January 1949 the two retiring members of the committee (Belgium and Colombia);

Expresses the hope that the members of the Conciliation Commission appointed by the General Assembly on 11 December 1948 will nominate their representatives and establish the Commission with as little delay as possible.

  1. Reprinted from SC, 3rd yr., Resolutions, 1948, p. 30. The Council adopted the resolution by eight votes to none, with the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Ukraine abstaining. For the official record of the voting, see SC, 3rd yr., No. 137, pp. 23–26. The Egyptian Representative, in a letter of December 24 to the President of the Security Council, had claimed that Zionist forces had launched heavy, new attacks on Egyptian positions in the Negeb and had requested an urgent meeting of the Council to deal with the situation; for text, see SC, 3rd yr., Supplement for December 1948. The Council began its deliberations on the matter on December 28 and considered a British draft resolution; for text, see SC, 3rd yr., No. 136, pp. 13–14.↩