Know the Facts: Did the United Nations Give Israel a State?

Some important information about United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine):

 

1. The 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine was a United Nations General Assembly resolution and not a UN Security Council resolution. This is significant because only the UN Security Council has the legal authority to make decisions which member governments must carry out under the United Nations Charter.
   
   
2. UN General Assembly Resolution 181 was, according to its own language, merely a recommendation. The resolution is in no way legally binding on any nation or group.
   
   
3. Although UN General Assembly Resolution 181 was accepted by the official Zionist leadership, it was rejected by not only the Arab leaders but also by the Jewish fighters who had successfully freed the Land of Israel from British rule. All of western Palestine (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea) was liberated by the Jewish underground (both Lehi and Etzel) from the British administration which had been occupying the territory while working diligently to prevent the creation of a Jewish state.
   

   
    

4. UN General Assembly Resolution 181 was if anything an anti-Israel resolution as it sought to shrink the size of the Jewish state and internationalize Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, thus robbing the Jewish people of lands freed by them from British rule.
   
   
5. When seven Arab armies (two of which were armed, trained and led by British officers) attacked the State of Israel following UN General Assembly Resolution 181, the United Nations did nothing to interfere in what looked to be the imminent destruction of the re-born Jewish state. But when the tide of battle turned and Israel began beating back the invading forces, the UN dispatched Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte as their mediator in the conflict. Benradotte did everything in his power to limit the success of Israel's military until he was finally gunned down by Jewish underground fighters in Jerusalem.
   

   
    

   SO WHY IS THE STATE OF ISRAEL OFTEN ATRIBUTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS PARTITION PLAN?
   

   
    

   Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, in an attempt to legitimize both his rule and the claim that his diplomatic efforts (and not the Jewish underground's heroic struggle for freedom) won the Jewish nation a state, inaugurated November 29^th as a day of commemoration for the UN partition plan. As part of its general policy of belittling the underground's role in founding the country, Israel's school system educated entire generations of Jews to view the partition plan as a great diplomatic victory responsible for Jewish political independence. This misinformation has had a damaging effect on the Israeli public. Because Israelis learn in school that they have a state due to the UN giving it to them rather than because young Jews were ready to fight and sacrifice for political freedom, the obvious conclusion is that in order to keep the Jewish state alive, Israel must appease the international community (this is a good example of a problem that occurs when leaders who oppose revolution assume power after the revolution succeeds).