The Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, also known as the Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine or just the Ad Hoc Committee was a committee formed by a vote of the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
on 23 September 1947, following the publication of the report of the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created on 15 May 1947 in response to a United Kingdom government request that the General Assembly "make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future govern ...
(UNSCOP) on 3 September 1947, which contained majority and minority proposals.
The Committee was chaired by
H. V. Evatt
Herbert Vere Evatt, (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and l ...
, who was later to write in his memoirs: "I regard the establishment of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
as a great victory of the United Nations."
The General Assembly vote for the formation of the committee was 29 to 11, with 16 abstaining. The creation of the committee was strongly opposed by Arab states, who wanted the question referred to the
UN Political Committee, since according to Lebanon's
Charles Malik
Charles Habib Malik (sometimes spelled ''Charles Habib Malik''; 11 February 1906 – 28 December 1987; ar, شارل مالك) was a Lebanese academic, diplomat, philosopher, and politician. He served as the Lebanese representative to the United ...
, an Ad Hoc Committee would be more susceptible to the influence of “certain pressure groups”.
Two subcommittees were created on 22 October to assess the UNSCOP majority and minority proposals. These subcommittees were broadly mutually exclusive, and the second subcommittee, composed primarily of Arab states and with the
Higher Arab Committee
The Arab Higher Committee ( ar, اللجنة العربية العليا) or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of the Arab Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative o ...
advising, was largely ignored.
The Committee
Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver (January 28, 1893 – November 28, 1963) was an American Rabbi and Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support fo ...
, Chairman of the American Section of the
Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...
, made the case for a Jewish State to the Ad Hoc Committee and announced on behalf of the Jewish Agency acceptance of 10 of the eleven unanimous recommendations of the
UN Partition Plan
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Re ...
and rejection of the minority report. Of the majority report (the Partition Plan areas), Silver vacillates saying that he was prepared to “recommend to the Jewish people acceptance subject to further discussion of the constitutional and territorial provisions”.
While three members endorsed a federal state (the minority report) similar to the
Morrison-Grady Plan that had been rejected by both Jews and Arabs and the UNSCOP found that a canton system “might easily entail an excessive fragmentation of the governmental processes, and in its ultimate result, would be quite unworkable.” No members of the UNSCOP endorsed a
one-state solution
The one-state solution, sometimes also called a bi-national state, is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, according to which one state must be established between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. Proponen ...
as recommended by the
Arab Higher Committee
The Arab Higher Committee ( ar, اللجنة العربية العليا) or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of the Arab Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative o ...
and on 29 September
Jamal al-Husayni
Jamal al-Husayni (1894-1982) ( ar, جمال الحُسيني), was born in Jerusalem and was a member of the highly influential and respected Husayni family.
Husayni served as Secretary to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress ...
, vice-president of the Arab Higher Committee, announced opposition to the UN Partition Plan.
Subcommittees
On 22 October the Ad Hoc Committee formed two subcommittees. Subcommittee 1 comprised nine members and was responsible for producing a plan of implementation of the UNSCOP majority report; and subcommittee 2 was composed of six Arab delegates and three supporters of the minority plan and reviewed the UNSCOP minority report which was a plan for a single federal Palestinian state, with Jewish and Arab provinces and a split Jerusalem as federal capital.
The reports of subcommittee 1 and subcommittee 2 were delivered on 19 November 1947.
Subcommittee 2 wanted the International Court of Justice to be asked for an advisory opinion on relevant legal questions. At the request of the representative of France, two votes were taken, one on the first seven questions, the other on the eighth question, which read as follows:
:Whether the United Nations, or any of its Member States, is competent to enforce, or recommend the enforcement of, any proposal concerning the constitution and future government of Palestine, in particular, any plan of partition which is contrary to the wishes, or adopted without the consent, of the inhabitants of Palestine.
In respect of the seven questions, this was rejected by a vote of eighteen in favour, twenty-five against, with eleven abstentions and in respect of the eighth question, this was rejected by a vote of twenty in favour, twenty-one against, with thirteen abstentions.
The Ad Hoc Committee rejected the subcommittee 2 resolution to constitute a unitary Palestinian state and accepted the proposed partition plan of subcommittee 1.
Subsequent events
Britain was unwilling to implement a policy that was not acceptable to both sides and so refused to share with the UN Palestine Commission the administration of Palestine during the transitional period and on 20 November 1947 the British Government informed the UN of a timetable for evacuating Palestine. On the Termination of the Mandate, Partition And Independence. Britain as the Mandatory Power was to use its best endeavours to ensure that an area situated in the territory of the Jewish State, including a seaport and hinterland adequate to provide facilities for a substantial immigration, was to be evacuated at the earliest possible date and in any event not later than 1 February 1948.
Press Release of Ad Hoc Committee
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On 29 November 1947 the UN General Assembly recommended the adoption and implementation of a plan
A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal.
F ...
substantially in the form of ''The Plan of Partition with Economic Union'' in CHAPTER VI: PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS (II), as Resolution 181
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Re ...
(II).
Further reading
*Ben-Dror, Elad (2015). Ralph Bunche and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Mediation and the UN 1947–1949,Routledge. .
*Ben-Dror, Elad (2022). UNSCOP and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Road to Partition. London: Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
..
*
Footnotes
{{authority control
Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the United Nations
United Nations General Assembly subsidiary organs