Dakota Thompson
United Nations Support for Israel’s Formation and the Resulting UN Relations with Palestine
The formation of Israel caused tensions to rise drastically in the Middle East to result in
never-ending conflict. Foreign support for the formation of Israel has led Arab nations to show
distrust to those nations, as well as the United Nations. Palestinians have been especially angered
with the creation of Israel. Since 1945, Palestine has been a main part in the Arab-Israeli
Conflict. Since relations with the United Nations are important for all world powers, it is
important to see how Palestine’s relationship with the United Nations, as well as other foreign
powers, changed once they started to show support for the formation of Israel. Why did the
United Nations change its relations with Palestine once announcing support for Israel’s
formation? My hypothesis is that Palestinian aggression toward Israel’s formation forced the
United Nations to have worse relations with Palestine.
In order to answer my question, I have found several primary sources from various
government bodies. Many of the important primary sources I have found are from the League of
Nations and the United Nations. One major source that I found was “The Palestine Mandate”
from the League of Nations in 1922 that declares Great Britain as the Mandatory for Palestine in
order to ensure the safety of all those living there.1 This document relates to “UN General
Assembly Resolution 181,” from 1947, because this resolution marked the end of Great Britain
being the Mandatory for Palestine and the very start of the partition of Palestine.2 Another
document, “UN Security Council Resolution 50,” from 1948, was used to stop foreign
governments from sending soldiers into Palestine and the rest of the Middle East during the war
1
“The Palestine Mandate,” Text, The Avalon Project, accessed February 15, 2015,
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp.
2
“The Avalon Project : UN General Assembly Resolution 181,” Text, The Avalon Project, accessed
February 16, 2015, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm.
Thompson 2
between Israel and Palestine.3 The ties between these documents will be used to show just one of
the changes that foreign governments, particularly the United Nations and Great Britain, made in
their attitude toward Palestine during World War II.
There are also many documents that show the Arab view of what was happening during
World War II and how the United Nations was handling the situation with Israel. “The
Alexandria Protocol,” from 1944, will be used as an example of Arab and Palestinian feelings
toward the United Nations and the formation of Israel.4 Through the primary sources I have
gathered, I can already see that there were high tensions between the Palestinian Arabs and the
foreign bodies that were in control of them, including the United Nations and Great Britain
during the Palestine Mandate. These tensions show a shift toward support for Israel and little
support for Palestine during Israel’s formation.
Secondary sources are a main part of my research because they can show all sides to the
Palestine-Israel Conflict over a long time period. Many sources provide a history of the ArabIsraeli conflict, thus giving a history of Palestine from its formation through its partition and into
the on-going conflict with Israel. One such book, The Palestine-Israel Conflict, written by
Gregory Harms in 2012, gives a detailed history of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire to the
present.5 Other sources have a more specific topic for their focus. For instance, The Palestine
Problem in International Law and World Order, written by W. Thomas Mallison in 1986, goes
into great detail about the specific documents and how they fit into the context of the ArabIsraeli conflict and how the United Nations used the documents to their advantage in favor of
3
“The Avalon Project : United Nations Security Council Resolution 50; May 29, 1948,” Text, accessed
February 16, 2015, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/scres050.asp.
4
“The Alexandria Protocol; October 7, 1944,” Text, The Avalon Project, accessed February 15, 2015,
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/alex.asp.
5
Gregory Harms, The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction, 3rd ed (London : New York: Pluto
Press ; Distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Palgrave MAcmillan, 2012).
Thompson 3
Israel.6 I have also found books that are specific to the United Nations in its beginnings that
dedicate full chapters to how the United Nations worked during the Arab-Israeli conflict, rather
than just a few pages. A History of the United Nations, writing by Evan Luard and published in
1982, gives a great amount of detail of the functioning of the Security Council, as well as how
the UN Mediator in Palestine was treated.7 United Nations: The First Fifty Years, written by
Stanley Meisler in 1995, also dedicates a great amount of the book on the Arab-Israeli conflict
and how the United Nations reacted in defense of Israel.8 Through the variety of books and
articles I have found, I have been able to get a basic understanding of the history of the ArabIsraeli conflict, as well as how the United Nations has been a part of it.
With this project, I hope to bring together the history of the United Nations and other
foreign bodies showing support for Israel’s formation and how this affected their relations with
Palestine. Even though it is clear that Palestine’s relations with the United Nations changed once
Israel is formed, it is not clear if these changes are because Palestine lost allies or if they stem
from Israel’s formation. Although losing allies and the formation of Israel are a part of why
Palestine’s relations with the United Nations have changed, I hope to find out why the United
Nations started to be so against Palestine while starting to show support for Israel even before
Israel became an independent nation. By utilizing works that show the Palestinian Arab side and
sources that show the Israeli and United Nations side, I hope to bring together two sides to the
conflict to understand why the United Nations suddenly showed support for Israel and dropped
most of its support for Palestine while still keeping some relations with the nation.
6
W. Thomas Mallison, The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order (Burnt Mill, Harlow,
Essex, England: Longman, 1986).
7
Evan Luard, A History of the United Nations (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982).
8
Stanley Meisler, United Nations: The First Fifty Years, 1st ed (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995).
Thompson 4
Bibliography
Primary Sources
“The Alexandria Protocol; October 7, 1944.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15,
2015. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/alex.asp.
“The Avalon Project : UN General Assembly Resolution 181.” Text, The Avalon Project,
Accessed February 15, 2015. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm.
“The Avalon Project : United Nations Security Council Resolution 50; May 29, 1948.” Text, The
Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/scres050.asp.
“The Avalon Project : United Nations Security Council Resolution 54; July 15, 1948.” Text, The
Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/scres054.asp.
“Balfour Declaration 1917.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp.
“British White Paper of June 1922.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1922.asp.
“British White Paper of 1939.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1939.asp.
“Declaration of Israel’s Independence 1948.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15,
2015. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/israel.asp.
“The Khartoum Resolutions; September 1, 1967.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February
15, 2015. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/khartoum.asp.
“The Palestine Mandate.” Text, The Avalon Project, Accessed February 15, 2015.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp.
Secondary Sources
Berger, Earl. The Covenant and the Sword: Arab-Israeli Relations 1948-56. Great Britain;
Canada: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited; University of Toronto Press, 1965.
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, and Mary Evelyn Hocking, eds. The Struggle for Peace: Israelis and
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Giacaman, Faris. “Political Representation and Armed Struggle.” Journal of Palestine Studies
43, no. 1 (November 1, 2013): 24–40. doi:10.1525/jps.2013.43.1.24.
Thompson 5
Gilbert, Martin. In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands. New Haven, Conn. ;
London: Yale University Press, 2010.
Harms, Gregory. The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction. 3rd ed. London : New
York: Pluto Press ; Distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
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Luard, Evan. A History of the United Nations. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982.
Mallison, W. Thomas. The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order. Burnt
Mill, Harlow, Essex, England: Longman, 1986.
Manuel, Frank E. The Realities of American-Palestine Relations. Washington, D.C., United
States: Public Affairs Press, 1949.
Meisler, Stanley. United Nations: The First Fifty Years. 1st ed. New York: Atlantic Monthly
Press, 1995.
Pappé, Ilan. A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples. Cambridge, UK ; New
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Peretz, Don. The Arab-Israel Dispute. Library in a Book. New York: Facts On File, 1996.
Roberts, Priscilla Mary, ed. Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Essential Reference Guide. Santa Barbara,
California: ABC-CLIO, 2014.
Rowley, Charles K., and Jennis Taylor. “The Israel and Palestine Land Settlement Problem: An
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41–75.
Sinanoglou, Penny. “British Plans for the Partition of Palestine, 1929-1938.” The Historical
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Shepherd, Naomi. Ploughing Sand: British Rule in Palestine, 1917-1948. New Brunswick, N.J:
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Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St.
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Tessler, Mark A. A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Indiana Series in Arab and Islamic
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