oatmeal@rat both the vote but also the partition idea itself (which Arab leadership in Palestine objected to and rejected repeatedly), and the deliberations of #UNSCOP, which included visit to displaced people camps in Europe as part of their deliberations. This visit was not originally in UNSCOP’s terms of reference but the Jewish Agency actively facilitated and encouraged these visits, understanding their potential impact on the committee’s recommendations. Clearly UNSCOP’s mandate was to solve the problem of Palestinians in Palestine, Arabs and Jews, not the problem of Europe’s Jews, but they were skillfully manipulated to mix the two issues. Than there’s the issue of influence on Latin American countries like Guatemala which decided the vote for partition.
The most interesting part for me was this comment:
[…] Shomsky primarily relies on published speeches and articles, which is acceptable for the pre-Balfour Declaration era. However, regarding the Mandate period, where Zionist political activity had a more concrete basis, he should have also consulted documents such as letters and confidential discussions. When reading these, the historical context must always be considered. It's impossible to understand Ben-Gurion's stance on a Jewish state without acknowledging the Arab problem and the significant role of the British. When Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson adopted the parity concept (in contrast to Ben-Gurion's federalist idea) in the early 1930s, their primary concern was the Arab demand for a parliament reflecting the demographic makeup of the population—meaning Arab dominance—a demand the British were inclined to accept. The maximum the Zionists were willing to concede was parity in representation, even though Jews constituted no more than 20% of the population. The book omits the complexities arising after the 1929 riots, thus misrepresenting parity as an acceptance of autonomous sub-states and a renunciation of a Jewish state, as Shomsky portrays Ben-Gurion's position. This brings us back to the question of a Jewish majority. Ben-Gurion and his associates were willing to compromise with the Arabs but never to relinquish a future Jewish majority or recognize an existing Arab majority. When the British concluded that peaceful coexistence between the two communities in Palestine was impossible, they proposed the Partition Plan. From that point onward, there was no turning back; sovereignty with territory became the fundamental element upon which the Jewish state would be built.
Paria sans portefeuille
