The Partition of Palestine

In 1947, United Nations General Assembly passed a proposal dividing Palestine into two separate nations, a decision opposed by the Arab states and sparking a war between Arabs Soon after the conclusion of World War II, the United Nations began determining the future of Palestine. Two plans were devised: a majority plan, dividing Palestine into two independent states and the international city of Jerusalem, and a minority plan, establishing a single Palestinian state, subdivided into an Arab state and a Jewish state, each with local autonomy.

Zionists supported the majority plan, because it gave them a completely independent Jewish state, while Arabs generally favored the minority plan, which gave them a single independent state, with Jewish immigration regulations and an Arab majority. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to recommend a partition of Palestine, although nearly all of ex-colonial Asia and the Near East were against it. It seemed the United Nations was making decisions for the Eastern people for the benefit of Western nations. The Arab states challenged the resolution on the grounds that, according to the UN Charter, the Assembly only had the right of recommendation, not of binding decision, marking the beginning of Arab-Israeli conflict.