Break-Down of Population of Palestine Per 1947 UNSCOP Report

[johnkarls]

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Editorial Notes:

(1) The following is a report e-mailed the day after our July 8th meeting on a different topic to three other participants who remained outside the library after it closed to discuss the creation of Israel.

(2) The e-mail mentions two attachments -- an Encyclopaedia Britannica article about Israel & The Cold War (which is posted in the "Reference Materials" section that follows immediately on this Bulletin Board) and the text of the 31 Aug 1947 Official Report of the United Nations Special Committee On Palestine (UNSCOP) about which information on how to obtain a copy is also posted in the "Reference Materials" section that follows immediately on this Bulletin Board.


To: Bill Vogel
Dr. June Taylor
Ted Gurney
From: John Karls
Date: 9 July 2009
Re: Palestinian Population Upon Termination of the British Mandate

Dear Bill, June and Ted,

I am using my emergency Yahoo e-mail account because the second attachment (the text of the UNSCOP Report) was too large for my regular e-mail software. HOWEVER, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS ACCOUNT BECAUSE I ONLY CHECK IT “ONCE IN A BLUE MOON” DURING EMERGENCIES.

You asked me to back up my comments during our informal discussion last evening that upon the Termination of the British Mandate for Palestine, (1) the Jewish population was approximately 70% of the total (though afterwards, Bill, you will recall I reduced it to 60% while contemplating one of our $100 bets) and (2) the U.N. partition plan had followed a fairly careful survey of who owned what.

I am attaching a copy of the text of the 31 August 1947 Report of the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).

To put the imbroglio in context, I am also attaching an Enclopaedia Britannica article on the Beginning of the Cold War and Its Relationship to the Creation of Israel.

(You might also like to read my posting on www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org on President Truman’s Marshall Plan for the Middle East – it is the last of 6 items I posted under “Critiques of Benezir Bhutto’s ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West’” for our 13 March 2008 meeting 16 months ago.)

*****
I’ll let you read the UNSCOP Report itself vis-à-vis how it made a fairly careful survey of who owned what.

UNSCOP’s partition recommendation, which as mentioned last evening looked like U.S. gerrymandering because of the ownership survey, was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly (Resolution 181) with only a couple of minor modifications.

*****
With regard to the population, the highlights are –

(A) Per the UNSCOP Report (Para. 86), the British White Paper of 1939 restricted Jewish immigration for the next 5 years to a grand total of 75,000 and banned it altogether thereafter.

(B) Per the UNSCOP Report (Para. 12), the 1945 population of Palestine =
Moslems 1,076,783
Jews 608,225
Christians 145,063
Others 15,488
Total 1,845,559

and was estimated at 31 December 1946 to be –
Arabs 1,203,000
Jews 608,000
Others 35,000
Total 1,846,000

NB: (1) You can see in the 12/31/46 numbers the effect of the British ban on Jewish immigration. (2) Also note that UNSCOP estimates virtually no change during 1946, but allocates the “Christians” between “Arabs” and “Others.”

(C) Per Encyclopaedia Britannica – (1) British Fgn Sec’y Bevin opposed while President Truman favored an April 1946 proposal by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry to permit, notwithstanding the British ban on Jewish immigration, 100 thousand Jews to immigrate immediately into Palestine – even though Ben Gurion was demanding that 1.2 million be permitted in immediately.

(D) Per Encyclopaedia Brittanica, on 2 April 1947 Bevin “washed his hands” of Palestine and referred it to the U.N. which appointed UNSCOP on 15 May 1947 comprising 11 nations including none of the Great Powers and on 31 August 1947 it issued its report which is attached hereto.

(E) On 29 November 1947, the U.N. General Assembly adopted Partition Resolution 181 by a vote of 33-13 with 10 abstentions (NB: there were only 50 nations that attended the 1945 U.N. Charter Convention in the San Francisco opera house, so it is not surprising that there were only 6 new members two years later).

(F) The British Mandate expired on 14 May 1948 (one year after the appointment of UNSCOP) on which date Israel declared its independence.

*****
So the real question is how many of Ben Gurion’s 1.2 million European Jews were able to immigrate during the 13 months between Britain tossing in the towel on 2 April 1947 and the creation of Israel.

Though if one accepts UN Resolution 181 and the influx are settling on Jewish land, it strikes me that what one does with one’s land is nobody else’s business (though I understand the sensitivities involved). After all, I would imagine that each of you would object to being told whether you could have house guests.

I have not been able yet to find any authoritative reports (especially reports that would be considered objective) and perhaps there are no authoritative reports.

I am glad, Bill, that we did not bet on this with my bearing the burden of proof.

But I have seen over the years quite a bit of speculation published that virtually all of Ben Gurion’s 1.2 million European refugees did make it in almost immediately after Britain threw in the towel.

Adding 1.2 MM to both the Jewish total and the overall total = 60%.

*****
I am going to “toss in the towel” on trying to find anything authoritative on how many of Ben Gurion’s 1.2 MM European refugees arrived in the 13 months following the British capitulation.

Your friend,

John K.