London Conference of 1946–1947
Updated 2023-11-22
London Conference of 1946–1947 – Wikipedia The London Conference of 1946–1947, which took place between September 1946 and February 1947, was called by the British Government of Clement Attlee to resolve the future governance of Palestine and negotiate an end of the Mandate. It was scheduled following an Arab request after the April 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry report. The Conference’s failure to reach agreements between Arabs and Jews regarding the future of Palestine led Britain to renounce the Mandate and “submit the problem to the judgment of the United Nations.
The conference began on 9 September 1946, with only representatives of the Arab States in attendance, but without Jewish or Palestinian representatives. The first item for discussion was the Morrison–Grady Plan,[6] which was to be rejected by all parties. The British government later described the Arab reaction to the plan: The Arab Delegates at once made it clear that they were opposed to this plan in principle and could not accept it as a basis for discussion. They criticized many of its features; but was clear that, fundamentally, their rejection of this solution was based on their conviction that any scheme of provincial autonomy would inevitably lead to partition.
The alternative plan put forward by the Arab states consisted of the following:
(a) Palestine would be a unitary State with a permanent Arab majority, and would attain its independence as such after a short period of transition (two or three years) under British Mandate.
(b) Within this unitary State, Jews who had acquired Palestinian citizenship (for which the qualification would be ten years’ residence in the country) would have full civil rights, equally with all other citizens of Palestine.
(c) Special safeguards would be provided to protect the religious and cultural rights of the Jewish community.
(d) The sanctity of the Holy Places would be guaranteed and safeguards provided for freedom of religious practice throughout Palestine.
(e) The Jewish community would be entitled to a number of seats in the legislative Assembly proportionate to the number of Jewish citizens (as defined) in Palestine, subject to the proviso that in no case would the number of Jewish representatives exceed one third of the total number of members.
(f) All legislation concerning immigration and the transfer of land would require the consent of the Arabs in Palestine as expressed by a majority of the Arab members of the Legislative Assembly.
(g) The guarantees concerning the Holy Places would be alterable only with the consent of the United Nations; and the safeguards provided for the Jewish community would be alterable only with the consent of a majority of the Jewish Members of the Legislative Assembly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Conference_of_1946%E2%80%931947
Proposals for the Future of Palestine/Arab Plan Constitutional Proposals put forward by the Arab States Delegations to the Palestine Conference on 30th September, 1946 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Proposals_for_the_Future_of_Palestine/Arab_Plan, https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/24963/arab-constitutional-proposals-london-roundtable-conference
2023-11-18 What ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really Means n 1946, the Delegation of Arab Governments proposed instead a “unitary state” with a “democratic constitution” that would guarantee “freedom of religious practice” for all and would recognize “the right of Jews to employ the Hebrew language as a second official language.”
The following year, the United Nations instead approved a partition plan for Palestine, which would have forced 500,000 Palestinian Arabs living in the proposed Jewish state to choose between living as a minority in their own country or leaving.
It’s in this context that the call for a unified, independent Palestine emerges, according to Arabic scholar Elliott Colla.
During the 1948 war that led to the formation of the state of Israel, around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their villages and towns. By the end of the war, Palestine was split into three: 78% of the land became part of the Jewish state of Israel, while the remainder fell under Jordanian or Egyptian rule.
Palestinian refugees believed they had a right to return to their homes in the new state of Israel. Israeli leaders, seeking to maintain the state’s Jewish majority, sought to have the refugees resettled far away. Meanwhile, a narrative emerged in the West in the 1950s claiming that Palestinians’ political claims were invalid. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/from-the-river-to-the-sea-meaning, https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-river-to-the-sea-a-palestinian-historian-explores-the-meaning-and-intent-of-a-scrutinized-slogan/1948-02-02 The Palestine Solution – The Arab Proposalshttps://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/amed/amedeltaher/2017498789/2017498789.pdf
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