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Count
Folke Bernadotte's
Report on Palestine
The conclusions made by the late Count Folke
Bernadotte on his work as Palestine Mediator were presented to the
general Assembly of the United nations in Paris on September 20,
1948, three days after Count Bernadotte was assassinated in the
Israeli-held area of Jerusalem. Following is the text of these
conclusions as reported by The New York Times.
I
Since I presented my written suggestions to the
Arab and Jewish authorities on June 27, I have made no formal
submission to either party of further suggestions or proposals for
a definitive settlement. Since that date, however, I have held
many oral discussions in the Arab capitals and Tel Aviv, in the
course of which various ideas on settlement have been freely
exchanged.
As regards my original suggestions, I hold to
the opinion that they offered a general framework within which a
reasonable and workable settlement might have been reached had the
two parties concerned been willing to discuss them. They were
flatly rejected, however, by both parties. Since they were forth
on the explicit condition that they were purely tentative, were
designed primarily to elicit views and counter-suggestions from
each party, and, in any event could be implemented only if agreed
upon by both parties, I have never since pressed them. With
respect to one basic concept in my suggestions it has become
increasingly clear to me that, however desirable a political and
economic union might be in Palestine, the time is certainly not
now propitious for the effectuation of any such scheme.
II
I do not consider it to be within my province
to recommend to the members of the United States a proposed course
of action on the Palestine question. That is a responsibility of
the members, acting through the appropriate organs. In my role as
United Nations Mediator, however, it was inevitable that I should
accumulate information and draw conclusions from my experience
which might well be of assistance to members of the United Nations
action on Palestine.
I consider it my duty, therefore, to acquaint
the members of the United Nations, through the medium of this
report, with certain of the conclusions on means of peaceful
adjustment which have evolved from my frequent consultations with
Arabs and Jewish authorities over the past three and one-half
months and from my personal appraisal of the present Palestinian
scene.
I am convinced, however, that it is possible at
this stage to formulate a proposal which, if firmly approved and
strongly backed by the General Assembly, would not be forcibly
resisted by either side, confident as I am, of course, that the
Security Council stands firm in its resolution of July 15 that
military action shall not be employed by either party in the
Palestine dispute. It cannot be ignored that the vast difference
between now and last November is that a war has been started and
stopped and that, in the intervening months, decisive events have
occurred.
III
The following seven basic premises form the
basis for my conclusions:
RETURN TO PEACE
(A) Peace must return to Palestine and every
feasible measure should be taken to insure that hostilities will
not be resumed and that harmonious relations between Arab and Jew
will ultimately be restored.
THE JEWISH STATE
(B) A Jewish state called Israel exists in
Palestine and there are no sound reasons for assuming that it will
not continue to do so.
BOUNDARY DETERMINATIONS
(C) The boundaries of this new state must
finally be fixed either by formal agreement between the parties
concerned or, failing that, by the United Nations.
Continuous Frontiers
(D) Adherence to the principle of geographical
homogeneity and integration, which should be the major
objective of the boundary arrangement, should apply equally to
Arab and Jewish territories, whose frontier should not, therefore,
be rightly controlled by the territorial arrangements envisaged in
the resolution of November 29.
RIGHT OF REPATRIATION
(E) The right of innocent people, uprooted from
their homes by the present error and ravages of war, to return to their homes should be affirmed and made effective with assurance of
adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not
to return
JERUSALEM
(F) The city of Jerusalem, because of its
religious and international significance and the complexity of
interest involved, should be accorded special and separate
treatment.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
(G) International responsibility should be
expressed where desirable and necessary in the form of international
guarantees as a means of allaying existing fears, and particularly
with regard to boundaries and human rights.
IV
The following conclusions, broadly outlined,
would, in my view, considering all the circumstances, provide a
reasonable, equitable and workable basis for settlement.
(A) Since the Security
Council, under pain of Chapter VIII Sanctions, has forbidden further
employment of military action in Palestine as a means of settling
the dispute, hostilities should be pronounced formally ended either
by mutual agreement of the parties or, failing that, by the United
nations. The existing indefinite truce should be superseded by a
formal peace or, at the minimum, an armistice which would involve
either complete withdrawal and demobilization of armed forces or
their wide separation by creation of broad demilitarized zones under
United Nations supervision.
(B) The frontier between
the Arab and Jewish territories, in the absence of agreement between
Arabs and Jews, should be established by the United Nations and
delimited by a technical boundaries commission appointed by and
responsible to the United Nations with the following revisions in
the boundaries broadly defined in the resolution of the General
Assembly of November 29 in order to make them more equitable,
workable, and consistent with existing realities in Palestine.
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Map below left: The area in
brown -- Jewish territory. The area in purple -- Arab
territory. |
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( i ) The area known as the Negeb, south
of a line running from the sea near El Majdal east southeast
of Faluja (both of which places would be in Arab territory)
should be defined as Arab territory.
( ii ) The
frontier should run from Faluja north northeast to Ramieh
and Lydda (both of which places would be in Arab territory),
the frontier at Lydda then following the line established in
the general Assembly resolution of November 29. |
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( iii ) Galilee should
be defined as Jewish territory
(C) The disposition of
the territory of Palestine not included with the boundaries of the
Jewish state should be left to the governments of the Arab states,
in full consultation with the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, with
the recommendation, however, that in view of the historical
connection and common interest of Trans-Jordan and Palestine there
would be compelling reasons for merging the Arab territory of
Palestine with the territory of Trans-Jordan, subject to such
frontier rectifications regarding other Arab states as may be found
practicable and desirable.
(D) The United Nations,
by declaration or other appropriate means, should undertake to
provide special assurance that the boundaries between the Arab and
Jewish territories shall be respected and maintained, subject only
to such modifications as may be mutually agreed upon by the parties
concerned.
(E) The port of Haifa,
including the oil refineries and terminals and without prejudice to
their inclusion in the sovereign territory of the Jewish state or
the administration of the city of Haifa, should be declared a free
port with assurances of free access for interested Arab countries
and an undertaking on their part to place no obstacle in the way of
oil deliveries by pipeline to the Haifa refineries, whose
distribution would continue on the basis of the historical pattern.
(F) The airport of Lydda
should be declared a free airport, with assurance of access to it
and employment of its facilities for Jerusalem and interested Arab
countries.
(G) The city of
Jerusalem, which should be understood as covering the area defined
in the resolution of the General Assembly of November 29, should be
treated separately and should be placed under effective United
Nations control with maximum feasible local autonomy for its Arab
and Jewish communities, with full safeguards for the protection of
the holy places and sites and free access to them, and for religious
freedom.
(H) The right of
unimpeded access to Jerusalem by road, rail, or air should be fully
respected by all parties.
(I) The right of the
Arab refugees to return to their homes in Jewish-controlled
territory at the earliest possible date should be affirmed by the
United nations, and their repatriation, resettlement, and economic
and social rehabilitation and payment of adequate compensation for
the property of those choosing not to return should be supervised
and assisted by the United Nations Conciliation Commission described
in paragraph (K) below.
(J) the political,
economic, social, and religious rights of all Arabs in the Jewish
territory of Palestine and of all Jews in the Arab territory of
Palestine should be fully guaranteed and respected by the
authorities. The Conciliation Commission provided for in the
following paragraph should be supervise the observance of this
guarantee. It should also lend its good offices, on the invitation
of the parties, to any efforts toward exchanges of populations with
a view to eliminating troublesome minority problems and on the basis
of adequate compensation for property owned.
(K) In view of the
special nature of the Palestine problem and the dangerous
complexities of Arab-Jewish relationships, the United Nations should
establish a Palestine Conciliation Commission. The commission which
should be appointed for a limited period, should be responsible to
the United Nations and act under its authority. The commission,
assisted by such United Nations personnel as may prove necessary,
should undertake:
( i ) To employ its good
offices to make such recommendations to the parties or to the United
Nations and to take such other steps as may be appropriate, with a
view to insuring the continuation of the peaceful adjustment of the
situation in Palestine.
( ii ) Such measures as
it might consider appropriate in fostering the cultivation of
friendly relations between Arabs and Jews;
( iii ) To supervise the
observance of such boundary, road, railroad, free port, and other
arrangements as may be decided upon by the United Nations.
( iv ) To report
promptly to the United Nations any development in Palestine likely
to alter the arrangements approved by the United Nations in the
Palestine settlement or to threaten the peace of the area.
Source: Current History, November 1948
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Report: Being Black in Israel—The
Ethiopian Jews are commonly known by the
slightly derogatory term Falasha but the
name they chose for themselves is Beta
Israel (Hebrew for The House of Israel).
They are today virtually no Ethiopian
Jews anymore in Ethiopia. Israel
organized mass migrations in the late
80’s (Operation Moses). If you want to
know more about Operation Moses read
this. Many Ethiopian Jews converted
to Christianity at the end of the 19th
century and beginning of the 20th
century. They faced discrimination and
hardship and chose to become Christians
in a predominantly Christian country to
make their lives easier. However, today
many of the descendants of these
converts feel they are still Jews and
should also have the right for aliya,
i.e., to ‘return’ to Israel. These
people are named Falash Mura and after
many discussions the Israeli government
made them eligible for migration
although with many restrictions and
limitations. More on this phenomenon
here. . . .
Blacks in Israel are also
African Hebrew Israelites
also known as Black Hebrews, who settled
in Israel in 1969. They are of black
American ancestry and were therefore not
recognized as Jews. But after decades
they have been granted permanent
residency status in 2004 and became
eligible for military service since
then. In 2006, Eddie Butler, a Black
Hebrew, was chosen by the Israeli public
to represent Israel in the Eurovision
Song Contest. They mainly live in the
Negev town of Dimona were they form a
community of 3000 people, but other
families live in other towns too.—AfroEurope |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
By Ilan Pappe
It
is amazing, according to Pappe, how the
media had not managed to see the
similarities between the ethnic
cleansing that was happening in Bosnia
with the one that is happening in
Palestine. According to Drazen Petrovic
(pg.2-3), who has dealt with the
definition of ethnic cleansing, ethnic
cleansing is associated with
nationalism, the making of new nation
states and national struggle all of
which are the driving force within the
Zionist ideology of Israel. The
consultancy council had used the exact
same methods as the methods that were
later to be used by the Serbs in Bosnia.
In fact Pappe argues that such methods
were employed in order to establish the
state of Israel in 1948.
The
book is divided into 12 chapters with 19
illustrations in black and white, with 7
maps of Palestine and 2 tables. These
include old photographs of refugee
camps, and maps of Palestine before and
after the ethnic cleansing of 1948.
Pappe continues his writing as a
revisionist historian with the intention
of stating the bitter truth to his
Israeli contemporaries and the fact that
they have to face the truth of their
nation being built upon an ethnic
cleansing of the population of
Palestine.
One
can sense an optimistic hope in Pappe’s
writing when he talks about the few who
are in Israel who are aware of their
country’s brutal past especially 1948
and the foundation of the state upon
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.—PaLint |
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