Amendment of 2nd part of Second Report to SG on refugees/Jerusalem – UNCCP 41st meeting (Jerusalem) – Summary Record

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FORTY-FIRST MEETING

held at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem,
on 8 April 1949 at 6.30 p.m.

Consideration of Second Part of the Second Report to the Secretary-General.

The CHAIRMAN objected to the drafting of certain parts of the paragraphs concerning the refugee question, feeling that the wording did not convey exactly the line that the interview had taken. In particular he desired an indication of the fact that Mr. Ben Gurion had not replied directly to the Chairman’s direct question. He also called attention to the negative phrasing of the sentence which set forth the concession made by the Arabs concerning prior settlement of the refugee question; this was an important point and he would prefer a more positive statement of it.

Referring to the last paragraph of the report, Mr. de BOISANGER recalled that Mr. Ben Gurion had used the phrase “accepted without reservation an international regime for or international control of the Holy Places”. He thought the sentence as it stood in the report should be redrafted to reproduce Mr. Ben Gurion’s actual statement.

Mr. ETHRIDGE pointed out that the last sentence of the report was in the nature of editorial comment, whereas the report was intended to be a simple transmittal of the views of Mr. Ben Gurion. He proposed that the sentence should be deleted.

The Commission approved  the Second Part of the report as amended.