UNCCP – Conclusion of Geneva meetings – Letter to Israel

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

Letter dated 3 July 1950 addressed by the Chairman of the Conciliation Commission to the Foreign Minister of Israel

Sir,

On July 15 the Palestine Conciliation Commission will conclude the meetings which for the past six months it has been holding in Geneva. At the beginning of August it will meet again in its Jerusalem headquarters.

Last December when the Conciliation Commission concluded its meetings in New York and decided to establish itself for a time in Geneva it was encouraged by the thought that in this European centre of United Nations activities it could readily maintain contact with the Government of Israel and the Arab Governments.

The Conciliation Commission had hoped that in the course of its meetings here it could find a way in which it could help to bring the parties together and assist them to achieve a settlement of all outstanding questions. It welcomed the opportunity for discussion of these questions with Israeli and Arab delegates in Geneva. The Commission could not fail to recognize the urgency of certain questions; it had long realized that none of the questions awaiting settlement could be considered unimportant by those desiring peace and stability in Palestine.

During these months in Geneva the Conciliation Commission long continued to hope for eventual success in its efforts to find a way acceptable to the Government of Israel and the Arab Governments for the initiation of negotiations in the interest of all parties. These efforts and the responses thereto on the part of the Governments concerned have been the subject of the latest report which the Commission has submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations; and in its Seventh Report which it is about to submit, the Commission has been obliged to record that it has reached an impasse in its efforts here.

In deciding at this time to proceed to Jerusalem, and having in mind the report which it must soon prepare for the United Nations General Assembly; the Palestine Conciliation Commission wishes to have the opportunity for first hand contact with the Government of Israel and the Arab Governments after it is established in its Jerusalem headquarters.

I have the honour to be.

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

Claude de Boisanger

Chairman