UN Palestine Commission – Security – Rough draft of Report to SecCo

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UNITED NATIONS PALESTINE COMMISSION

Rough Draft of Special Report to the Security
Council on the Problem of Security in Relation
to the implementation of the Resolution
 of the General Assembly on the Future Government of
Palestine

The United Nations Palestine Commission herewith presents to the Security Council a special report on the question of security in the implementation of the resolution of the General Assembly on the Future Government of Palestine. In its First Monthly Progress Report to the Security Council (Section 13) the Commission had informed the Security Council that “it was devoting most serious attention to the various aspects of the security problem, with particular reference to the possible need for an international force” and that this problem would be the subject of a subsequent special report.

I. INTRODUCTION

1. This special report an the security problem in relation to the implementation of the recommendations of the General Assembly for the future government of Palestine is presented to the Security Council by the Commission at this time because of the extreme gravity of the situation in Palestine with regard to both the future well-being of the peoples of that land and the authority and effectiveness of the United Nations.

2. It is a source of regret to the Commission that the circumstances are not such as to make it possible for the will of the General Assembly, as expressed in the resolution, to be carried out by this Commission, as the agent of the General Assembly, without the necessity of bringing the issue of security before the Security Council.

3. Although the security problem is referred to the Security Council by this report, the Commission intends to continue with such of the vast amount of preparatory work essential to the implementation of the recommendations as can be undertaken without the assistance from the Security Council envisaged in this report.

II. RELEVANT PROVISIONS OF THE RESOLUTION

l. On the basis of all information, official and unofficial, available to the Commission, including reports from the Mandatory Power, the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the press of the world, the Commission has had no choice but to conclude that there is a concerted and deliberate effort on the part of powerful Arab interests not only to defy the resolution of the General Assembly but to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein within the meaning of sub-paragraph (c) of the Preamble to the resolution.

2. In inviting the attention of the Security Council to the security problem in connection with the implementation of the resolution of the General Assembly, the Commission has noted particularly, sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (o) of the Preamble to the resolution whereby the General Assembly has requested that:

“(a) The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for in the plan for its implementation;

“(b)The Security Council consider if circumstances during the transitional period require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine constitutes a threat to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and in order to maintain international peace and security, the Security Council should supplement the authorization of the General Assembly by taking measures, under Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter, to empower the United Nations Commission, as provided in this resolution to exercise in Palestine the functions which are assigned to it by this resolution;

“(c) the Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter, any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution.”).

2. The resolution of the General Assembly also provides:

a. that armed militia recruited from the residents of the Arab and Jewish States, respectively, by the Provisional Councils of Government which the Commission shall select will “maintain internal order and prevent frontier clashes » (Part I, E.8).

b. that to assist in the maintenance of law and order and especially for the protection of the Holy Places, religious buildings and sites in the free city of Jerusalem, the Governor appointed by the Trusteeship Council shall organise a special force, the members of which shall be recruited outside of Palestine (Part III, Section A, 4C).

3. The question of providing an international force to assist the Commission in the maintenance of law and order in Palestine during the transitional period repeatedly arose in the discussions of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly and its Subcommittee 1 which elaborated the plan of partition with economic union. It was generally considered that the matter fell within the competence of the Security Council which would subsequently take such action in the matter as circumstances might dictate. It was on the proposal of the Ad Hoc Committee that the General Assembly addressed to the Security Council the requests set forth in sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of the preamble.