What was the role of the United Nations?
Caught between Arab and Jewish demands and short on funds, the Attlee government of Great Britain in February 1947 declared its Mandate in Palestine “unworkable” and referred the matter to the youthful UN. That body, with a surprising show of agreement between blocs, created a special committee of eleven member states to study the issues and report its recommendations. The UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was the first truly independent tribunal to examine the Palestine question. In the summer of 1947 UNSCOP traveled to Palestine and held hearings in Jerusalem. The Palestine Arabs boycotted it. After completing its work in Palestine, the Committee drew up its recommendations in Geneva. Committee members were especially moved by the plight of desperate Holocaust survivors denied entry to Palestine. Countering Arab claims that there was no basis for Jewish statehood in Palestine, in July 1947, the Christian Maronite Archbishop of Beirut, Lebanon, Ignatiyus Mubarak, presented a
