By April 27, 2008 Read More →

Arab-Jewish Flare-up Feared, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Sep. 18, 1948.

UN Security CouncilBernadotte Assassinated in Jerusalem; U. N. Emergency Session Called for Today

Security Council to Meet in Paris

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The United Nations Security Council called an emergency session for 3 p. m. Saturday to consider the slaying of Count Folke Bernadotte, U. N. Palestine mediator.

In their shocked surprise, several U. N. officials said about the same thing when informed of the mediator’s death. The comment generally was-

“Now all hell will break loose.”

The report on Bernadotte’s months of mediation in Palestine arrived at headquarters almost simultaneously with news of his death. The Swedish Count had undertaken the job last spring to exploit what he called a slight chance to settle the Holy Land problem.

Secretary-General Trygve Lie arranged to fly to Paris Saturday from Norway. Acting secretary-general Arkady A. Sobolev of Russia cabled instructions to Colonel Aage Lundstrom, Bernadotte’s chief of staff, to investigate the slaying and make a report to the U. N. as soon as possible.

BUNCHE IN CHARGE

Sobolev also cabled Dr. Ralph Bunche, principal secretary to the U. N. mission and right-hand man to Bernadotte, to assume full responsibility for the mediation group. The telegram said Bunche was in charge “until further notice.”

The assassination deeply shocked world political leaders.

During a stopover of his special train in Crestline, Ohio, President Truman said “I have just been officially notified of Count Bernadotte’s death. I am shocked and deeply saddened by it.”

Secretary of State Marshall declared in Washington the world will demand that Bernadotte’s work in the Holy Land “be vigorously pursued.”

“It is particularly tragic that he should have been shot down at a time when he had achieved such a great measure of success,” Marshall said.

Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, termed he killing (??) “ruthless act which will be condemned by the people of Palestine-Jew and Arab alike.”

ISRAELIS SHOCKED

A Jewish spokesman in Tel Aviv said Mosche Shertok, Israeli Foreign Minister, had sent telegrams to King Gustav of Sweden, Countess Bernadotte and U. N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie which said-

“Deeply shocked by outrageous murder of Count Bernadotte by criminal outlaws who are execrated by the entire people of Israel and the Jewish community of Jerusalem. On behalf of the government of Israel I beg to express our feelings of grief and profound sympathy. The government of Israel is adopting the sternest measures to bring the criminals to justice.”

Abdel Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, said in Alexandria- “World conscience must now awake and realize that the Arab armies entered Palestine to restore peace and end crime in the Holy Land.

Haj Amin El Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, said- “This incident shows clearly that the Zionists never respected the truce and never respected international law.”

The news of the U. N. mediator’s death stunned the people of Sweden.

Bernadotte’s wife, the Countess Estelle, received the news over the radio as she was alone in her home in Stockholm with one of her two sons.

Ninety-year-old King Gustav, uncle of Bernadotte, wept when informed of the assassination.

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