By September 19, 2007 Read More →

Jewish Group Asks Part in U.N. Debate, Dec. 12, 1947

LAKE SUCCESS. Dec. 11 (U.P.)—The Jewish Agency tonight asked permission to take part in United Nations Security Council debate on the Palestine question.

The agency based its request on the fact that it had been given a hearing both at last spring’s special General Assembly session on Palestine and before the special committee that drew up the Palestine partition plan that eventually was approved.

Two Arab states not belonging to the Security council—Egypt and Lebanon—already have been granted advance permission by the Security Council to sit in on debate when the Palestine question is brought up again. A third Arab state, Syria, is a member of the Council.

It was likely that the unprecedented Jewish Agency request would provoke considerable parliamentary jockeying among Council members. Up to now, only sovereign governments have been invited to take a place at the Council table and join in debate on a nonvoting basis.

Presumably the Jewish Agency was asking to be heard on the same basis as Egypt and Lebanon. The Charter would seem to rule this out, but the point is open to dispute.

The Holy Land problem automatically came before the U. N.’s number one peace-keeping organ when it received official notification earlier this week of the General Assembly decision to split Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states by October 1. At the suggestion of the United States, debate on the role the Council has been assigned in enforcing partition was postponed indefinitely.

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