United Nations' Oral History Project Interview with Mr. Issa Nakhleh by Hamid Abdelajber 22 October 1998- UN Headquarters
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 United Nations' Oral History Project Interview with Mr. Issa NAkhleh By Hamid Abdelajber 22 October 1998- UN Headquarters JABER: Welcome Mr. Issa Nakhleh to the United Nation's Oral History Project. We appreciate your acceptance to come and participate in this project. My name is Hamid Abdeljaber, the Interviewer and my Interviewee is Mr. Issa Nakhleh, and I would like Mr. Nakhleh first to start with asking you to introduce yourself briefly. In: My name is Issa Nakhleh. I am the representative of the Arab High Committee for Palestine since 1947. And I am the author of the Encyclopedia of the Palestine problem. I attended forty sessions of the United Nations since 1947. JABER: Mr. Nakhleh, we will go back to those days of 1946 and 1947 and we'll ask you first to briefly describe to us your association with the Question of Palestine as it was presented those days to the United Nations. IN: On the 2nd of April 1947, the British government requested the Secretary-General.of the United Nations to place the Question of Palestine on the agenda of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Secretary-General sent a ~elegram to all member states, requesting to convene a special session. When the Arab governments heard of this situation, they formed their delegations and, at the same time, the Arab High Cornrni ttee for Palestine formed its own delegation composed of Munif El-Husseini, Emil El-Ghouri, Henry Cattan, Wasef Kamal, and Issa Nakhleh, myself. 2 We le.ft- on, the ;2 6th af 'April i 94 7', from Cairo. The Palestine Arab delegation together with Mr.Azzam ~asha the, then, Secretary Gene-ral' 'of the League, of Arab Stat:es. We took an airplane on the 26 of April and we arrived on the 2.7th.We came to the United Nations vjHid"l" ,started to' discuss' the question of, Palestine on Ap r i 1 28', 1947. 0s.wald'o A(..aldlha- of Brazil, was the President of the General Assembly. He r~q~ested the General Committee"to consider the provisional agenda of that session. Beforei the General Committee, there was a proposal Introduced by the Br~tish .goyernment and by the Secretary~General'that they should constitute and instruct a special Committee to prepare for the consideration of the Question of Palestine on the second regular session. The Arab governments wanted to put before the General Committee another proposal which called on the United Nations to grant Palestine Independence and freedom. On April 28 and 29, the General Conuni ttee met to discuss the agenda. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia submitted an item for the agenda: termination of the British mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its Independence. The General Committee refused to include the proposal of the Arab governmen~s. and decided that the General Assembly should discuss onl:.y.~,what. th'e'President and the Secretary-General has suggested of establishing a special committee. The Arab suggestion was defeated. The General committeedesi~~a that the matter should be referred to the First Committee. The report of the General Committee was submitted to the General Assembly which discussed it on May the 3rd and 5th. 3 3 Delegates of Uruguay, Yugoslavia, Chile, Argentina, andBy.e~t~ssia submitted a draft resolution allowing the Jewish Agency for Palestine to be granted the right to be heard by the General Assembly., The General Assembly adopted that resolution. The Arab States protested. The First Committee decided on May 5th, 1947 that the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine together should be heard before the Committee. [ The General Assembly on the 7th of May, 1947 adopted a resolution I that the Arab Higher Committee should be heard also before the I General Assembly and the other Committees. On May 13, the recommendation came from the First Committee to the r General Assembly for constituting and instructing a United Nations I Special Committee on Palestine to submit a report on the Question of Palestine to be composed of Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, I India,Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia. The Secretary-General should submit that report of the Special Committee I on Palestine not later than the first of September 1947. I After the general debate, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on I May 15, 1947 to appoint the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine as recommended by the First Committee. I JABER: What did the UN Special Committee on Palestine do? I IN: The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine went to the r United Kingdom and Palestine and heard witnesses. The .Arab Higher .. Committee for Palestine 'Joycotted the Committee. The Special Committee on J Palestine submitted its report to the United Nations Secretary General J' 4 on September 3, 1947. The report included a recommendation approved by Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden and Uruguay to partition Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State with economic union and a Special International Status for Jerusalem. A minority group of India, Iran and Yugoslavia recommended to constitute a Federal State in Palestine composed of an Arab State, a Jewish State and a Federal Government. During the Second Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was referred to the Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestine question which invited representatives of the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine and the Jewish Agency to take part in the discussion. The Ad Hoc Committee discussed the matter from September 25 to November 25, 1947. JABER: What was the attitude of the States in the Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine? IN: The United States was not very enthusiastic for the Partition Proposal, but finally it supported the idea of Partition. Most of the European States supported Partition. Some Latin American States supported Partition. The Communist States, who were part of I the Soviet Union supported partition. The Arab States and the Asian I and African States were against Partition. JABER: I understand that there was a proposal to refer the I matter to the International Court of Justice. What happened to that I proposal? I - 5 IN: The Arab States authorized Fares Al-Khouri, representative of Syria, to submit a resolution to request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion under Article 96 of the United Nations Charter and Chapter IV of the Statute of the Court on several legal issues, amongst which whether a plan for the partition of Palestine without the consent of the majority of its people is consistent with the objectives of the Covenant of the League of Nations and with the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine. The resolution was rejected by 21 votes to 20, with 13 abstentions. JABER: Did the Ad Hoc Committee approve the partition plan? IN: On November 25, 1947 the Ad Hoc Committee approved the partition resolution by 25 members, J.).. agains·t; with 17 abstentions . •• e ...• Two members were absent. Six Arab States, Afghanistan, Cuba, India, Iran, Siam, Pakistan and Turkey voted against it. Argentina, Belgium, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia abstained. Paraguay and the Philippines were absent. r JABER: Did the Arab States try to convince other States not to support the partition resolution in the Ad Hoc Committee? I" IN: The Arab States and the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine r were contacting all members of the Ad Hoc Committee so that they would not support the partition resolution. The most important r Arab representatives who were active in that effort were Prince Faisal r of Saudi Arabia, Fares El-Khourj. of Syria, Carneel Sharn'oun of Lebanon, Mahmoud F~wzi of Egypt, Fadel Jamali of Iraq, and all of the r I 6 I representatives of the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine. Prince I Faisal contacted General George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State and some American oil companies to influence the Department I of State not to support partition. I I met members of the United States delegation who were not originally in favor of partition. I met Mr. Lay Henderson, I Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and he told me, IIWe do not favor the partition resolution. 1I The book of the I Foreign Relations of the United States in 1947 includes many I statements that the United States was against partition in principle. Later on they changed their position and supported partition. I JABER: What was the position of the British Government? I IN: The British Government was hesitant to support I partition. Its representatives said, "We do not want to support partition, but we will not be against it." r JABER: What was the position of United States Church r organizations on partition? r IN: The National Council of Churches was unfortunately for partition. I tried to convince the Secretary General of the 1- National Council of Churches to make a statement against partition but he declined. I used to know Cardinal Spellman because when I r came to the United Sates in 1947 I had a letter to him from the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in which he said, "Mr. Nakhleh is my lawyer r and my friend." Cardinal Spellman invited me to lunch and I I explained to him the Palestine Problem. He was very sympathetic. I I 7 I Unfortunately I discovered in November 1947 that some Jewish American leaders visited Cardinal Spe11man and gave him twenty five million I dollars for Catholic charities and asked him to call some Latin I American States to support partition.