ABSTRACT

It took a month for Count Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator, to prevail upon the warring parties to agree to a truce, which came into effect on 11 June. Bernadotte was well known for his humanitarian efforts to save Jews from the Nazis in the latter days of the Second World War. Less well-known at the time of his appointment was the fact that this Swedish aristocrat preferred dealing with courtly Arab notables over technocratic Jewish officials, disliked partition and did not feel himself bound by its precise terms, since he believed that this would render his task impossible.1 Neither empowered to hand down decisions nor to make recommendations to the Assembly, Bernadotte’s role was limited to obtaining peaceful agreement between the parties and proposing solutions. However, as no limitation had been placed on his capacity as Mediator, Bernadotte had considerable latitude to make far-reaching proposals. Accordingly, he presented a plan for substantial territorial adjustments to form a federation between the proposed Arab and Jewish states. The Arab state to incorporate Arab Palestine, including Jerusalem in whole, with municipal autonomy for Jewish Jerusalem; Haifa to be internationalised as a free port; and territorial adjustments to favour the Arabs in the Negev and the Jews in the Galilee. Jewish immigration was to be dependent on the agreement of the Palestinian Arab state, or else the binding adjudication of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.2