ABSTRACT
THE United Nations plan in November 1947 to divide Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states and a Special International Regime for Jerusalem had been preceded by a somewhat similar design in July 1937. The British Peel Commission recommended that Mandatory Palestine be partioned into a small Jewish state, comprising the Galilee, the Yezreal Valley and the coastal plain, and a large Arab state, comprising the rest of Palestine and united with Transjordan. Jerusalem, Bethlehem and a few other areas would remain a British Mandatory zone. 1
