The U.S.-Proposed “Trusteeship Agreement” for Palestine

The UN-Styled Plan That Could Have Avoided Forcible Displacement of the Palestinian Refugees in 1948

Bibliographic Data

ID11404656
AuthorsGail J Boling (Birzeit University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages70-88
Publication date2003-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRefuge Canada s Journal on Refuge (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0229-5113 • E-ISSN: 1920-7336
PublisherYork University Libraries (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.25071/1920-7336.21292
OpenAlexW1939388589
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

In this article, the author examines the U.S.-proposed “Trusteeship Agreement for Palestine,” circulated by the U.S. in the UN Security Council and in subcommittees of the General Assembly from March through May of 1948. The U.S. proposed a UN trusteeship for Palestine as a possible means to provide for a peaceful transition from the end of the British Mandate for Palestine into a new governmental entity that would provide equality under the law for all of its citizens. Notably, the proposed trusteeship arrangement would have avoided partition of Palestine. The author asserts that this, in turn, could have avoided the forcible displacement of three-quarters of a million Palestinian refugees in 1948, as well as Israel’s subsequent refusal to repatriate them. The author argues that the U.S.-proposed Trusteeship Agreement for Palestine sheds light on important norms of international law that existed in 1948 and that could, and should, have been followed by the United Nations in providing for the welfare and legal rights of all the inhabitants of mandate Palestine as the clock ticked down on the announced British withdrawal from Palestine as mandatory authority as of 15 May 1948

Ancient history · Mandate · Mandatory Palestine · Palestine · Palestinian refugees · Political science · Refugee · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts