Constituent Assembly and a member of the Indian delegation to the
United Nations. He drafted a proposal that Nehru described as “a half-
way house between partition and some kind of federation.”^87 Rau had
outlined his plan just a few days before the UN endorsement of the parti-
tion plan and had “shown this note to Weizmann... who had been at-
tracted to it.”^88 As violence intensifi ed in Palestine, Rau’s ideas gathered
momentum and eventually resulted in the convening of the Second Spe-
cial Session of the UN General Assembly in April 1948. According to Rau,
the violence following the partition vote meant “each side must yield a
little ground [and] they may be in a mood to consider a via media.”^89
Afraid of its rejection, Rau was against giving a name to his proposal
until all the details were fi nalized.^90 Moving away from the federal pro-
posal, this plan called for separate cabinets for Arab and Jewish regions
headed by a separate prime minister. For a specifi c number of years, Pal-
estine as a whole would be governed by a single executive head appointed
by the newly formed UN Trusteeship Council. Given the importance that
Zionism attached to aliya, Rau suggested “regulated immigration with-
out materially disturbing the existing proportions of the two communi-
ties.”^91 It soon became clear that the Rau plan had no real chance of being
considered by the United Nations. Not prepared to face yet another diplo-
matic embarrassment, New Delhi advised its UN delegation not to pres-
ent the plan. Instead, it was advised to “persuade the Committee to adopt
the cardinal principle of co- operation between Arabs and Jews.”^92
Meanwhile, the British decision to pull out by May 15, 1948, irrespec-
tive of the consequences, intensifi ed the Arab- Jewish violence in Pales-
tine. In a bid to restore peace and order, on April 16, 1948, the United
Nations convened another Special Session of the General Assembly. In a
sudden reversal of its earlier policy, the United States proposed a “sus-
pension” of the partition resolution and placing Palestine under a tempo-
rary trusteeship. India saw this as an opportunity to bypass the partition
resolution, found a common cause with the United States, and actively
supported the suspension of Resolution 181.^93 It was included in a twelve-
member subcommittee set up by the United Nations to formulate a pro-
visional post- Mandate regime for Palestine.
As the second Special Session was bogged down in endless debates
and procedural wrangling, on May 14, hours before the fi nal British sol-
diers left Mandate Palestine, the yishuv leaders met in Tel Aviv and de-
clared the formation of the State of Israel. Within minutes of this develop-
ment, U.S. President Harry S. Truman accorded de facto recognition to
106 the partition of palestine