288 4. the islamic prism
rendezvous with his old friend Eliyahu Elath in Basil Liddell Hart’s farm-
house in 1953.
- India, UNSCOP, and the Partition of Palestine
The epigraph to this chapter is taken from a letter from Vijayalakshmi Pan-
dit to Bajpai (October 8, 1947), NAI, F-46 (1)- AWT/47.
- India, Constituent Assembly Debates, session II (December 4, 1947), 1:1261.
Emphasis added.
- Among others, see India, India and Palestine; Mehrish, “Recognition of the
Palestine Liberation Or ga ni za tion (PLO): An Appraisal of India’s Policy”; and
Agwani, “The Great Powers and the Partition of Palestine.”
- For example, see Khalidi, “Revisiting the UNGA Partition Resolution.” The no-
table exception is the recent work by Ginat, “India and the Palestine Question.”
- For a discussion of the events leading up to this move, see Haron, “The Brit-
ish Decision to Give the Palestine Question to the United Nations”; and Jasse,
“Great Britain and Palestine Towards the United Nations.”
- UNSCOP Report, 2:1.
- Ministry of External Aff airs tele gram to Asaf Ali (April 24, 1947), NAI,
F-2(16)- UNO- I/47.
- Note by P. A. Menon (May 13, 1947), NAI, F-2(16)- UNO- I/47.
- There are others who argued diff erently. For example, Prithvi Ram Mudiam,
India and the Middle East, 145, maintained that Asaf Ali “adopted a balanced
and conciliatory approach to the Palestinian question.”
- UN General Assembly, First Special Session, A/BUR/P.V./32 (May 2, 1947), 37.
- Ibid., A/BUR/P.V./30 (April 30, 1947), 12.
- On April 30, the General Committee overwhelmingly rejected the Egyptian
proposal.
- On May 13, the General Assembly rejected the proposal by fi fteen to twenty-
six votes, with twelve abstentions and two absentees.
- For the details concerning the circumstances under which the Arab Higher
Committee withdrew and then was persuaded to depose before the commit-
tee, see Robinson, Palestine and the United Nations, 130– 137.
- UN General Assembly, First Special Session, A/C.1/P.V.48 (May 7, 1948), 48.
- For the full text of the statement, see UN General Assembly, A/AC.14/SR.11
(October 11, 1947).
- Likewise, the Indian delegate unsuccessfully opposed a decision by the
UNSCOP to visit the DP camps in Eu rope prior to the preparation of the
fi nal report. Abdur Rahman to Jawaharlal Nehru (July 15, 1947), NAI,
F-2(16)- UNO- I/47.
- UN General Assembly, First Special Session, A/C.1/P.V.51 (May 8, 1947),
57– 62; Garcia- Granados, The Birth of Israel, 6.
- UN General Assembly, A/BUR/P.V.30 (April 30, 1947), 2– 10.
