BRITAIN IN PALESTINE
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In 1947, the British government announced that it was going to relinquish control of Palestine in May 1948, and handed the problem to the United Nations, the successor organisation to the League of Nations. The UN sent its own inquiry team to Palestine, which came back and wrote a report with a majority recommendation for partition.
When this recommendation was debated in the UN General Assembly, it was clear that the majority needed to pass it might not be forthcoming. But with the help of the US government and US Jews, a sufficent number of countries were threatened, blackmailed or bribed to change their votes and ensure that the motion was passed. Against their will and with no consultation, the Arabs of Palestine were told they must give up more than half their land to create a Jewish state.
Britain Walks Away
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The League of Nations, which created the Mandate system, had been replaced by the United Nations at the end of World War II, and so when Britain decided to leave Palestine, it handed the problem over to the UN. Yet another Committee, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, UNSCOP, was sent out to Palestine to suggest a solution.
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