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The United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from several states. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented. At its hundred and twenty-eighth plenary meeting on 29 November 1947 the General Assembly elected the following members to the United Nations Commission on Palestine: Bolivia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Panama and the Philippines. UNSCOP considered two main proposals. The first called for the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The second called for the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. A majority of UNSCOP adopted the first option, although several members supported the second option instead and one member (Australia) said it was unable to decide between them. The UN General Assembly largely accepted UNSCOP's proposals, though they made some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal.
The Jewish state was to receive 55% of Mandatory Palestine. This included the fruitful shore plain and the Negev desert. The desert was not suitable for agriculture, nor for urban development at that time. The land allocated to the Jewish state was largely that where there was a significant Jewish population (Map of population distribution). Much was owned by Jewish interests (about 7% of the area of Palestine) or the state.
The UN made the recommendation for a three-way partition of Palestine into a Jewish State, an Arab State and a small internationally administered zone including the religiously significant towns Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The two states envisioned in the plan were each composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroadIn a country that is split into two or more non-adjacent parts, with another country in between, an extraterritorial crossroad is a strip of land that formally belongs to neither country, or with other special arrangements. Often these strips of land ares. The Jewish state would receive the Coastal Plain, stretching from HaifaHaifa ( Hebrew alphabet Standard Hebrew efa Tiberian Hebrew ph Arabic ayf is the third largest city in Israel, with a population close to 300,000. Areas and towns around it are deemed to be in the Haifa District, of which it is also a part. It is a seapor to RehovotRehovot Standard Hebrew Rovot Tiberian Hebrew Ro is a city in Israel. In the KJV Bible, it is also called Rehoboth . The modern Israeli city is in the Center District of Israel in Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the, the Eastern GalileeGalilee (Hebrew hagalil , Arabic al-jaleel ), meaning circuit is a large area located in what is currently northern Israel ( Tzafon), traditionally divided into three parts: Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee and Western Galilee. Geography Galilee embraces more (surrounding the Sea of GalileeThe Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest freshwater lake, approximately 53 kilometers (33 miles) in circumference, about 21 km (13 miles) long, and 13 km (8 miles) wide; it has a total area of 166 sq km, and a maximum depth of approximately 48 meters. At 21 and including the Galilee panhandle) and the Negev, including the southern outpost of Umm Rashrash (now EilatEilat or Elat Standard Hebrew Elat Tiberian Hebrew la , pop. 50,000, is Israel's southernmost city, in the Southern District of Israel. Adjacent to the Egyptian city of Taba and Jordanian (previously Saudi) port of Aqaba, Eilat is located at the northern). The Arab state would receive the Western Galilee, with the town of AcreAkko Standard Hebrew Akko Tiberian Hebrew Akk Arabic Akk also, Acre Accho Acco and St. Jean d'Acre , is a city in Western Galilee in the North District, Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2003 the city had a, the SamariaModern usage Samaria or Sumaria ( Hebrew: Shomron ) is a term used for the mountainous northern part of the West Bank. In modern times, the name "Samaria" is most often used by Zionists when speaking a language other than Hebrew. Others prefer to use then highlands and the Judean highlands, and the southern coast stretching from north of Majdal (now Ashkelon) and encompassing what is now the Gaza Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. The UNSCOP report placed the mostly-Arab town of Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, in the Jewish state, but it was moved to form an enclave part of the Arab State before the proposal went before the UN.
The plan was a compromise position based on two other plans, giving more or less land to each state.
