The UN Partition Plan. Blue is the Jewish state, red is the Arab state, yellow (Jerusalem) is the international zone. Photo: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
United nations partition
november 29, 1947
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to partition (separate) Palestine into three entities: an independent Jewish state, an independent Arab state, and the city of Jerusalem as an international zone to be administered by the UN. The vote for Resolution 181 was 33 countries in favor, 10 opposed, and 13 abstentions.
Strategically the plan wasn’t very favorable to the Jews, creating choke points that could be easily cut off by Arab armies. Its territory included a huge minority of Arabs who would, in time, overtake the Jews as the majority population, bringing an end to the Jewish character of the state. But the Yishuv accepted it; the Arabs did not, and began a massive campaign of violence that quickly became a Palestinian civil war.