a summary of Fares al-Khuri’s statement to the Security Council on 15 March 1948. It unanimously approved what was contained in the Arab League secretariat memorandum sent to him, dated 4 March and concerning Palestine, and instructed them to announce the following statement at the first Security Council meeting on behalf of the governments of the Arab states:
“The Arab states, driven by the desire to rescue Palestine from chaos, destruction, and bloodshed and to preserve lasting peace in the Middle East, are prepared, once the United Nations agrees to remove the terrorists from the Holy Land, to completely disarm the Haganah, that foreign force most of whose members do not even hold Palestinian citizenship, and other Jewish military organizations, and once it agrees to destroy the fortresses and strongholds they have built. In that case the Arab states will be prepared to make every effort to reach a just peaceful solution to the Palestine question consistent with democratic principles and the rights of peoples to self-determination, and to work with the United Nations to disarm the inhabitants of Palestine completely and dissolve the organized forces there, so that Palestine will be a country in which no one, under the influence of different emotions or foreign interventions, can disrupt security and peace.
“The Arab states, in making this declaration, wish the world to understand that the Arab position is purely defensive and that the Arabs of Palestine have fallen prey to an invasion by foreign groups of various peoples seeking by every means, including force, to control their homeland. The country has been supplied continuously and regularly each month with 1,500 immigrants, with the approval of the mandatory power, in addition to thousands of immigrants entering against its will, and the Jewish army has been supplied with the fighters it needs, as well as large quantities of weapons arriving from abroad from various countries and from factories established inside Palestine to arm the foreign Jewish terrorist organizations. The Arab states hope it will be understood that this position is inspired only by a noble humanitarian feeling, and that the Arabs of Palestine are not fleeing and will not flee the field and do not refuse to meet the Jewish challenge in kind. If the states wish to regard the situation in Palestine as a civil war among its inhabitants, as it is in reality, and take toward it the position they take toward civil wars elsewhere in the world, the Arab states are prepared, if the United Nations undertakes measures ensuring that supplies do not reach the Jews from abroad in the form of immigrants, weapons, or equipment, to work hard to prevent the spread of the disorder in Palestine caused by the partition plan.
“The Arab states, while showing complete readiness for peace and to bring Palestine to independence, freedom, and security for all its inhabitants within one democratic Palestinian state, will not change anything in their position toward partition, the establishment of a Jewish state there, or the continuation of immigration there. They will oppose every act that would lead to this. In all circumstances, they do not intend to intervene by force in Palestine unless foreign forces from outside Palestine intervene to assist the Zionists.”
That same day, the Lebanese consulate in New York received the following telegram from the official authorities in Cairo:
Lebanese Consulate, New York
Inform the representatives of the Arab states as follows:
“Since tendencies have begun to appear in the Security Council to reject the partition plan and not impose it by force, the Arab Higher Committee is prepared to cooperate with the Council and provide it with data and documents to help devise a just solution to this question.
“This cooperation began with the Committee’s response to the questions recently addressed to it by the UN secretary-general. But the Committee’s cooperation is conditional on excluding the partition plan. It will issue instructions to this end to Mr. Nakhla and ask him to remain in constant contact with the Arab delegations, strengthening cooperation and continuous consultation with them to determine the plan of action. The Political Committee recommended that the Arab Committee strengthen its representation in New York by adding other members in service of the cause, and that the Committee give this recommendation the attention it deserves.”
As for the Arab Higher Committee’s view of trusteeship over Palestine and its position on it, it explained this in its memorandum sent to the Arab League Political Committee, dated 25 Jumada II 1367 (4 May 1948). It read: