ANT KATZ

The WZO pre-dates most 20^th Century Israeli organisations. Better known organisations today, such as the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JA), also known as the Sochnut, started their lives out as departments of the WZO. And, nominally, they still are.

After the Balfour declaration post-WWI, Jews came to expect that Britain would restore more to them than the post WWII United Nations was prepared to.  

“The United Nations Partition Plan tore away more than half of the historic Land of Israel, which was promised to the Jewish people by the Balfour Declaration of 1917,” Hagoel told Jewish Report on Sunday.

RIGHT: Yaakov Hagoel, left, and Eitan Behar, the WZO’s Director, International Centre for Countering Anti-Semitism outside the Belgian Jewish Museum in December 2014
      -PHOTO: ANT KATZ

“But the Partition Plan of 1947 was also the first time in history that the nations of the world recognized the right of the Jews to have a state of their own in their historic homeland, and thus paved the way for full independence.

“The Partition Plan was met with mixed reactions of the Arabs and Jews. 

LEFT: The United Nations’ official partition map of 1947. The Jews were prepared to accept it, the Arab states were not

“While the representatives of the soon-to-be Israeli government reluctantly agreed to the plan, representatives of the Arabs turned their back on the peaceful agreement and launched a destructive war against the Jews” he said.

Recreating history

In 2011, as the WZO’s then-head of the Department for Activities in Israel, Yaakov Hagoel says he “had the privilege to launch a recreation of the celebrations took place in downtown Jerusalem in 1947.

“The event took place at 48 King George Street where the WZO’s main offices still stand until this day.

“With Israeli flags in hand, hundreds of people came to celebrate the historic event with singing and dancing, just as was done at the same location decades before,” he explains.

Today, he says, 29 November should be recognised as the day on which the fulfilment of the ingathering of our people back to the Land of Israel started.

“Today we celebrate Zionism and we say to our neighbours – we are here to stay,” said Yaakov Hagoel
on Sunday. 

Hagoel is today the vice-chairman of the World Zionist Organisation.

The organisation spends much of its resources to combating anti-Semitism around the world and has had a major impact with its awareness campaigns such as their now ubiquitous efforts to get people to REPORT VIOLENT ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS.

Prior to the beginning of the campaign, it was believed that 75 percent of violent anti-Semitic incidents went unreported. This number is believed to have come down considerably. 

See how the 1947 recreation was done

What was the UN Partition Plan?

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal developed by the United Nations, which recommended a partition with Economic Union of Mandatory Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan as Resolution 181(II).

The resolution recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem.

The Partition Plan, a four-part document attached to the resolution, provided for the termination of the Mandate, the progressive withdrawal of British armed forces and the delineation of boundaries between the two States and Jerusalem.

Part I of the Plan stipulated that the Mandate would be terminated as soon as possible and the United Kingdom would withdraw no later than 1 August 1948. The new states would come into existence two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948.

The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing movements: Arab nationalism in Palestine and Jewish nationalism, or Zionism. The Plan also called for Economic Union between the proposed states, and for the protection of religious and minority rights.

The Plan was accepted by the Jewish public, except for its fringes, and by the Jewish Agency despite its perceived limitations.

Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the resolution and indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division. They argued that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny

What is Corpus separatum?

Corpus separatum (Latin for “separated body”) is the term that was used to describe the Jerusalem area in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.

According to the plan Jerusalem would be placed under international control, conferring it a special status due to its shared religious importance.

LEFT: The original UN map of how they perceived an internationalised Jerusalem

 The corpus separatum was one of the main issues of the Lausanne Conference of 1949, besides the other borders and the question of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

The plan was adopted by the General Assembly with a two-thirds majority, although its implementation failed.

WZO Conference reads on SAJR.CO.ZA

17 Dec: GERMAN JEWRY IS “SITTING ON THEIR SUITCASES”
GABRIEL GOLDBERG of German Fed – on how it feels like to be a Jew in Europe in 2014

17 Dec: DANGEROUS BUT WONDERFUL THING TO BE JEWISH
BARON KLENER, Survivor & head of Belgian Jewry, tells how tough it is on European Jews

10 Dec: EUROPEAN ANTI-SEMITISM HEADING BACK TO 30S 
Introduction to series on December conference of WZO attended & written by ANT KATZ

Related reads on SAJR.CO.ZA

05 Nov: CLEESE WARNS ON ME, TERROR & MORE 
Brits have “raised security level from ‘Miffed’ to ‘Peeved’,” writes joker JOHN CLEESE

24 June: WHEN DOES ANTI-ZIONIST, ANTI-ISRAEL TURN ANTI-SEMITIC? 
Latest research stats: World is 26% anti-Semitic” says ADL’s Foxman – by ANT KATZ

24 June: INCREASE OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN EUROPE (AND ELSEWHERE)
“Hit back against propaganda generated by anti-Semites” – by NATHAN CHEIMAN

23 June: “RISING TIDE OF ANTI-SEMITISM, ESPECIALLY IN EUROPE” –Bibi
“We argue with G-d, for G-d’s sake!” reported from Jerusalem by ANT KATZ

18 June: EUROPE’S NEW ANTI-SEMITISM
“Belgium’s Jews are afraid. The Jews of Marseille are afraid” – by BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY

02 June: JEWISH MUSEUM ATTACK: SUSPECT ARRESTED IN FRANCE
Jewish Museum attack: Suspect arrested in France – by ANT KATZ

12 Dec 2013:  MADIBA SPOKE IN NY & ATE WITH JEWRY IN BRUSSELS
A reflection of how things were in days gone by – by HOWARD SACKSTEIN