How the British press covered the establishment of Israel – I looked into the newspaper archives to find out
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023
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The mandate had given Britain administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan after the end of the first world war.
Key Points:
- The mandate had given Britain administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan after the end of the first world war.
- Asserting its “natural and historic right” to a homeland and recognition by the United Nations, the council declared the establishment of Israel.
Eyewitness account
- The Manchester Guardian’s eyewitness account, which it ran on page five on May 15 under the headline “Natural and Historic Right”, explained why such support was needed.
- The proclamation of statehood had taken place “in a subdued atmosphere caused by Jewish military reverses”.
Expert analysis of the birth of the state of Israel and the plight of the Palestinian people.
- The Daily Telegraph reported that “Britain does not intend, for some time, to grant recognition to the Jewish State of Israel.
- The Conservative broadsheet explained that these would include “definition of its boundaries and the establishment of a government clearly in control”.
- The UK’s foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, thought Britain’s duty was to balance US enthusiasm for Israel with diplomatic sympathy for the Arab case.
- The Attlee government believed that immediate recognition of Israel by the US was unfair and encouraged by American Jewish opinion.
Reports from the US
- Moments later, the Jewish Agency for Palestine appealed to the security council to call on the Arab states to “desist from aggression”.
- It was, Cooke reminded his readers, “the UN Security Council’s first experience with an open and admitted war”.
- He described Andrei Gromyko, the Russian representative to the UN, sitting in “unflurried silence”, while Dr T.F.
- Tsiang of China asked how the US could “recognise a Jewish State and, at the same time, seriously ask the Arabs to stop fighting”.