The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Resolution 181(II). After the UN vote, violence erupted between Jewish and Arab communities. The plan was never fully implemented due to military opposition from neighboring Arab states.
By the time Israel declared independence in 1948, the situation had escalated into full-scale war. Israel expanded its territory beyond the UN-designated borders. Approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced, an event Palestinians call the Nakba (“catastrophe”). The war resulted in armistice agreements in 1949, creating borders known as the Green Line. The plan laid the groundwork for the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It highlighted the challenges of balancing self-determination with international intervention.
