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Three days in December: Jewish human rights between the United Nations and the middle east in 1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2021

James Loeffler Open the ORCID record for James Loeffler [Opens in a new window]
James Loeffler*
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University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Abstract

The twin birth of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Genocide Convention in 1948 have received enormous scholarly attention in recent years. Yet historians have largely ignored how these legal projects intersected with that year’s war in Israel/Palestine. In this article, I push these two stories back into a single frame by examining the year-long efforts of one early human rights organization, the World Jewish Congress, to advance rights-claims on behalf of Middle Eastern Jewish communities imperiled by the regional repercussions of the war. The WJC’s record of activities affords us a direct window into contemporaneous activist understandings of the ties between the Holocaust and the Nakba, human rights and genocide, and international law and politics. More broadly, it reveals the intrinsic limits of early human rights advocacy in an emerging global system exclusively structured around nation states.

Keywords

human rightsgenocideHolocaustNakbaIsrael/PalestineUnited Nationsinternational lawrefugees
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Towards a Global History of International Organizations and Decolonization , July 2022 , pp. 312 - 330
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Rashid Khalidi, ‘1948 and after in Palestine: Universal Themes?’ Critical Inquiry 40, no. 4 (Summer 2014): 330–31; A. Dirk Moses, ‘Empire, Resistance, and Security: International Law and the Transformative Occupation of Palestine’, Humanity 8, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 379–409.

2 Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 84–119; Roland Burke, Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).

3 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1951).

4 Eric Weitz, A World Divided: The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019), 320–67; A. Dirk Moses, The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021); Lyndsey Stonebridge, Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018); Mark Levene, The Crisis of Genocide, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014); Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg, eds., The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019); Laura Robson, The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

5 Derek Penslar, ‘Comparing the Incomparable: Analytical Tool or Moral Stimulus?’, Journal of Genocide Research 22, no. 1 (2020): 154–60; Omer Bartov, ‘Blind Spots of Genocide’, Journal of Modern European History 19, no. 4 (November 2021): 1–5.

6 Joan Wallach Scott, On the Judgment of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2020), 3–21; Carolyn Dean, ‘Joan Wallach Scott. On the Judgment of History’, H-Diplo Review Essay 318 (Feb. 26, 2021), 4; Laura Jockusch, ‘Justice at Nuremberg? Jewish Responses to Nazi War-Crime Trials in Allied-Occupied Germany’, Jewish Social Studies 19, no. 1 (Fall 2012): 107–47.

7 James Loeffler, ‘Promise and Peril: Reflections on Jewish International Legal Biography’, 33–48 in Jewish-European Émigré Lawyers: Twentieth-Century International Humanitarian Law as Idea and Profession, eds. Leora Bilsky and Annette Weinke (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2021).

8 For other recent re-framings of this question, see James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), Nathan Kurz, Jewish Internationalism and Human Rights after the Holocaust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020); and Rotem Giladi, Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law: Ideology and Ambivalence in Early Israeli Legal Diplomacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).

9 On the occlusion of the Holocaust in early postwar human rights culture, see Marco Duranti, ‘The Holocaust, the Legacy of 1789 and the Birth of International Human Rights Law: Revisiting the Foundation Myth’, Journal of Genocide Research 14, no. 2 (June 2012): 159–71, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffman, ‘Human Rights and History’, Past and Present 232, no. 1 (2016): 294–95, 300; and Nathan Kurz, ‘“Hide a Fact Rather than State it”: The Holocaust, the 1940s Human Rights Surge, and the Cosmopolitan Imperative of International Law’, Journal of Genocide Research 23, no. 1 (2021): 37–57.

10 Lydia Walker, ‘Decolonization in the 1960s: On Legitimate and Illegitimate Nationalist Claims-Making’, Past & Present 242, no. 1 (Feb. 2019): 227–64; Roland Burke, ‘The Internationalism of Human Rights’, in Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History, eds. Glenda Sluga and Patricia Clavin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 287–314.

11 Stephen Jensen, The Making of International Human Rights: The 1960s, Decolonization, and the Reconstruction of Global Values (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019).

12 Samuel Moyn, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018); Marco Duranti, The Conservative Human Rights Revolution: European Identity, Transnational Politics, and the Origins of the European Convention (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016); and Mark Bradley, The World Reimagined: Americans and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); Paul Betts, ‘Socialism, Social Rights, and Human Rights: The Case of East Germany’, Humanity 3, no. 3 (Winter 2012): 408–26; and Mary Nolan, ‘Gender and Utopian Visions in a Post-Utopian Era: Americanism, Human Rights, Market Fundamentalism’, Central European History 44, no. 1 (March 2011): 13–36.

13 Moria Paz, ‘A Most Inglorious Right: René Cassin, Freedom of Movement, Jews, and Palestinians’, in The Law of Strangers: Jewish Lawyers and International Law in the Twentieth Century, eds. James Loeffler and Moria Paz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 177–203 and Mira Siegelberg, Statelessness: A Modern History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020).

14 Barbara Keys, Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014); Sarah Snyder, From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018).

15 Memo, Dec. 21, 1947, World Jewish Congress Collection, MS-361, B20, F7, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati (hereafter cited as AJA, WJC).

16 ‘The Jewish World Congress Provides Illustrations of the Dreadful Pogrom against Jews in Aden [Yid.]’, Der Tog (Jan. 8, 1948); Letter from Jewish Emergency Committee [of Aden] to WJC, Dec. 14, 1947, H1, F1, AJA, WJC; Telegram from Robert Marcus to Abul Hassan Isphani, Dec. 4, 1947, H268, F1, AJA, WJC.

17 Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA), ‘Some Arab States Plan to Intern Native Jews as ‘Enemy Aliens’ if Jewish state formed’ (Nov. 12, 1947).

18 Memo, ‘Excerpts from Lebanese Newspapers Regarding Jewish Residents of Arab Countries’, B13, F4, AJA, WJC. On legal measures against Syria’s Jewish population, actual and contemplated, see Michael R. Fischbach, Jewish Property Claims against Arab Countries (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 30–3.

19 Memo (Dec. 21, 1947), B20, F7, AJA, WJC.

20 A. Leon Kubowitzki, ed., Unity in Dispersion: A History of the World Jewish Congress (New York: World Jewish Congress, 1948), 230.

21 Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans, 85–112.

22 Kubowitzki, Unity, 318; American Jewish Conference, Memorandum submitted to the United Nations Conference on International Organization (New York: American Jewish Conference, 1945), 9–10. This demand continued up through 1948. See ‘Draft Letter to Constituencies’, Mar. 16, 1948, B2, F13, AJA, WJC.

23 James Loeffler, ‘Becoming Cleopatra: The Forgotten Zionism of Raphael Lemkin’, Journal of Genocide Research 19, no. 3 (2017): 340–60.

24 ‘Texte d’une loi projetée par le Comité Politique de la Ligue Arabe’, [Jan. 1948], B13, F4, AJA, WJC. For additional discussion, see Letter from A. Easterman to R. Marcus, Jan. 26, 1948, B54, F9, AJA, WJC. No evidence exists that this was adopted as official policy. See Fischbach, Jewish Property, 112.

25 Office Committee Meeting Minutes, Jan. 8, 1948, A74, F7, AJA, WJC.

26 ‘Reports to Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, #1, Apr. – May 1947’, Charles Malik Papers, B85, F6, Library of Congress (hereafter cited as LC, CM).

27 Letter from S. D. Wolkowicz to R. Marcus, Dec. 23, 1947, B20, F7; Draft Memo (Dec. 31, 1947), B20, F7, AJA, WJC.

28 On these issues, see ‘Roundtable: Jewish Identities in the Middle East, 1876–1956’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 46 (2014): 577–605; Lital Levy, ‘Historicizing the Concept of Arab Jews in the Mashriq’, Jewish Quarterly Review 98, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 452–69.

29 Jacob Robinson, ‘Jewish Aspirations to Palestine’, Sep. 24, 1946, C133, F7, AJA, WJC.

30 Letter from A. L. Easterman to M. Perlzweig, Feb. 3, 1949, B22, F5; Letter from R. Marcus to the U.S. Secretary of State, Jan. 3, 1948, B13, F4; Memo on the Situation in Arab Countries (Jan. 1948), B29, F9, AJA, WJC; Nahum Goldmann, ‘State of the Jews and the Diaspora: The Bogey of Dual Loyalty’, Palestine Post (Aug. 27, 1948), 5.

31 A. Dirk Moses, ‘Partitions, Hostages, Transfer: Retributive Violence and National Security’, in Partitions: A Transnational History of Twentieth-Century Territorial Separatism, eds. Arie Dubnov and Laura Robson (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019), 257–94.

32 Milton Konvitz, ‘Partition and World Peace’, New York Times (Feb. 3, 1948).

33 Office Committee Meeting Minutes, Jan. 8, 1948, A74, F7, AJA, WJC.

34 Naomi Levy, Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul (New York: Flatiron Books, 2017), 15–20.

35 ‘Note on conversation with Mr. Price’ [Jan. 9, 1948], B23, F1; Memo, B13, F4, AJA, WJC.

36 WJC Memo to ECOSOC, submitted Jan. 19, 1948, B13, F4; ‘Report of Activities of Political Department (Nov. 15, 1947, to May 15, 1948)’, B28, F11, AJA, WJC. For discussion of the WJC’s self-conscious use of the term ‘genocide’, see ‘Genocide and the United Nations [memo.]’, [Jan. 1948], C29, F9, AJA, WJC.

37 Letter from O. Karbach to R. Marcus, Jan. 26, 1948, B13, F4, AJA, WJC.

38 Quoted in ‘Action of the WJC on Behalf of Oriental Jews [memo]’, May 9, 1951, B22, F9, AJA, WJC.

39 ‘Notes on discussions with Jewish Agency [memo.]’ (Jan. 12, 1948), B13, F4; Memo, Mar. 20, 1948, B2, F4, AJA, WJC.

40 Gil Rubin, ‘The Future of the Jews: Planning for the Postwar Jewish World, 1939–1946’ (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2017); Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, ‘From Eastern Europe to the Middle East: The Reversal in Zionist Policy vis-à-vis the Jews of Islamic Countries’, Journal of Israeli History 20, no. 1 (2001): 24–48; and Nimrod Lin, ‘The Arithmetic of Rights: Zionist Intellectuals Imagining the Arab Minority, May–July 1938’, Middle Eastern Studies 54, no. 6 (2018): 948–64.

41 Letter from S. D. Wolkowicz to R. Marcus, Dec. 3, 1947, B20, F7, AJA, WJC.

42 Nahum Goldmann Speech at the June 1948 WJC Convention, quoted in The World Jewish Congress, 1936–2016, ed. Menachem Rosensaft (New York: World Jewish Congress, 2017), 70.

43 Memo [Feb. 6, 1948], B84, F7, AJA, WJC.

44 [Report, Apr. 12, 1949], C148, F10, AJA, WJC.

45 Letter from M. Perlzweig to N. Robinson, Feb. 20, 1948, B13, F4, AJA, WJC. See also ‘Arab Pogroms Endanger 800,000 outside Palestine’, PM (Jan. 18, 1948); Hirsch Wolfson, ‘“Genocide” is Now Practiced by Arabs in their Campaign Against Jews’, The Sentinel (Mar. 11, 1948).

46 On Malik’s politics, see Andrew Arsan ‘“A Unique Little Country’: Lebanese Exceptionalism, Pro-Americanism and the Meanings of Independence in the Writings of Charles Malik, c. 1946–1962’, in Decolonization and the Cold War: Negotiating Independence, eds. Leslie James and Elisabeth Leake (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 87–106.

47 Charles Malik, ‘Appendix to the final observations and reflections on the first special session the GA’ [1947], B85, F6; ‘Reports to Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, #1, Apr.–May 1947’, B85, F6, LC, CM.

48 Charles Malik, ‘Account of the Meetings of the Arab Delegations’ [May 29, 1947], B86, F1; ‘General Assembly, Reports to Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1947, #2’, B85, F7, LC, CM.

49 Charles Malik, Speech to the Ad Hoc Political Committee (May 4, 1949), B86, F3, LC, CM.

50 Speech at Mt. Holyoke College, ‘Tensions in the Middle East’, June 19, 1948, B209, F6, LC, CM.

51 Speech of Charles Malik to the Security Council, May 28, 1948, B209, F6, LC, CM.

52 Nehemiah Robinson, ‘Report on the Action taken by the WJC in the matter concerning the Situation of Jews in Arab Countries before the United Nations’, (March 20, 1948), B2, F4, AJA, WJC; Arieh Tartakover, ‘Let Us Save the Jews of the Middle East!’ (Heb.) Davar (Mar. 29, 1948), 2; ‘The World Jewish Congress Opens a Local Office’, (Heb.) Ha-medinah (Aug. 5, 1948), 1.

53 Memo of N. Robinson, Mar. 20, 1948, B2, F4; Letter from N. Robinson to A. Easterman, B13, F4; ‘Report of Activities of Political Department (Nov. 15, 1947, to May 15, 1948)’, B28, F11, AJA, WJC; Nehemiah Robinson, ‘Report on the Action taken by the WJC in favor of the Jews in Arab Lands Before the United Nations and Suggestions for the Future’, [Apr. 4, 1949], 74-23- Kh-Tz, (hereafter cited as ISA).

54 ‘Report of Activities of Political Department (Nov. 15, 1947, to May 15, 1948)’, B28, F11, AJA, WJC.

55 E/AC.25/SR. 3, E/AC.25/SR.5, E/AC.25/SR.6, Summary Records of the Third Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Genocide, Apr. 6, 8, and 9, 1948, reproduced in Hirad Abtahi and Philippa Webb, eds., The Genocide Convention: The Travaux Préparatoires (Leiden: Brill, 2009), vol. 1, 688–94; Press Release, ‘WJC Assails Stand of Lebanon Delegates at UN Hearing on Genocide Convention’, Apr. 7, 1948, B84, F7, AJA, WJC. On genocide rhetoric vis-à-vis Israel/Palestine, see Anton Weiss-Wendt, A Rhetorical Crime: Genocide in the Geopolitical Discourse of the Cold War (Rutgers: Rutgers University Press, 2017), 133–49.

56 ‘The Case against Genocide’, American Jewish Congress Weekly (Apr. 16, 1948), 13; ‘Verbatim Report of Statement by Dr. Robert S. Marcus’, C233, F4, AJA, WJC.

57 ‘The Case against Genocide’, American Jewish Congress Weekly (Apr. 16, 1948), 13; ‘Verbatim Report of Statement by Dr. Robert S. Marcus’, C233, F4, AJA, WJC.

58 For more on the WJC’s efforts vis-à-vis the Genocide Convention, see Mark Lewis, The Birth of the New Justice: The Internationalization of Crime and Punishment, 1919–1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 181–214.

59 ‘Action of the WJC on Behalf of Oriental Jews’, May 9, 1951, B22, F9; Letter from R. Marcus to T. O. Thackrey, May 10, 1948, B32, F1, AJA, WJC.

60 Speech to Security Council, May 28, 1948, B209, F6; Press Release on Malik’s Speech, B89, F10, LC, MP.

61 Speech to Security Council, May 28, 1948, B209, F6, LC, MP.

62 Mallory Browne, ‘Jews in Grave Danger in All Moslem Lands’, New York Times (May 16, 1948).

63 ‘Notes for the Minister of State’s meeting with Mr. Easterman, 12 Feb. [1948]’, ‘Position of Jews in Arab countries’, FO 371/68367-0014, British National Archives (cited hereafter as BNA, FO).

64 Nehemiah Robinson, Conversation Notes, Feb. 27, 1948, B13, F4, AJA, WJC.

65 Letter from N. Robinson to M. Perlzweig, Feb. 24, 1948, B13, F4, AJA, WJC. For a debate on tactics and NGO status at the UN, see Shloyme Izrayli, ‘The Mystery of a Vanished Document’, (Yiddish) Forverts (Mar. 30, 1948), and Letter from R. Marcus to the Editor, B21, F9, AJA, WJC.

66 Letter from R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Feb. 6, 1948, B23, F1, AJA, WJC.

67 ‘Statement of Dr. F. R. Bienenfeld on behalf of the World Jewish Congress to the NGO Committee on June 21, 1948’, B32, F1, AJA, WJC.

68 ‘Statement of Dr. F. R. Bienenfeld on behalf of the World Jewish Congress to the NGO Committee on June 21, 1948’, B32, F1, AJA, WJC. For additional discussion of this meeting, see Kurz, Jewish Internationalism, 70–1.

69 Draft Memo, Nov. 1948, C29, F10; WJC Report, Apr. 12, 1949, C148, F10, AJA, WJC.

70 Robinson, ‘Report [Apr. 4, 1949].’

71 Letter from A. Easterman to NY-WJC, Aug. 19, 1948, C233, F4; A. Easterman, ‘Statement for the press’, Aug. 23, 1948, C233, F4; Letter from N. Robinson to R. Marcus, Oct. 11, 1948, B23, F1; WJC Memo to General Assembly, Oct. 8, 1948, B23, F1, AJA, WJC.

72 Telegram from Sir H. Dow, Jerusalem British Foreign Office, July 25, 1948, 371/68576-0001, BNA, FO.

73 Derek Penslar, ‘Solidarity as an Emotion: American Jews and Israel in 1948’, Modern American History, forthcoming.

74 For discussion of this pattern of Jewish denialism, see Kurz, Jewish Internationalism, 71–72.

75 Arab Higher Committee, Jewish Atrocities in the Holy Land: Memorandum to the UN Delegations, July 20, 1948 (New York: League of Arab States, 1948); Arab Higher Committee, The Black Paper on the Jewish Agency and Zionist Terrorism (New York: League of Arab States, 1948).

76 Letter from S. Roth to G. Riegner, Sep. 16, 1948, B21, F4, AJA, WJC.

77 Letter from M. Eliash to M. Shertok, Aug. 19, 1948; Letter from M. Comay to US UN Delegation, July 27, 1948, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1948v05p2/pg_1248.

78 Letter from Moshe Shertok to UN Mediator, July 30, 1948, 377/8- Kh-Tz, ISA; Jacob Tovy, Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Issue: The Formulation of a Policy, 1948–1956 (London: Routledge, 2014), 16–7; Yehouda Shenhav, ‘Arab Jews, Population Exchange, and the Palestinian Right of Return’, in Exile and Return: Predicaments of Palestinians and Jews, eds. Ann Lesch and Ian Lustick (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 225–45.

79 Letter from A. Reiss to R. Marcus, Oct. 19, 1948, C233, F4, AJA, WJC.

80 Letter from A. L. Easterman to A. Tartakover, Aug. 10, 1948, B140, F29, AJA, WJC; Arieh Tartakover, ‘The Non-Leftist Faction in the World Jewish Congress’, (Heb.) Ha-boker (Sep. 22, 1948), 2; Y. Rafaeli, ‘On This and That in the State of Israel’, (Heb.) Hed ha-mizrah (Jan. 7, 1949), 13.

81 Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine Submitted to the Secretary-General for Transmission to the Members of the United Nations, General Assembly Official Records: Third Session, Supplement No. 11 (UN Doc A/648).

82 Memo, Sep. 27, 1948, B22, F13; Press release, Oct. 12, 1948, B140, F29; Letter from N. Robinson to R. Marcus, Oct. 11, 1948, B23, F1; WJC Memo to General Assembly, Oct. 8, 1948, B23, F1, AJA, WJC; Letter to the Editor, New York Herald Tribune (Oct. 24, 1948).

83 A/C.6/SR.68 and A/C.6/SR.79, General Assembly 3rd session, 6th Committee, summary record of meetings, 21 Sept.-10 Dec. 1948, 61st-140th meetings, reproduced in Abtahi and Webb, Genocide Convention, vol. 2, 1245–49.

84 Telegram from E. Epstein to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dec. 14, 1948, and Telegram from E. Epstein to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oct. 21, 1948, 377/8- Kh-Tz, ISA.

85 Letter from A. Tartakower to A. Easterman, Jan. 9, 1949, B54, F9, AJA, WJC.

86 United Nations General Assembly (1948) Palestine – Progress Report of the United States Mediator, 11 December 1948, A/RES/194(III).

87 On the legal history of the Palestinian right of return, see Eyal Benvenisti, Chaim Gans, and Sari Hanafi, eds., Israel and the Palestinian Refugees (Berlin, New York: Springer, 2007); Kathleen Lawland, ‘The Right to Return of Palestinians in International Law’, International Journal of Refugee Law 8 (1996): 532–51; Susan Akram, ‘Palestinian Refugees and their Legal Status: Rights, Politics, and Implications for a Just Solution’, Journal of Palestine Studies 31, no. 3 (Spring 2002): 5–36; Eyal Benvenisti, ‘The Right of Return in International Law: An Israeli Perspective’, draft paper, available at https://m.tau.ac.il/law/members/benvenisti/articals/TheRightofReturn.doc; John Quigley, ‘Mass Displacement and the Individual Right of Return’, British Yearbook of International Law 68, no. 1 (1997): 65–125, Lex Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), and Victor Kattan, From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891–1949 (London, New York: Pluto Press, 2009), 209–31.

88 Takkenberg, Status of Palestinian Refugees, 242–44; Yaffa Zilbershats, ‘International Law and the Palestinians’ Right of Return to the State of Israel’, in Benvenisti, Gans, and Hanafi, Israel and the Palestinian Refugees, 194.

89 Kurt Rene Radley, ‘The Palestinian Refugees: The Right to Return in International Law’, American Journal of International Law 72, no. 3 (July 1978): 600–1; Rashid Khalidi, ‘Observations on the Right of Return’, Journal of Palestine Studies 21, no. 2 (Winter 1992): 29–40; Maha Nassar, ‘Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Discourse on the Right of Return, 1948–59’, Journal of Palestine Studies 40, no. 4 (June 2011): 45–60.

90 For early Israeli perceptions of the GA Res 194, see Jacob Robinson, ‘Some Fundamental Considerations Concerning Interpretation of the General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of December 11, 1948, May 3, 1949’, 74–23-Kh-Tz, ISA.

91 World Jewish Congress, The Treatment of the Jews in Egypt and Iraq (New York, 1948), 3; Letter from R. Marcus to Trygve Lie, Dec. 26, 1949, B22, F1 and Letter from R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Dec. 27, 1948, B22, F9, AJA, WJC.

92 ‘Charges Egypt Breaks U.N. Pact on Genocide’, New York Post (Dec. 17, 1948); Sh. Z. Rubin, ‘Israel Condemns Egypt and Iraq for anti-Jewish Pogroms, Says Dr. Nachum Goldmann’, (in Yiddish) Der Tog (Dec. 19, 1948); ‘180,000 Seen in Peril: Jews Face Extermination in Egypt, Iraq, Says Goldmann’, New York Times, Dec. 18, 1948. See also Robert Marcus, ‘Human Rights: A Jewish View’, Congress Weekly (Jan. 10, 1949).

93 R. Marcus, Draft Resolution, Jan. 3, 1949, B22, F1, AJA, WJC.

94 ‘The Prohibition of the Destruction of Peoples – A Basis for Seeking International Protection of the Jews of Arab Lands’, (Heb.) Ha-boker (Dec. 27, 1948).

95 Letters from L. Kubowitzki to A. Easterman, Mar. 23, 1949, and R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Mar. 14, 1949, B22, F9; Robinson, ‘Report [Apr. 4, 1949]’, AJA, WJC.

96 Letters from R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Apr. 11, 1949, and R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Apr. 13, 1949, B22, F9, AJA, WJC.

97 Letter from M. Perlzweig to O. Karbach, Jan. 19, 1949, B22, F5, AJA, WJC.

98 Neil Caplan, The Lausanne Conference, 1949: a case study in Middle East peacemaking (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, 1993).

99 Jacob Robinson, ‘The Problem of Refugees in the Third Committee of the General Assembly’, Dec. 19, 1950, 130.4.1.251, ISA.

100 Letter from R. Marcus to A. Easterman, Feb. 17, 1949, and Letter from R. Marcus to A. Easterman, May 11, 1949, B54, F9, AJA, WJC.

101 Letter from F. Becker to R. Marcus, Feb. 2, 1949, B22, F1, AJA, WJC.

102 Memos, Oct. 22, 1949, and Feb. 6, 1950, B13, F4, AJA, WJC.

103 Letter from M. Perlzweig to A. Easterman, Apr. 25, 1949, B22, F1, AJA, WJC.

104 Memo, ‘Palestine: Arab Activities. Code 65, File 11’, FO 371/68373, BNA, FO.

105 Letter from F. Bienenfeld to A. Easterman, July 30, 1948, B54, F9 AJA, WJC.

106 Beshara Doumani, ‘Palestine Versus the Palestinians? The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied’, Journal of Palestine Studies 36, no. 4 (Summer 2007): 49–64; Antonio Cassese, Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Appraisal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 238–39.

107 Maha Nassar, Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017); Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for the State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); and Wendy Pearlman, Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).