by Rea G.
“A UNITARY PALESTINIAN STATE FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SLOGAN
The well-known slogan above has been rooted in—and has drawn its timeless relevance from—the national liberation struggle against occupation waged by the indomitable Palestinian people for decades, aimed at establishing a free, independent state within the historic borders of Palestine. It summarizes and highlights the justice of this struggle in the face of, against, and in opposition to the Zionist lapdog of the U.S., the killer “state” of Israel, the regime of apartheid, terrorism, persecution, and violent colonization. It also represents the right of all peoples to live freely and peacefully in opposition to, in defiance of, and against the “justice” of the imperialists who tear countries and peoples apart, draw borders with the blood of the people, and condemn entire nations to uprooting and refugeehood. The long-suffering land of Palestine has known and continues to know these countless crimes all too well.
It is a slogan that has been banned, ridiculed, attacked, persecuted, and criminalized because it remains on the lips of thousands upon thousands of protesters—the people and the youth—all over the world, demonstrating the power of the people’s armed struggle against heavily armed murderous mechanisms, the right of the Palestinian people and all the peoples of the region to live in peace and equality without masters or overlords.
It is a slogan that encapsulates the fundamental principles underlying the Palestinian movement of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and the forces of the Resistance. That is, the right to establish a state within the borders of historic Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, the refusal to recognize any Israeli state entity, the refusal to legitimize the occupation, the persecution, and the settlements, as well as the right of return for all refugees to their homes.
It was on these fundamental principles that the Palestinian movement was founded and organized—both politically and militarily—beginning in 1964, and it was forged, despite adverse circumstances, repeated setbacks, and betrayals from both outside and within. It was on the basis of these fundamental principles that it clashed with the line of compromise and capitulation expressed by Fatah through its abandonment of the armed struggle—a line that guaranteed nothing but defeat. It was on the basis of these fundamental principles that the armed Resistance was sustained and its ranks swelled with new generations of fighters; it was from these principles that the First and Second Intifadas sprang forth, revealing the resilience and inexhaustible strength of the Palestinian people.
It is not a slogan that floats in the void. It is not a leap into the void! On the contrary. It is the only realistic—we might say—perspective that can vindicate the Palestinians’ struggle. Because the other prospect is the “realism” of submission—a submission that calls for “coming down to earth” to the so-called “feasibility of peaceful coexistence” between the two states, Israel and Palestine. They will stand, it is said, side by side with mutual respect and mutual recognition of each other’s sovereignty. This virtual reality—which exists only in the imagination of certain “naive” people, is ahistorical and a dead end—is presented as a vindication of the Palestinian struggle, when in reality it spells its demise!
After all, the so-called ‘two-state solution’ is nothing more than a historically bankrupt position! It is the position that Israel has used to proclaim its ‘state’ whilst constantly expanding it; it is the position that has served all the imperialist patrons and protectors in many ways to play ‘their game’ in the Middle East, at the expense of the Palestinian people and the blood of their murdered children. It served the enemies, the false friends, the collaborationist traitors of the Palestinian Authority, and the ‘pets’ of the salons in Brussels and New York.
It was not merely a ‘fig leaf’ for perpetuating the occupation; it was, in fact, the whitewashing of the murderous ‘state’, the legitimisation of this fascist-Zionist entity and the recognition of its ‘right’ to exist as such. It has been and continues to be used as a means of constant and unrelenting coercion to accept, normalise and legitimise the ‘right’ of the perpetrator-murderer to exist amidst the corpses of its tens of thousands of victims.
A ‘state’ planted by Western imperialists (first the British and then the Americans), which was built on the colonial policy of ‘divide and rule’, which was forged through nationalism-Zionism and imposed upon the stolen lands of Palestine to play the role of a guard-terrorist in the Middle East. An irreplaceable bridgehead for American imperialism and its uncompromising outpost. An entity that exists solely to deny the Palestinian people’s right to a free and independent homeland. A mechanism of violence, settlement and occupation that bases its existence on modern-day Auschwitz. An instrument of imperialist interests whose very ‘nature’ involves elements of division, confrontation and discord with the peoples of the region.
What ‘right’, then, does such an entity have to exist, and from what ‘law’ does it derive it? And why should the Palestinians have to accept the existence of their Zionist oppressors, right next door and on their doorstep?
Just as there was never the slightest chance of this so-called two-state solution being realised from the very outset, so too will there never be one. And it is not us claiming this. Reality itself has been proving it for eight decades now, during which time the one and only ‘state’ – that of fascist-Zionist Israel – has been under construction! A glance at the map of Palestine and how it has taken shape over the course of these decades is enough. The Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean Sea, the world’s largest prison, and how it was razed to the ground; the West Bank of the river and how it continues to be settled through land grabs, violence and displacement; and in between, around, above, below and within, Israel continues to grow and expand, advancing through genocide the Nazi-inspired ‘final solution’.
And it becomes clear that the ‘recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital’ is the worst possible version of the historically bankrupt ‘two-state’ solution. Not only does it restrict the right to a homeland to the limits set by imperialist powers, but in essence it denies that right altogether. It has been enshrined in UN resolutions for decades – resolutions that are nothing but worthless scraps of paper; it features in the plans of the European imperialists; it is even present as an idea in Trump’s genocidal 20-point plan; it is supported by Russia and China; and backed by the Gulf monarchies, precisely so that the Palestinian resistance can be blackmailed into submission through false hopes, to accept its disarmament as a non-negotiable condition and to wait, disarmed, for the fulfilment of a vague promise.
What, then, is the greatest value of this ‘demand’, which for decades has been presented as the upper limit of the Palestinian people’s aspirations? To deceive, disarm, stifle and suppress the Palestinian struggle; to uproot the ‘thorn’ of the heroic Palestinian Resistance. That heroic Resistance, which has stood firm against all odds, continues to hold out despite the blows and remains the insurmountable obstacle for Israel, the US and all forms of imperialism, an obstacle they have been unable to remove from their path, so that they might once again redraw the map of the Middle East unhindered and subject the Palestinian people to their vision of annihilation, and all peoples to the nightmare of unjust wars.
It is evident in practice that this is a DECEPTION that is deliberately cultivated and serves very specific aims and objectives. – First and foremost, it recognises the State of Israel; it takes for granted, accepts and legitimises the occupation, the settlements and the uprooting of refugees that Israel had imposed for 20 years (1947–1967).
It demands that the Palestinian people renounce their armed national liberation struggle and rely on so-called ‘peace’ processes and the decisions of international organisations, such as the UN. They demand that the Palestinian people believe the guarantees supposedly offered to them by the imperialists – the very same people who have been fuelling and supporting the murderous state all these years.
This political trap of deception and self-delusion must be exposed, denounced and fought against by the forces of the revolutionary Left and the anti-imperialist movement. Instead, what prevails is the invocation of ‘international law’ and the promotion of the 1967 border line, with all that this entails, as we mentioned above.
It is a position that has its origins in the defeat of the revolutionary communist movement and the aftermath of this defeat. To adopt this position in opposition to the ‘Unitary Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea’ and in opposition to ‘No legitimisation of the terrorist state’ constitutes a clear undermining of the anti-imperialist struggle. It is not a recognition of the negative correlation, but a subjugation to it! An admission that imperialism is, in all likelihood, invincible. That the peoples do not ‘win with arms in hand’ and that the popular armed movement is merely a bargaining chip, a mere backdrop to negotiations within the framework of the UN and other international organisations. That there is scope to exploit inter-bourgeois and inter-imperialist contradictions in order to forge alliances with the less ‘aggressive’ side, thereby shifting the balance of power in favour of the people’s interests. That there may also be ‘intermediate’ forces within the system that align themselves with the interests of the Palestinians.
It is a misguided line that runs counter to the principle that ‘peoples do not need protectors’ and undermines the anti-imperialist struggle and solidarity movements. It reduces them to activism on flotillas, to humanitarian actions by philanthropists and to meaningless appeals for respect for ‘international law’. It turns them into the ‘tail’ of the bourgeois and reformist parties. It fosters illusions about the role of the imperialist countries and the Arab regimes, whilst also acknowledging a willingness on the part of the US and Israel to negotiate.
What’s more, it is a historically bankrupt position, precisely because it is linked to Fatah’s conciliatory line, dating back to the time when it operated under the influence of the revisionists of the USSR and also looked favourably upon Nasser of Egypt (the 1967 Six-Day War). A line that undermined and sold out the Palestinian movement. It left it exposed to the massacres of Black September perpetrated by King Hussein of Jordan in 1970, to the stab in the back by the ‘Arab brothers’ and Assad’s Syrian army at the Tel al-Zatar refugee camp in Lebanon in 1976, and to Egypt’s ‘abandonment’ when it capitulated in 1978 (Camp David Accords) and became the first Arab country to recognise Israel in order to regain the Sinai Peninsula. It was a policy that led to the abandonment of the guerrilla struggle and the surrender of weapons. It led to the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982 in Beirut. It culminated in the betrayal of the Rabin–Arafat agreements in Oslo in 1993 and 1995 and the transformation of Fatah into a guardian of imperialism.
HOW SOLIDARITY MOVEMENTS GAIN STRENGTH
Solidarity movements can only be strengthened on a political basis that opposes all imperialists, their manoeuvres and their actions, and leaves no room for legitimisation of the murderous state in the consciousness of the masses. A basis that recognises that FREE PALESTINE cannot exist without the crushing of the Zionist entity. Which relies on the strength of the armed Palestinian struggle and on the united front of the peoples against imperialism and Zionism, as the only force capable of resolving the Palestinian question in the interests of the people. It prioritises the anti-imperialist movement within each country, targeting the policies of the bourgeoisie and their representatives.
It is on this basis that the solution to the Palestinian question can be traced. The prospect for the peoples of historic Palestine lies in the struggle to create a unified Palestinian state, free and independent, in which Arabs, Palestinians and Jews will live and coexist on an equal footing and with full rights.
And the expression of this position does not constitute an ‘instruction’ to the Palestinian Resistance and the organisations that comprise it. It is, apart from being a right, the duty of every revolutionary communist organisation and an obligation to take a political stance on a political issue and its implications. In correspondence to this, is the position for a ‘UNITARY, INDEPENDENT CYPRUS’.
Of course, refraining from taking a stance is also a position adopted by certain forces on the extra-parliamentary left, who argue that they support the Palestinian struggle ‘without any caveats or conditions’! For our part, we must say that we do not in any way regard the position on a single state as a ‘qualifier’ or ‘condition’. On the contrary. The promotion of this position is not a ‘minor detail’, a ‘trifle’, a position which advances and provides a way forward for the movement, stands in contrast to the ‘two-state’ position that undermines it. And this stance is directed at our own people, in our own country, through ‘unity and struggle’ within the framework of the solidarity movement.
Unconditional support for the Palestinian national liberation struggle and the full expression of solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, who today stand on the front line of the global anti-imperialist struggle, does not compromise the independence of our judgement, nor does it imply the uncritical adoption of whatever is served up by the system.
THE HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE USSR AND THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT ON THE PALESTINE QUESTION AND ON THE INSURRECTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN ARABIA
The USSR’s position was clear: a unified, democratic, independent state within the borders of historic Palestine, with equality and full rights for all Arabs and Jews.
Before the Second World War, the Third Communist International’s stance on the uprisings in the region against the British colonialists and the British Mandate, as well as the directives issued to the (Jewish) Communist Party of Palestine, were aimed at strengthening the joint Arab-Jewish struggle for independence. All the documents spoke of common interests and the need to develop the joint struggle, and repeated instructions were given to the (Jewish) Communist Party of Palestine to proceed with the Arabisation of the party. They also emphasised the long-standing coexistence within the same geographical area, and the forging of social and economic ties amongst the working classes of Arabs and Jews, whilst exposing the role of Zionist – a form of nationalism utilised by those social strata that had aligned their interests with the colonialists, whilst also serving as the colonialists’ primary means of dividing the population and perpetuating colonial rule.
ZIONISM AND BRITISH IMPERIALISM
We quote the following excerpts
Communist International: Against the crimes of Jewish nationalism in Palestine (28 February 1925) “La Correspondance Internationale”, organ of the Communist International
‘British imperialism, the Arab feudal lords and the Zionists have joined forces against the poor population – The dispossession of Arab farmers
Under the guise of Zionism, British imperialism seeks to crush the Arab national liberation movement. The Zionist Israeli bourgeoisie is granted, as compensation for its loyal and dedicated service, the privilege of being the ‘dominant nation’, even though the population of Palestine comprises no more than 13 per cent Jews! Using this privilege and protected by British guns and aeroplanes, the Zionist organisation has set about seizing the land of Arab farmers. Having allied themselves with and become accomplices of the oppressors, the wealthy Arab feudal aristocrats – the ‘efendies’ – are willingly selling their land to Jewish capitalists, without the slightest concern for the fate of the Arab farmers who have been cultivating these lands for decades.
Every day, since the start of Zionist settlement, Arab farmers have been driven from their land. This has led to bloody clashes between Jewish settlers and Arab smallholders.’
Resolution of the Political Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the insurrectionary movement in Arabia
16 October 1929,
https://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/comintern-29.pdf
‘The role of different classes in the movement
The Zionist colonizing bourgeoisie and their lackeys played the part of outright agents of English imperialism (…) The ‘left’ wing of Zionism, Poale Zion, merged with the Jewish fascists and sided with English imperialism and the Zionist bourgeoisie.
The Arab large landowners, the feudal lords, and the higher ranks of the priesthood, united in the Mejlis Islam, capitulated long ago to English imperialism, and played a treacherous, provocative, counterrevolutionary role.
[…] Tasks of the Party
The CPP, as well as the CI sections in other Arab countries, must learn the lessons to be drawn from the uprising.
1. The most urgent task of the party is to steer an energetic and bold course towards Arabization of the party from top to bottom. At the same time it must make every effort to establish Arab or joint Arab-Jewish trade unions, and to capture and extend those already in existence (…)’
Statements by representatives of the Communist Party of Palestine at the 7th Congress of the Communist International, 31 July 1935
‘In 1921, Anglo-Zionist capital succeeded in settling 250,000 Jewish immigrants in Palestine.
The wages of Arab workers are two to three times lower than those of Jewish workers, for a working day that is considerably longer. The Zionists are forcibly expelling Arab workers from Jewish businesses and estates and replacing them with Jewish immigrants.
Over the last three years, 22,000 Arab fellahin and their families have been driven from their land.”
https://pandor.u-bourgogne.fr/archives-en-ligne/ark:/62246/r30305z398vgzk/f18?locale=fr
La Correspondance Internationale, weekly newspaper of the Communist International, 3 November 1935,
ON THE POSITIONS OF THE (JEWISH) CP OF PALESTINE
The contradiction imperialism-peoples was clearly and correctly placed at the forefront as the main one to be resolved, and within this, and through the strengthening of the CP, they put the conquest of the hegemonic role of the Left within the national liberation struggle, for the activation and resolution of the social question. The struggle for freedom and independence was absolutely linked to the struggle for social liberation, the one as a prerequisite in the struggle for another society, and at the same time the other as strengthening and securing independence: « It is impossible to fight imperialism effectively without simultaneously fighting against the social strata that support it. »
Let us see how the (Jewish) CP of Palestine positions itself at its 10th Conference in October 1946: https://askiarchives.eu/show/46194
« The national question in Palestine »
1) The character of the question »
The central national question in Palestine is how to liberate the inhabitants, both Arabs and Jews, from the imperialist yoke. Our country faces the need to fight for its national liberation. The term « national liberation » means, under the conditions prevailing in Palestine, national liberation for both the Jewish and Arab inhabitants. National liberation for the Arab population can only be obtained by achieving democratic freedoms and independent governance of the country. The same applies to the Jewish population. Under the conditions of colonial rule, the Jewish community (Yishuv) in Palestine has no future. …The fate of the latter depends on the outcome of the anti-imperialist struggle in Palestine and on the struggle for peace and democracy throughout the world. Despite the fomented antagonism between Arabs and Jews, the two peoples do not have opposing interests. Imperialism tries to divide the two peoples through the different degree of exploitation and oppression, and by this means to prevent the combined struggle against imperialism. The policy of « divide and conquer » remains the main weapon in use by the colonial administration against the inhabitants…….
2) Fundamental principles »
Two national communities inhabit Palestine. Any plan for solving the problem of our country must take this fact into account and must guarantee equal rights and equal opportunities for free national development for both peoples. The national question in Palestine is undivided. Palestine is a country with two peoples, but the two peoples—Arabs and Jews—do not inhabit different areas. Both populations are generally intermingled. It is impossible to separate the Arab and Jewish economies and the possibilities for development of both……….Both from a territorial and economic point of view, the separation of Jews from Arabs is impossible. The partition plans aim at strangling the economic development of both peoples, intensifying national antagonism, and further subjugating both Jews and Arabs to imperialism.
According to the Leninist principle for resolving the national-colonial problem, the Communist Party fights for the self-determination of Palestine, for ensuring equal national rights to all inhabitants.
………. The only guarantee for this is the presence of strong progressive forces in both the Jewish and Arab sections of the population.
The interests of the popular masses are the true national interests of the people.
A democratic regime is not a regime ruled by Jamal Husseini or Ben Gurion. Democracy in Palestine will not be established without a consistent struggle against the pro-imperialist circles, existing among both Jews and Arabs, alongside the struggle against imperialism itself. It is impossible to fight imperialism effectively without simultaneously fighting the social strata that support it.
Only in an independent, democratic, Arab-Jewish Palestine, not ruled by the imperialists and their local pillars, only under such conditions will both peoples be able to develop their national, economic, and spiritual life freely. …………
The policy of the Zionist Leadership
….. The official program of the Zionist leadership is the partition plan. This plan is based on the traditional policy of alliance with imperialism (consenting to military bases), a policy that is directly opposed to the interests of the Jews and Arabs of Palestine, and is against the interests of all peoples of the Middle East and against Peace.
………. (the partition plan, arrangements for participation in the London Conference, offering military bases to imperialism, etc.).
The Zionist leadership represents the interests of the upper Jewish bourgeoisie. The class bond between Jewish and British capital constitutes the real foundation of the ideological and political alliance with the imperialists.
The task of the progressive forces within the Arab national movement is to fight for the establishment of a united democratic anti-imperialist front.
The unity of workers, peasants (fellahin), and intellectuals is an essential factor for the crystallization of such a front. This unity will be forged in the course of the struggle against imperialism and its supporters among the Arab people. Effective struggle against imperialism is impossible without the simultaneous struggle against the social strata that support it and without liberating the masses from their influence.
The problem of the Jews in the refugee camps
……..While the Jewish element in the Soviet zone of Germany is returning to a normal and productive form of life, the British and American governments, because of their own political calculations, are abandoning the Jews in the refugee camps.
Certain Jewish circles, particularly within the Zionist leadership, are themselves contributing to this policy of abandonment of Jewish refugees in camps, since they have turned this problem into a means of achieving their political goals. They attempt to nullify every effort aimed at dissolving the camps and absorbing these Jews into the normal and productive life of Europe, and they even oppose the immigration of these refugees anywhere other than Palestine……….. Today, as we approach the second post-war winter, it is a vital necessity for all Jewish communities to raise the demand: Immediate dissolution of the refugee camps! Every facility must be given to representatives of the Jewish communities in Europe to come into contact with the camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, with the aim of helping those Jews who wish to be repatriated, to return to the countries of their origin where democratic regimes have been established.
To all the other Jews in the camps, means must be given without delay to emigrate, after an international agreement guaranteed by the UN in America, England, Palestine, and other countries, taking into account free choice. »
(Here we should note that the Soviet Union established and developed a Jewish autonomous region in the Birobidzhan area, providing the possibility for the Jewish population and those refugees who wish to settle there, and ensuring full economic, administrative, and cultural rights, equal to the other socialist republics of the USSR.)
United binational communist party
« ……….The Conference emphasizes that the completion of Jewish-Arab unity is absolutely necessary for the success of the anti-imperialist struggle. …The cornerstone of Jewish-Arab cooperation must be a united binational communist party, whose very existence will prove the possibility of cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine on the basis of the real social and national interests of the peoples, on the basis of the coordinated struggle for democratization and independence of the country.
Precisely under the prevailing conditions in Palestine, where imperialism has succeeded in creating antagonism between Arabs and Jews, the operation of a binational revolutionary party is necessary.
1) For the abolition of the British Mandate, the removal of British troops, and UN assistance for achieving the independence of our country. The end of imperialist rule will eliminate the basic source of insecurity and Arab-Jewish antagonism.
2) For the restoration of Palestine as an independent democratic Arab-Jewish state.
3) For the implementation in the country of broad democratic institutions, legislative and executive, whose composition will express the character of the country as inhabited by two peoples and which will be based on the unshakeable principle of political and national equality of rights.
These principles must guarantee that there will be no domination of one people over another and no possibility of national discrimination.
The action program of the Communist Party is a program of national liberation for the Arab and Jewish masses of Palestine; it is a democratic program.
The time has come for a dynamic struggle of the Arab and Jewish democratic forces.
Down with the policy of « divide and conquer. »
Down with the policy of alliance with imperialism! »
Statement of the Communist Parties of the countries of the British Empire on Palestine: « Unitary Democratic State — No to the violent colonization of Palestine — Zionism diverts Jews from the fight against anti-Semitism » (03/03/1947)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/dutt/1947/03/palestine.htm
We are of the firm conviction that all who love freedom and who seek peace in Palestine and throughout the world should unite to demand and secure the immediate withdrawal of the British troops from Palestine, the abrogation of the Mandate, and the creation of a free, independent and democratic Palestinian state, which will guarantee equal rights of citizenship with full religious freedom and full opportunities to develop their culture to all its inhabitants, Arab and Jewish.
Only thus can Palestine achieve freedom and security, not only from the military forces of imperialism, but from the economic domination of foreign capital which, in whatever guise, seeks to exploit the peoples of Palestine and crush their movement for national liberation. This is not a matter for Anglo-American manoeuvring. Let the United Nations support the people of Palestine in their struggle to secure the independence of their country now.
…..
It is in the interests of Palestine Jewry to oppose the Zionist conception which seeks to put them in the position of being an instrument of imperialism in the Middle East, in opposition to the struggle for national liberation in Palestine, in opposition to the progressive forces in the democratic countries in Europe, and against the Soviet Union.
But not only has Anglo-American imperialism used Zionism in pursuit of its policy of divide and rule; it also seeks to secure the support of reactionary Arab elements to strengthen the Middle East as a base for operations against the Soviet Union and against the liberation movement of the masses throughout the Middle East.
……………
THE POSITION OF THE USSR
The USSR was the country that crushed Nazism. It was the country that liberated the Jewish people from persecution, atrocities, and the crimes of fascism, a symbolic country and the beacon in the struggle of peoples worldwide and in the national liberation movements that were developing.
In the Middle East, it perceived the effort of Anglo-American imperialism to maintain its dominance and troops in the region, not allowing Soviet intervention and creating fait accompli with escalating violent attacks by armed groups. The imperialists, using Zionism as a vehicle, accelerated their movements (terrorist actions) to undermine the creation of a unified independent state and to impose partition plans and the formation of the Zionist state of Israel, instrumentalizing the Jewish Holocaust at the UN while simultaneously promoting forced immigration to Palestine.
The position of the USSR was a Unitary Democratic State in Palestine, withdrawal of the British, and elaboration within the framework of the UN, which had just been established, of the conditions and measures for equal national and democratic rights for all peoples inhabiting Palestine. The broader goals were the total elimination of fascism and anti-Semitism, the support of national liberation movements against colonialism and imperialism, but also the solution to the Jewish question (of refugees) in Western Europe.
Let us see the documents
« Middle East Department, USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs: ‘Unified Democratic State in Palestine — The Jewish question in W. Europe will not be solved only by immigration to Palestine’ (15/04/1947) »
15 April 1947
The position of the USSR on the Palestine question can be briefly formulated in the form of the following provisions:
1. The British Mandate over Palestine must be abolished.
2. British troops must withdraw from Palestine.
3. The United Nations must work out the status of a unitary independent democratic Palestine, providing equal national and democratic rights to the peoples inhabiting it.
4. The Jewish question in Western Europe cannot be solved solely through immigration to Palestine, as only the complete elimination of all roots of fascism and the democratization of the countries of Western Europe will be able to give the Jewish masses normal living conditions. »
Furthermore, on May 1, 1947, the USSR at the UN voted in favor of a proposal by the Arab states that the UN Special Committee on Palestine negotiate « the termination of the Mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its independence. » The proposal gathered 15 votes (Arab states, USSR, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Argentina, Cuba, Iran, India, Turkey), however, it was defeated with 24 votes against and 10 abstentions.
ON THE UN RESOLUTION in November 1947
At the UN, the Soviet delegation faced the demand of the Jewish Agency (Ben Gurion) that all of Palestine be granted to the Jews, while violence against the Arab population was in full swing. The UN special committees either could not reach a conclusion or voted down any proposal for a unitary independent state.
Characteristically, the examination of the CP of Palestine by the committee, which insisted in detail on the creation of a unitary state and argued against partition, was lengthy and lasted two days, during which provocative arguments were put forward by the biased UN committee on the infeasibility of the proposal. Britain and the USA clearly wanted to impose their own terms. (https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-211180/)
Under these circumstances, with the risk of things worsening and leading to a complete deadlock, but also prioritizing the withdrawal of the British from the region and its independence, and taking into account the suffocating and with the complicity of the imperialists post-war conditions for the Jewish refugees who had suffered so much, the USSR gave its vote in 1947 to the UN plan for the creation of two separate states:
https://www.marxists.org/subject/israel-palestine/ussr/gromyko-un-47.pdf
Position of Andrei Gromyko, representative of the USSR, at the UN General Assembly on the resolution on partition & economic union of Palestine
New York, 26/11/1947
“The fact that no Western European State has been able to ensure the defense of the elementary rights of the Jewish people and to safeguard it against the violence of the fascist executioners explains the aspirations of the Jews to establish their own State. It would be unjust not to take this into consideration and to deny the right of the Jewish people to realize this aspiration[…]
Thus, the solution of the Palestine problem by the establishment of a single Arab-Jewish State with equal rights for the Jews and the Arabs may be considered as one of the possibilities and one of the more noteworthy methods for the solution of this complicated problem[…]
If this plan proved impossible to implement in view of the deterioration in the relations between the Jews and the Arabs – and it will be very important to know the special committee’s opinion on this question – then it would be necessary to consider the second plan which, like the first, has its supporters in Palestine, and which provides for the partition of Palestine into two independent autonomous states, one Jewish and one Arab. I repeat that such a solution of the Palestine problem would be justifiable only if relations between the Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine indeed proved to be so bad that it would be impossible to reconcile them and to ensure the peaceful co-existence of the Arabs and the Jews[…]
The plan provided for the formation of two independent states (with a unified economy) with equal rights for the populations and the internationalization of Jerusalem. The Jewish state under formation would have a marginal Jewish majority in its total population (498,000 versus 497,000), while in the Arab state the Arab majority would be almost absolute (725,000 versus 10,000). There was agreement on the part concerning the termination — as soon as possible — of British rule and the beginning of a transitional period towards independence under UN auspices.
https://www.un.org/unispal/history2/origins-and-evolution-of-the-palestine-problem/part-ii-1947-1977
The rest is known. None of this was implemented. It was the era of the Truman Doctrine of « containment of communism. » After the withdrawal of the British, the seizure of additional territories by Jewish armed forces followed, the Nakba in 1948, and the declaration of the establishment of Zionist Israel with the backing of the USA and as their bridgehead. The USSR denounced it as such and broke off diplomatic relations in February 1953.
Anyone who wishes, therefore, to study history and learn from it, understands that the perspective for the peoples of historical Palestine lies only in the struggle for the creation of a free and independent homeland for the Palestinians, an independent Palestinian state « from the river to the sea » within which Arabs, Palestinians, and Jews will coexist equally and with full rights. And within this struggle lies the inalienable right of return of the refugees to their homes. The armed Palestinian struggle, the anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples, as well as the broader developments in the region, which is at the « eye of the storm » of the global imperialist conflict, will provide the framework and the way in which the two peoples will be able to coexist. The communist movement owes it to itself to link this struggle with the cause of social liberation, so that the consolidation of independence opens the way for a society without exploitation and oppression of man by man.