---
title: "Arab League opposition and the 1947–48 war"
description: "Arab League governments opposed partition and supported the Arab Higher Committee’s demand for an Arab state across the country. After the UN vote, local fighting between Arab and Jewish forces began before neighboring Arab armies entered the war in May 1948."
url: "https://hasbara.co.il/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/the-arab-league-s-1947-mobilization-and-threats-of-war"
type: "resource-page"
locale: "en"
categories: ["UN Partition Plan 1947: Resolution 181 and Arab Rejection"]
---

# Arab League opposition and the 1947–48 war

*Arab League governments opposed partition and supported the Arab Higher Committee’s demand for an Arab state across the country. After the UN vote, local fighting between Arab and Jewish forces began before neighboring Arab armies entered the war in May 1948.*

Arab League governments opposed partition before the 1947 UN vote and backed the demand for an Arab state across the country. The General Assembly nevertheless adopted Resolution 181 on November 29. Fighting between Arab and Jewish forces began afterward, while the British Mandate was still in force; neighboring Arab states sent regular forces into the former Mandate after Israel declared independence in May 1948. These were separate stages of the conflict, not a single invasion on the day of the vote.

## Arab governments’ position before the vote

Arab states that participated in the UN debate rejected partition and favored an independent Arab state. On September 29, Arab Higher Committee representative Jamal Husseini told the Ad Hoc Committee that Palestine’s constitutional future was for its inhabitants to decide, and advocated an Arab state throughout the country with equal civil rights and protections for minorities. The United States’ diplomatic record summarizes his statement. The UN vote reflected that opposition: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and other states voted against Resolution 181.

Arab League governments coordinated politically and issued public statements against the proposal. They opposed partition before the vote; local fighting began afterward, and neighboring Arab armies entered in May 1948.

## What happened after November 29

Fighting between Arab and Jewish irregular forces broke out before Britain’s Mandate ended. A U.S. National Security Council report written in 1949 describes both the rejection of the resolution by Arab residents’ leaders and Arab governments and the fighting that began before the Mandate ended. It then distinguishes that conflict from the entry of neighboring states’ armies after the establishment of Israel. [The report’s account of the first months of war](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1949v06/d997) makes that chronology explicit.

The regular armies of neighboring Arab states entered the former Mandate after Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, as the British Mandate ended. This followed months of fighting inside the country. The civil conflict and the subsequent interstate war were connected but distinct phases. The broader sequence is covered in [Israel’s War of Independence](https://hasbara.co.il/resources/israels-war-of-independence-1948).

## Why the distinction matters

Resolution 181 proposed two states and an economic union; Arab League states opposed that arrangement, while the Jewish Agency accepted it as a basis for statehood. Local fighting began after the vote, and neighboring armies entered later. For the proposal and each side’s stated position, see [UNSCOP and Resolution 181](https://hasbara.co.il/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/the-unscop-investigation-and-arab-rejection-in-1947).

## Pages

- [The Peel Commission and the road to partition](/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/the-peel-commission-of-1937-as-partition-blueprint.md)
- [UNSCOP, Resolution 181, and the responses](/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/the-unscop-investigation-and-arab-rejection-in-1947.md)
- [The partition map, Jerusalem, and economic union](/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/territorial-borders-and-economic-union-of-resolution-181.md)
- [What Resolution 181 meant internationally](/resources/un-partition-plan-1947-resolution-181-and-arab-rejection/the-international-legitimacy-of-the-1947-un-partition-plan.md)

## Sources

- [history.state.gov](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1947v05/d809)
- [history.state.gov](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1949v06/d997)
- [un.org](https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/a2_0.pdf)