In 1946 a joint Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry called for the immediate granting of 100,000 immigration certificates to European Jewish refugees and the lifting of restrictions on land sales to Jews, with the continuation of British rule in Palestine. But in February 1947 the British government, stymied by the relentless political and military offensive of the Zionists and the continued refusal of the Arabs to relinquish Palestine to them, decided to let the newly formed United Nations settle the Palestine conflict.
In November 1947 a two-thirds majority of the UN General Assembly, including both the United States and the Soviet Union, passed a resolution calling for an end to the British mandate and for the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The Arabs rejected partition, arguing that the UN had no right to give more than half of Palestine to a minority of the population and that they should not be forced to pay for Europe's crimes against the Jews.
The Zionist leaders accepted the plan but retained hopes that the borders of the Jewish state might be extended in the future, an eventuality that they prepared for in secret negotiations with King Abdullah of Transjordan, who shared with them an opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. On May 14, 1948, the National Council of the Yishuv proclaimed the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, and on May 15 the last British troops sailed out of Haifa.
