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Israel. At a later stage in the discussion considerable controversy took place over a request from the Arab Higher Committee for a similar privilege. . The Arab States maintained that the Arab Higher Committee had now become the " all Palestine Government " and their representatives should be admitted under this new title. The majority of delegations, however, disagreed with this view, and Mr Fraser (for New Zealand) pointed out that the Arab countries should be satisfied to see admitted representatives of the Arab population of Palestine, and that any question of recognizing the " all Palestine Government " should be avoided. This view was eventually accepted by the Committee. The general discussion on the report of the Mediator was opened by a statement from Dr Bundle, head of the Trusteeship Division of the United Nations Secretariat, who had been appointed ActingMediator after the assassination of Count Bernadotte. Dr Bunche pointed out that the three signal developments which had taken place with regard to Palestine since the termination of the British Mandate had been the proclamation of a Jewish State (which was now " a real and not a paper State "), the forcible opposition of the Arabs, and the intervention of the Security Council which had, in fact, stopped the war. Appealing to the Assembly to take a firm and reasonable position, Dr Bunche said that the two most vital needs were the declaration of a formal peace or armistice so that neither party would again resort to force and the adoption by the Assembly of a resolution dealing with the following fundamental political questions : The settlement of boundaries, for which international guarantees should be given ; A solution to the " knotty problem " of Jerusalem ; The disposition of the Arab parts of Palestine ; The problem of guaranteeing the rights of minorities ; The question of the repatriation and resettlement of Arab refugees ; and The provision of machinery which would permit the United Nations to continue to act until all these basic problems had been settled. No detailed plan was necessary, but the conclusions reached by the Mediator might form the basis for an over-all solution. Immediately after Dr Bunche's statement the Lebanese representative declared that Count Bernadotte's report had been rendered obsolete by his assassination, responsibility for which lay not on the Stern Gang or the Israeli authorities, but on the " Jewish mystique," and made a formal proposal that the consideration of the Mediator's report should be postponed until the Committee had discussed the circumstances surrounding the assassination and allocated responsibility. This proposal, however, was not put to a vote.
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