Several Jewish organisations hosted in New York an event marking the 70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly Resolution 181, also dubbed the Partition Plan, which called for the creation of a Jewish state alongside an Arab state.
The 70th anniversary celebration took place at the Queens Museum in New York which in 1947 was the headquarters of the newly-created United Nations.
It was held in the presence of more than 600 government officials, diplomats, ambassadors, and students, and organised in partnership with Keren Hayesod and members of the pro-Israel community including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, the JCRC, American Zionist Movement, Bnai Brith International, America Israel Friendship League, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, StandWithUs, IAC, CAMERA, the European Coalition for Israel, The Israel Project, ZOA, World Zionist Organization and the Bnai Zion Foundation.
US Vice President Mike Pence, who addressed the event, said: ”I bring the congratulations and support of a champion of Israel, President Donald Trump.”
‘’The United Nations did not create the Jewish state, they simply reaffirmed the natural and irrevocable rights of the Jewish people to their own state in their historical homeland,” he said.
“Israel did not need a resolution to call for its existence, because its right to exist is self-evident and timeless,” Pence said.
Addressing the gathering, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder emphasised the need for the United Nations to treat Israel as equally as any other state and stressed his optimistic resolve for the viability of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Israel has never denied the right of the Palestinian Arabs to their sovereignty. Yet here we are today, still dreaming that two people – Jews and Arabs – will live together in peace. I believe that at this moment in time, and against all odds, a two-state solution is actually quite possible,” Lauder said.