TheBevin Plan, also described as theBevin–Beeley Plan[1] was Britain's final attempt in the mid-20th century to solve the troubled situation that had developed between Arabs and Jewish people inMandatory Palestine.[2]
The plan was proposed by theBritish Foreign SecretaryErnest Bevin at theLondon Conference of 1946–47, following the rejection of theMorrison–Grady Plan. Bevin had been advised by diplomatHarold Beeley.[1]
It was also rejected by all parties.[3]
Bevin and Beeley were subsequently cast in a negative light in Israeli legend "as a malevolent midwife at the birth of the state".[4] Following the rejection, the British Government referred the issue of Palestine to the United Nations, leading to the creation of theUnited Nations Special Committee on Palestine.[3]
A number of elements of the Bevin plan were similar to the March 1948American trusteeship proposal for Palestine, proposed four months after theUnited Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.[5]
The plan maintained the principle of cantonization suggested in the Morrison-Grady Plan, whilst proposing that Palestine be placed under a five-year trusteeship regime.[3]
The admission of "100,000displaced persons", proposed in theHarrison Report, would be allowed at a rate of 4,000 immigrants per month over two years.[3]
From the Zionist perspective, the plan was worse than theMorrison–Grady Plan, as it did not propose partition at the end of the trusteeship period. Instead, it proposed the election of a "Constituent Assembly", for which decisions would require a "majority of the Jewish representatives and a majority of the Arab representatives".[1][6]
Britain's final attempt at solving the problem, in what became known as the Bevin Plan, was a five-year trusteeship ...
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