Why did Arab leaders reject the UN partition plan for Palestine in 1947?

Arab leaders rejected the United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947 primarily because they opposed the partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.12

Following the British Mandate, tensions had escalated between the Arab and Jewish populations over competing claims to the land. While the Zionist movement sought a Jewish homeland—a goal supported by the 1917 Balfour Declaration—Palestinian Arabs had been seeking self-determination and independence since World War I.123

The Arab League had formally pledged in 1945 to prevent the formation of any Jewish state in the region. Consequently, when the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed partition, Arab leadership rejected both the majority proposal for two states and the minority proposal for a single binational state, viewing the partition plan as an infringement on their sovereignty and rights to the territory. Following the resolution's passage, the Arab League proclaimed a jihad (holy war), leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.31