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

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Panoramic view of a small valley with a stream, olive trees, and terraced hillsides in the countryside near Ramallah, Palestine, under a sky with scattered clouds. — Palestine View from a small valley with a stream between large hills of olive groves.

Arab leaders rejected the 1947 United Nations partition plan (Resolution 181) primarily because they opposed the creation of any Jewish state within Palestine.2

Following the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the subsequent British mandate, Palestinian Arabs had long sought self-determination and independence, viewing the territory as their own. The Arab League had formally pledged as early as March 1945 to prevent the formation of a Jewish state in the region.12

When the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed dividing the mandate into separate Arab and Jewish states, Arab representatives rejected both the majority proposal for partition and the minority proposal for a single binational state. This opposition was rooted in the belief that the plan undermined their sovereignty and ignored the rights of the Arab majority population that had inhabited the region for generations. Following the rejection, the Arab League proclaimed a jihad, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.321