Interim Palestinian president, new PLO chairman named after Arafat’s death News
Interim Palestinian president, new PLO chairman named after Arafat’s death

[JURIST] Rauhi Fattouh, speaker of the Palestinian parliament, was sworn in Thursday to succeed Yasser Arafat as temporary president of the Palestinian Authority (website content has been replaced by a notice of Arafat's death). Under Article 54(2) of the Palestinian Basic Law, Fattouh will serve as caretaker president until elections are held to determine Arafat's permanent successor in 60 days. Middle East Online has more. Also Thursday, the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization unanimously elected Mahmoud Abbas to succeed Yasser Arafat as chairman of the PLO. AP has more. Al Jazeera has additional coverage of Arafat's successors. JURIST's Paper Chase reported the death of Yasser Arafat early Thursday morning. WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency has a news release.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.