Radical Shiite cleric al-Sadr rejects Iraq constitution News
Radical Shiite cleric al-Sadr rejects Iraq constitution

[JURIST] Influential radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr [Aljazeera profile] has parted ways with his partners in the biggest Iraqi parliamentary bloc by rejecting the federal system described in the new Iraqi constitution [PDF text, JURIST news archive]. Al-Sadr told Aljazeera on Saturday, "If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq." The comments would seem to reopen a highly contentious political issue: minority Sunnis have also objected to the federal system [JURIST report], fearing that Kurds and Shiites will use it to leverage too much control over Iraq's oil. Aljazeera has more.

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.