Germany prosecutors investigating East German Stasi order to shoot defectors News
Germany prosecutors investigating East German Stasi order to shoot defectors

[JURIST] German Federal Commissioner Marianne Birthler [official profile] said Monday that a written order instructing border guards in the former German Democratic Republic [Wikipedia backgrounder] to shoot defectors is being scrutinized by prosecutors to determine whether the document, dated October 1, 1973, could lead to the prosecution of former East German officials. The order, issued by the East German Ministry for State Security [Wikipedia backgrounder], infamously known as the Stasi, encouraged border guards to "not hesitate with the use of a firearm" to prevent East German citizens from defecting to the West. German Federal Ministry of Justice [official website] spokesperson Henning Ploeger confirmed that prosecutors were studying the document.

The Office of the Federal Commissioner [official website] is tasked with recovering and preserving documents from the so-called "Stasi Archives." AP 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.

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