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From
http://www.moqawama.org/feauters/doc2000/death.htm
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��However, he put a tommy gun through the open window on my side of
the car and fired point-blank at Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot.
I also heard shots fired from other points and there was considerable
confusion��
The Death of Count Folke Bernadotte (1), September 17, 1948
STATEMENT BY GENERAL AAGE LUNDSTROM (2)
I met Count Bernadotte in Beirut on Thursday morning, 16th
September, and went with him to Damascus, where we spent the night.
We left Damascus on Friday morning, 17th September, by air at
approximately 9.30 a.m. (Arab time). On our way to Kalandia field (3)
we received a message from Haifa to the effect that all aircraft
landing at Kalandia would be fired on. As we had sent advance notice
of our arrival and had received clearance, we discounted this warning
as false and landed at Kalandia without incident. At the airfield we
were met by United Nations Observers Colonel Bonnot (France), Colonel
S~rot (France) and Major af Petersens (Sweden). With Major Massart
(Belgium) as driver, the Count, Colonel Bonnot France), Lieut.-
Colonel Flach (Sweden), Major De Geer (Sweden) and myself, we left
the airfield to visit Brigadier Lash of the Arab Legion at Ramall ah.
The rest of Count Bernadotte's party were ordered to proceed to the
American School and to wait for us there.
Before we started, I was told that every other jeep or car was fired
upon at the Mandelbaum Gate (4). I then asked Count Bernadotte if it
would not be wiser to proceed from Ramallah via Latrun to Jerusalem.
This route would take an hour longer, but would undoubtedly be safer.
Count Bernadotte answered:
"I would not do that. I have to take the same risks as my Observers,
and moreover, I think no one has the right to refuse me permission to
pass through the lines. If I do not go, I will be admitting that they
[Israeli authorities] have the right to prevent me from crossing the
lines." I agreed, and it was decided that after the meeting with
Brigadier Lash we would return through the lines at the Mandelbaum
Gate. We then left to keep our appointment with Brigadier Lash. After
the meeting I asked Brigadier Lash for a guard to take us to the
front lines and received an armored car, which met us on the way to
the lines. En route, just past Kalandia, our car was fired on from a
short distance (pistol shot) and one bullet hit the disc of the rear
wheel. We then arrived at the American School (5), where we collected
the rest of the Count's staff and proceeded to the Mandelbaum Gate
and on to the Y.M.C.A (6) without incident of any kind.
During lunch at the Y.M.C.A. a program for the afternoon was settled.
Count Bernadotte was to see Dr. Joseph, Military Governor of the
Jewish part of Jerusalem, at 6.30 p.m., and before that we were to
visit the Government House (7) and Agricultural School (8) in the Red
Cross Area. Three cars were ordered, but I decided that only two
would be permitted to pass the lines to the Red Cross Area. One car
was driven by Colonel Frank Begley, with Commander Cox in the front
seat, the Count, Colonel Serot and myself in the back seat. The other
car was driven by Major Massart, with the Jewish liaison officer
Captain Hillman, Miss Wessel, Lieut.-Colonel Flach and Major De Geer
as passengers. We went first to Government House. From the roof of
the tower Commander Cox pointed out the different areas where there
had been a lot of firing, the front lines and neutral zone, etc. The
question was raised about eighteen Jewish men who had been brought up
to the Agricultural School, while it was desired that still more
should be brought in to clean up. Count Bernadotte would not allow
that, of course, as it was against his decision. He asked the Swiss
doctor, Dr Facel, representing the interest of the International Red
Cross Committee at Government House, to come with us to the
Agricultural School. When we came to the school the woman in charge
was away and Commander Cox was not sure about the terms of the
agreement. He wanted to look at his papers in the Y.M.C.A., and the
doctor was asked to come with us in order that we might get his
opinion on how to deal with this situation. The doctor took his own
Red Cross car, and otherwise the order of the cars remained the same,
with the Count's car last in the convoy. ~'e went from the neutral
zone to the Jewish lines without incident, crossed the check-points
and went on farther into the New City. In the Qatamon quarter we were
held up by a Jewish army -type jeep, placed in a road-block, and
filled up with men in Jewish Army uniforms. At the same moment I saw
a man running from this jeep. I took little notice of this because I
merely thought that it was another check-point. However, he put a
tommy gun through the open window on my side of the car and fired
point-blank at Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot. I also heard shots
fired from other points and there was considerable confusion. The
Jewish liaison officer came running to our car and told Begley, who
was at that time out of the car, to drive away as quickly as
possible. In the meantime, the man was still firing. Colonel Serot
fell in the seat at the back of me and I saw at once that he was
dead. Count Bernadotte bent forward and I thought at the time that he
was trying to get cover. I asked him: �Are you wounded?� He nodded
and fell back. I helped him to lie down in the car. I now realized
that he was severely wounded; there was a considerable amount of
blood on his clothes mainly around the heart. By this time the Jewish
liaison officer had got into the car and was urging Begley to drive
quickly to the Hadassah Hospital (the annex in the New Town), which
was only a short distance away. I have the impression that the Jewish
liaison officer did everything he possibly could to assist us to get
to the hospital as quickly as possible. It could not have taken more
than a couple of minutes to make the journey from the scene of the
accident to the hospital. When we arrived, with the help of some
other people I carried the Count inside and laid him on a bed. We had
sent for a medical officer, but while waiting for him to arrive I
took off the Count's jacket and tore away his shirt and undervest. I
saw that he was wounded around the heart and that there was also a
considerable quantity of blood on his clothes about the hip. When the
doctor arrived I asked if anything could be done, but he replied that
it was too late. Major De Geer went in Dr. Facel's car to fetch the
Count's personal doctor, Dr. Ullmark. I stayed with the Count, an
d was later joined by Major De Geer, Miss Wessel and Dr. Ullmark. I then left and went
to see Colonel Serot, who had been placed in another room. The doctor confirmed that
he had died instantly. After a while I went in a
car to the Y.M.C.A. and tried to get in touch with Dr. Joseph and Colonel Dayan,
Military Commander of the Israeli Forces in Jerusalem. They arrived at the Y.M.C.A.
after a very short time. I said that I would not do anyt
hing that would create an impression of panic, but that I had to decide before sunset
whether the Observers could stay at their posts during the night without danger. If in
their opinion, there would be considerable dange
r for the Observers, I would recall them. They assured me that in their opinion,
although of course they could make no guarantee, there was no added danger, and I
decided that the Observers should remain at their posts. H
owever, I asked Colonel Dayan for a guard to be placed around the Y.M.C.A. Later on
Dr. Bunche and General Riley arrived from Kalandia airfield. By that time it had
already been decided that the Count's and Colonel Serot'
s bodies should be taken to the Y.M.C.A., and onwards, on Saturday morning, 18th
September, to Haifa. The bodies would be accompanied by Colonel Bonnot, Lieut.-Colonel
Flach and myself with members of the Count's personal
staff. A room in the Y.M.C.A. was beautifully prepared by Mr. Miller, head of the
Y.M.C.A., and the bodies of Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot were laid in state. A
short, simple service was conducted by two Catholic p
riests, and a guard of Officer Observers was mounted inside the room to watch through
the night with an enlisted Observer on guard at the door.
On reflection after the incident, I am convinced that this was a deliberate and
carefully planned assassination. The spot where the cars were halted was carefully
chosen, and the people who approached the cars quite obvio
usly not only knew which car Count Bernadotte was in but also the exact position in
the car which he occupied.
Jerusalem, 17th September 1948
(1) From Folke Bernadotte, To Jerusalem translated from the Swedish by Joan Bulman
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951), Appendix I, pp.266-70. Reprinted by permission
of ABP. A. Norstedt and Soner; and Hodder and Stought
on Limited.
(2) Count Folke Bernadotte was a member of the Swedish royal family. As representative
of the International Red Cross in the later stages of World War II, he helped to save
the lives of thousands of Jews and Allied prison
ers of war. He was appointed on 14 May 1948, UN Mediator in Palestine. General A.
Lundstrom was Chief of Staff, United Nations Truce Supervision and Personal
Representative of Count F. Bernadotte in Palestine.
(3) A small Arab civilian airport just north of Jerusalem.
(4) The crossing point from Arab to Israeli territory in Jerusalem.
(5) The American School was in the Arab Sector of Jerusalem.
(6) The Y.M.C.A. was in the Israeli sector.
(7) The former residence of the British High Commissioner had become
UN Headquarters since the appointment of a UN mediator.
(8) The Jewish Agricultural School, which remained in the possession
of the Jews, was about five hundred yards away from Government House.
End<{{{
From
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0995/9509083.htm
}}}>Begin
Middle East History�It Happened in September
Jewish Terrorists Assassinate U.N. Peacekeeper Count Folke Bernadotte
By Donald Neff
September 1995, pgs. 83-84
It was 47 years ago, Sept. 17, 1948, when Jewish terrorists
assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden as he sought to bring
peace to the Middle East. His three-car convoy had been stopped at a
small improvised roadblock in Jewish-controlled West Jerusalem when
two gunmen began shooting out the tires of the cars and a third
gunman thrust a Schmeisser automatic pistol through the open back
window of Bernadotte's Chrysler. The 54-year-old diplomat, sitting on
the right in the back, was hit by six bullets and died instantly. A
French officer sitting next to Bernadotte was killed accidentally.
The assassins were members of Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel� Fighters
for the Freedom of Israel), better known as the Stern Gang. Its three
leaders had decided a week earlier to have Bernadotte killed because
they believed he was partial to the Arabs. One of those leaders was
Yitzhak Shamir, who in 1983 would become prime minister of Israel.1
Bernadotte had been chosen the United Nations mediator for Palestine
four months earlier in what was the U.N.'s first serious attempt at
peacemaking in the post-World War II world. As a hero of the war,
when his mediation efforts on behalf of the International Red Cross
saved 20,000 persons, including thousands of Jews, from Nazi
concentration camps, Bernadotte seemed a natural choice for the
post.2 The terms of the mediator's mandate were to "promote a
peaceful adjustment of the future situation in Palestine" and to
allow him to mediate beyond the terms of the Partition Plan.3
It had been only on Nov. 29, 1947 that the U.N. General Assembly had
voted to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Yet, as had
been widely predicted, that action had led to war. Fighting
intensified after elements of five Arab armies moved into Palestine
the day after Israel proclaimed its establishment on May 14, 1948.
Bernadotte's first action had been to arrange a truce, which lasted
from June 11 to July 9.
During the lull, Bernadotte had put forward his first proposal for
solving the conflict. Instead, it was to seal his fate. Bernadotte's
transgression, in the view of Jewish zealots, was to include in his
June 28 proposal the suggestion that Jerusalem be placed under
Jordanian rule, since all the area around the city was designated for
the Arab state.4
The U.N. partition plan had declared Jerusalem an international city
that was to be ruled by neither Arab nor Jew. But the Jewish
terrorists, including Shamir and Menachem Begin, the leader of the
largest terrorist group, Irgun Zvai Leumi�National Military
Organization, also known by the Hebrew acronym "Etzel"�had rejected
partition and claimed all of Palestine and Jordan for the Jewish
state. These Jewish extremists were horrified at Bernadotte's
suggestion.
By July Sternists were already threatening Bernadotte's
assassination. New York Times columnist C.L. Sulzberger reported
meeting with two Stern members on July 24, who stated: "We intend to
kill Bernadotte and any other uniformed United Nations observers who
come to Jerusalem." Asked why, "They replied that their organization
was determined to seize all of Jerusalem for the state of Israel and
would brook no interference by any national or international body."5
Since Bernadotte's first set of proposals had caused criticism from
all parties, he spent the rest of the summer working up new
proposals, which he finally finished on Sept. 16. Unknown publicly
was the fact that in his new suggestions Bernadotte dropped his idea
of turning over Jerusalem to Jordan and instead reverted to the
partition plan's designation of it as an international city.6 Thus
when Shamir's gunmen cut down Bernadotte the next day, they were
unaware that he no longer was advocating giving Jerusalem to the
Arabs.
The assassination brought an official condemnation from the Israeli
government and promises of quick arrests. However, no one was ever
brought to trial nor was there any nationwide outcry against the
assassination.7 None of Lehi's leaders or the actual gunmen were ever
caught, although they were early known to Israel's leaders.8
Israel's obvious reluctance to prosecute the assassins brought the
first U.N. Security Council criticism of the new country. On Oct. 19,
1948, the council unanimously passed a resolution expressing its
"concern" that Israel had "to date submitted no report to the
Security Council or the Acting Mediator regarding the progress of the
investigation into the assassination."9 An official inquiry by Sweden
produced a report in 1950 that charged Israel's investigation had
been so negligent that "doubt must exist as to whether the Israeli
authorities really tried to bring the inquiry to a positive result."
10
Israel later admitted the laxity of its investigation and in 1950
paid the United Nations $54,628 in indemnity for Bernadotte's
murder.11
The assassination and Israel's failure to punish the culprits struck
a hard blow against the fledgling United Nations. The first secretary-
general, Trygve Lie, said: "If the Great Powers accepted that this
situation in the Middle East could best be settled by leaving the
forces concerned to fight it out amongst themselves, it was quite
clear that they would be tacitly admitting that the Security Council
and the United Nations was a useless instrument in attempting to
preserve peace."12 To Secretary of State George Marshall, Lie had
written on May 15, 1948 that Egypt had warned him it was about to
send troops beyond its borders and against the Jewish state in
Palestine, saying: "My primary concern is for the future usefulness
of the United Nations and its Security Council...I must do everything
to prevent this, otherwise the Security Council will have...created a
precedent for any nation to take aggressive action in direct
contravention to the Charter of the United Nations." 13
But, as author Kati Marton has observed: "If the United Nations spoke
with 'considerable authority' early that summer, by fall its voice
was barely above a whisper in Palestine. Unwilling or unable to
enforce its own decisions, the U.N. [United Nations Organization, as
it was generally called in 1948] became for many Israelis in Ben-
Gurion's memorable putdown, 'UNO, schmuno.'" She also observed: "So
muted was the world body's reaction, so lacking in any real sanctions
against the Jewish state for its failure to pursue the murderers of
the United Nations' mediator, that for Israel, 'world opinion' became
an empty phrase."14
Indeed, the ideal of the U.N. acting as the world's peacemaker and
peacekeeper was badly wounded with Bernadotte's death in Jerusalem.
After this display of weakness, other nations did not hesitate to
thumb their noses at the U.N. when it suited their purposes. The
Serbian successor to the former Yugoslavian government is only the
latest in a long list of countries that have contributed to the
weakening of the world body that celebrates its 50th anniversary this
year.
RECOMMENDED READING:
*Chomsky, Noam, Pirates & Emperors: International Terrorism in the
Real World, Brattleboro, VT, Amana Books, 1986.
Green, Stephen, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a
Militant Israel, New York, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1984.
Kurzman, Dan, Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War, New York, The
World Publishing Company, 1970.
Lie, Trygve, In the Cause of Peace , New York, Macmillan, 1954.
Marton, Kati, A Death in Jerusalem, New York, Pantheon Books, 1994.
Persson, Sune O., Mediation & Assassination: Count Bernadotte's
Mission to Palestine in 1948 , London, Ithaca Press, 1979.
Tomeh, George J., United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and the
Arab-Israeli Conflict: 1947-1974, Washington, DC, Institute for
Palestine Studies, 1975.
U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States 1948
(vol. V), The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Washington, DC, U.S.
Printing Office, 1975.
NOTES:
1Marton, A Death in Jerusalem , p. 208. Also see Kurzman, Genesis
1948, pp. 555, 563; FRUS 1948 for a contemporaneous report on
Bernadotte's assassination, "The Consul General at Jerusalem
(Macdonald) to the Secretary of State," Urgent, Jerusalem, Sept. 17,
1948, pp. 1412-13; Avishai Margalit, "The Violent Life of Yitzhak
Shamir," The New York Review of Books, 5/14/92.
2Persson, Mediation & Assassination, pp. 225-29. Good background on
Bernadotte is in Marton, A Death in Jerusalem.
3The text is in Tomeh, United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and
the Arab-Israeli Conflict, pp. 14-15.
4FRUS 1948, "Text of Suggestions Presented byCount Bernadotte, at
Rhodes, to the Two Parties on June 28, 1948, pp. 1152-54.
5C. L. Sulzberger, New York Times, 9/18/48.
6FRUS 1948, "Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator in
Palestine" [Extracts], undated but signed and sent to the U.N. on 16
Sept. 1948, pp. 1401-06.
7Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, p. 85; Green, Taking Sides, pp. 38-
44.
8Marton, A Death in Jerusalem, pp. 233, 238.
9 Resolution No. 59, 10/19/48; the text is in Tomeh, United Nations
Resolutions on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p. 129.
10The Middle East Journal, "Developments of the Quarter: Comment and
Chronology," Vol. 4, No. 3, July 1950, p. 338.
11New York Times, 6/30/50.
12Lie, In the Cause of Peace, p. 76.
13Marton, A Death in Jerusalem, pp. 22-23.
14 Ibid., pp. 242, 260.
*Available from theAET Book Club.
Donald Neff is author of the recently published Fallen Pillars: U.S.
Policy Toward Palestine and Israel Since 1945. Volumes of his
Warriors trilogy on U.S.-Mideast relations are available through the
AET Book Club.
� Copyright 1995-1999, American Educational Trust. All Rights
Reserved.
End<{{{
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