Folke Bernadotte

Folke Bernadotte   (diplomat)
Born	2 January 1895 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	17 September 1948 (Age 53) Jerusalem
Alma mater	Military Academy Karlberg
Parents	• Prince Oscar Bernadotte • Ebba Munck af Fulkila
Children	• Gustaf Eduard • Fredrik Oscar • Bertil Oscar
Spouse	Estelle Romaine Manville
Victim of	Assassination
A member of the Swedish Royal family appointed as UN Mediator in Palestine on 14 May 1948, assassinated by members of the Stern Gang on the orders of its then leader Yitzhak Shamir (who was later Prime Minister of Israel). Nobody was prosecuted for his assassination.

Count Folke Bernadotte was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who negotiated the release of thousands of prisoners from German concentration camps in World War II.

A member of the Swedish royal family, Folke Bernadotte was appointed by the United Nations Security Council to "mediate" in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict of 1947–48. In reality, his role was to bring the State of Israel into being.

Bernadotte was assassinated by the Israeli deep state in 1948.

Early Career

Folke Bernadotte was cousin to King Gustaf V. Bernadotte attended school in Stockholm, after which he entered training to become a cavalry officer at the Royal Military Academy. He took the officer's exam in 1915, was commissioned a lieutenant in 1918, and went into the military reserve in 1932. He was promoted to the rank of major during the increased vigilance during WW2.

Bernadotte represented Sweden in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, and later served as Swedish commissioner general at the New York World's Fair in 1939–40. Bernadotte had long been involved with the Swedish Boy Scouts (Sveriges Scoutförbund), and took over as director of the organisation in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, Bernadotte worked to integrate the scouts into Sweden's defence plan, training them in anti-aircraft work and as medical assistants. Bernadotte was appointed Vice Chairman of the Swedish Red Cross in 1943.

In the final months of the war, Bernadotte, from neutral Sweden, acted as the negotiator for a rescue operation transporting interned Norwegians, Danes and other western European inmates from German concentration camps to hospitals in Sweden. He was second only to Raoul Wallenberg for rescuing Jews in the last months of WWII, negotiating the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews from the Theresienstadt camp. While Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945, Bernadotte attempted to negotiate an armistice between Germany and the Allies.

Mediator

On 14 May 1948, the day before the British Mandate expired, the UN appointed him as "Mediator" to watch over Israel's birth, 'to use his good offices with the local community and authorities in Palestine ... to promote a peaceful adjustment of the future situation in Palestine'. After an initial proposal, which dealt with a union, Bernadotte came up with a proposal for two independent states. This latter proposal had as seven basic principles:

1. Peace must return to Palestine and every feasible measure should be taken to ensure that hostilities will not be resumed and that harmonious relations between Arab and Jew will ultimately be restored.
2. A Jewish State called Israel exists in Palestine and there are no sound reasons for assuming that it will not continue to do so.
3. The boundaries of this new State must finally be fixed either by formal agreement between the parties concerned or failing that, by the United Nations.
4. Adherence to the principle of geographical homogeneity and integration, which should be the major objective of the boundary arrangements, should apply equally to Arab and Jewish territories, whose frontiers should not therefore, be rigidly controlled by the territorial arrangements envisaged in the resolution of 29 November.
5. The right of innocent people, uprooted from their homes by the present terror and ravages of war, to return to their homes, should be affirmed and made effective, with assurance of adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not to return.
6. The City of Jerusalem, because of its religious and international significance and the complexity of interests involved, should be accorded special and separate treatment.
7. International responsibility should be expressed where desirable and necessary in the form of international guarantees, as a means of allaying existing fears, and particularly with regard to boundaries and human rights.

The proposal then made specific suggestions that included (extracts):

1. The existing indefinite truce should be superseded by a formal peace, or at the minimum, an armistice.
2. The frontiers between the Arab and Jewish territories, in the absence of agreement between Arabs and Jews, should be established by the United Nations.
3. The Negev should be defined as Arab territory.
4. The frontier should run from Al-Faluja north northeast to Ramleh and Lydda (both of which places would be in Arab territory).
5. Galilee should be defined as Jewish territory.
6. Haifa should be declared a free port, and Lydda airport should be declared a free airport.
7. The City of Jerusalem, which should be understood as covering the area defined in the resolution of the General Assembly of 29 November, should be treated separately and should be placed under effective United Nations control with maximum feasible local autonomy for its Arab and Jewish communities with full safeguards for the protection of the Holy Places and sites and free access to them and for religious freedom.
8. The United Nations should establish a Palestine conciliation commission.
9. The right of the Arab refugees to return to their homes in Jewish-controlled territory at the earliest possible date should be affirmed by the United Nations, and their repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation, and payment of adequate compensation for the property of those choosing not to return, should be supervised and assisted by the United Nations conciliation commission.

Assassination

On 17 September 1948, some 2 months after the formal birth of the Israeli State, Bernadotte was traveling through Jerusalem in a 3 car UN convoy. The road was blocked by a jeep and 3 men opened fire on his vehicle with Schmeisser MP40 sub-machine guns. Both he and French Colonel Andre Serot, who was sitting next to him, were killed. The fatal shots were fired by Yehoshua Cohen who admitted as much to David Ben-Gurion (Israeli prime minister at the time) after becoming his neighbour in Kibbutz Sedh Boker in the late 1950's.

Two months after Folke Bernadotte's killing and as a result of great international pressure, Israel arrested Nathan Yellin-Mor, the head of the Stern Gang, and Matitiahu Schmulevitz but they were released shortly afterwards. Yitzhak Shamir, the organisation's operational commander and future Prime Minister of Israel who had ordered the killing, went into hiding.

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