# The Moral Conscience of the World: The United Nations and Palestine in 1947

The United Nations' role in the creation of the state of Israel marked the beginning of a critical episode in the changing colonial world order, according to historian William Roger Louis. Louis discussed the topic in a lecture titled "The Moral Conscience of the World: The United Nations and Palestine in 1947" in a program sponsored by the Library's John W. Kluge Center and the National History Center. Louis, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin in both English history and Middle Eastern studies, focused his talk on the Palestine crisis in 1947 and the creation of the Jewish state in the next year. A U.N. partition plan for Palestine was approved in 1947, terminating the British Mandate for Palestine and creating two states, one Jewish and one Arab in Palestine. According to Louis, the debate on these issues in 1947 had enduring significance. The partition plan tested the principle of self-determination.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2008
- By: Library Of Congress
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687985/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687985?play=1)