In the first place, the Palestinian displacement is commemorated at the United Nations
The United Nations on Monday first officially commemorated the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the war over Israel’s founding 75 years ago, prompting a sharp response from Israel’s ambassador to the world body.
The event — dubbed the Nakba or “catastrophe” by Palestinians — was attended by Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas; many Member States from Asia, Africa, Central and South America and the Middle East; and representatives of the African Union and the Arab League, who gave speeches. The United States and Great Britain did not attend.
“This resolution represents an acknowledgment by your organizations of the ongoing historic injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people in 1948 and before and continuing since,” said Mr. Abbas. He added that it was also a refutation “for the first time by you of the Israeli-Zionist narrative that denies this Nakba.”
Mr Abbas called for Israel’s membership of the United Nations to be suspended, saying the Jewish state has never “fulfilled or respected its obligations and commitments” as a condition of its membership and has violated resolutions.
Mr Abbas received a standing ovation and two long rounds of applause after his speech, which lasted more than an hour. Chants of “liberate Palestine” and “end the occupation now” were shouted from the audience.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, condemned the event as “shameful” and called on countries to boycott it. in a letter he sent to diplomats on Sunday.
“To attend this despicable event means to destroy any chance of peace by adopting the Palestinian narrative that calls the establishment of the state of Israel a disaster,” Erdan said in a video statement.
The event was organized by the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a 25-member body established in 1975 by a mandate from the General Assembly to promote the rights of Palestinians and support peace. Members include India, Turkey, South Africa, Venezuela and Malta.
Member States of the UN General Assembly voted in November to pass a resolution calling for the commemoration. It will continue on Monday night with another event in the General Assembly hall featuring an “immersive experience” of the Nakba with live music, photos, videos and testimonies.
“The Nakba and the suffering of generations of Palestinians is a story seldom told in history books, but all too often evaded and forgotten,” said the commission’s chairman, Cheikh Niang, Senegal’s ambassador to the United Nations. “Today, the resilience of Palestinians throughout history, but especially since 1948, must be recognized.”
About 700,000 Palestinians were displaced or fled their homes in 1947 and 1948 during the wars surrounding Israel’s establishment as a state. Most live as refugees in camps in neighboring countries, and their right to return home is a major issue in any two-state solution. Many of the villages they left behind were taken over by Israelis or destroyed.
The events are the subject of a long-running dispute. Palestinians view them as an act of ethnic cleansing instigated by Israeli militias, who massacred hundreds of Palestinians and displaced thousands from their homes.
But for Israelis, the conflict was a war of survival against invading Arab armies and hostile local militants who committed atrocities and rejected a UN plan to divide the land between Jews and Arabs.
For many Israelis, the Palestinian exodus was largely voluntary, encouraged by Arab leaders, and involved the persecution and expulsion of Jews from their homes in Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The commemoration comes amid a tense period in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where violence has escalated this year. On Saturday, Israel and the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed a ceasefire that ended five days of fighting that left 35 people dead.
The event did not seem to provoke a widespread reaction from Palestinians in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, but some Palestinian human rights groups stressed the importance of the UN commemoration.
The International Commission in Support of the Rights of Palestinians, a human rights group based in Gazacalled it “a unique and unprecedented step” and said it “must be translated to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their right to independence and return.”
Hani Akkad, a Palestinian political analyst, wrote in the al-Quds newspaper that the event confirms “the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legality of the Palestinian national struggle” and reminds that the world has not forgotten the Nakba “no matter how much the occupying state tried to present itself as a victim. ”
Separate from the UN event, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank held rallies and protests to commemorate the Nakba. In the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank, hundreds gathered outside Yasir Arafat’s mausoleum, where the former Palestinian president is buried. They waved Palestinian flags at a rally attended by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
At Tel Aviv University in Israel, dozens of students stood at the entrance to the campus, also holding Palestinian flags. The annual event often provokes counter-protests from Israeli nationalists, sometimes leading to mild confrontations.
United Nations Chief of Political Affairs and Peace Rosemary DiCarlo delivered a speech at the New York event condemning continued violence on both sides and calling for Israel to expand its settlements and seize Palestinian property by force and Palestinians. militants for firing rockets at Israeli civilians.
“The UN position is clear,” Ms DiCarlo said. “The occupation must stop. A two-state solution that will bring lasting peace and security to both Israelis and Palestinians must be achieved in accordance with international law, UN resolutions and previous agreements.”
Farnaz Fassihi reported from New York; Hiba Yazbek from Jerusalem.