Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas commemorated the Nakba at the United Nations, which in turn commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Nakba
For the first time, thanks to a resolution issued in November, the United Nations is commemorating Monday, at its headquarters in New York, the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, which began on May 15, 1948, the day after the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel.
On this occasion, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called, in a speech from the United Nations headquarters, to “suspend” Israel’s membership in the organization due to its “aggression” against the Palestinians and its “occupation” of Palestinian lands.
In an hour-long speech marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, Abbas said, “We formally demand, in accordance with international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, to compel Israel to respect these decisions of yours, or to suspend its membership in the United Nations.” Abbas held the United States and Britain directly responsible for the suffering and catastrophe of the Palestinian people, “when they decided to plant an entity in our historical homeland for colonial goals,” as he put it.
The speech of the President of the Palestinian Authority, whose state Palestine enjoys observer status at the United Nations, came during a special session of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in the presence of dozens of ambassadors to the United Nations. Abbas accused Israel of having “not fulfilled the obligations to accept its membership in your organization” since the announcement of its establishment on May 14, 1948, after the United Nations voted on November 29, 1947, in favor of dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
The Palestinian president pointed out that “the international organization has taken hundreds of decisions over the years recognizing the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in their homeland, almost a thousand decisions, but none of them were implemented.”
Abbas added, denouncing, “The Nakba did not begin in 1948, nor did it end after this year. Israel, the occupying state, continues its occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people, and continues to deny this Nakba, and rejects the decisions of international legitimacy that call for the return of the Palestinian refugees.”
The Palestinian president also stressed that “Israel committed more than 50 massacres, destroyed more than 530 villages, displaced 957 thousand, and continues to violate the sanctity of Islamic and Christian sanctities and denies the right to freedom of worship.”
The United Nations estimates that the Palestinians who were forced to leave their lands in 1948 constitute with their descendants 5.9 million refugees scattered in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The mass exodus on May 15, 1948 constituted a catastrophe that the Palestinians commemorate every year, while the Israelis celebrate the establishment of their state on May 14, 1948.
