Mahmoud Abbas at an event marking the Nakba at the UN: freeze Israel's membership in the organization - voila! news

2023-05-15T15:37:45.537Z

Highlights: In the first event ever held by the UN to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba, Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the international community force Israel to bind UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue. In recent weeks, Israel has worked to persuade countries not to participate in the event. The White House boycotted the event at Israel's request. The Palestinian term for the 1948 war and the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people following the war, especially with regard to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the creation of the refugee problem.

In the first event ever held by the UN to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba, Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the international community force Israel to bind UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue. In recent weeks, Israel has worked to persuade countries not to participate in the event. The White House boycotted the event at Israel's request

Mahmoud Abbas at a conference in Kazakhstan after a night of riots in east Jerusalem: We will not accept the continuation of the situation (Palestinian TV)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said at an event at UN headquarters in New York marking the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba that the Palestinian Authority officially wanted the international community to oblige Israel to respect UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue, or to freeze Israel's membership in the organization.

Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations, September 23, 2022 (Photo: Reuters)

Why it's important

This is the first time since 1948 that the UN has held an official event to commemorate the Nakba - the Palestinian term for the 1948 war and the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people following the war, especially with regard to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the creation of the refugee problem.

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Palestinians mark 75 years since the Nakba in Ramallah (Photo: Reuters)

Backstage

In recent weeks, Israel has worked to persuade countries not to participate in the event, which takes place in a side hall at UN headquarters in New York rather than in the main hall of the UN General Assembly.
A senior Foreign Ministry official claimed that 32 countries, led by the United States and Britain, promised Israel not to send representatives on their behalf to the event. At Israel's request, the White House instructed the American delegation to the UN to boycott the event.

What they say

Abbas said in his speech that 75 years after the Nakba, Israel still continues its occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people. "The Nakba did not begin in 1948 and did not end this year," he said.
He said the United States and Britain bore direct political responsibility for the Nakba. He said that without the support these two countries gave Israel, it would not have been able to continue its aggression against the Palestinians.