UN adopts landmark resolution marking Palestinian 'Nakba Day'

This year on course to be the deadliest year yet for Palestinians in the West Bank

Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour. Reuters

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted its first resolution to commemorate Nakba Day, the “day of catastrophe”, when Palestinians were driven from their homes in 1948 following the foundation of Israel.

A total of 90 states voted in favour of the resolution while 30 were against, including the US, the UK, Germany and Canada. Forty-seven countries abstained.

Co-sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amongst others, the resolution was adopted towards the end of a year in which Palestinian-Israeli violence has surged in the West Bank.

“Today, this General Assembly will finally acknowledge the historical injustice that befell the Palestinian people, adopting a resolution that decides to commemorate in this General Assembly Hall the 75th anniversary of the Nakba,” Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told the UN's 193 member countries.

“Our people deserve recognition of their plight, justice for the victims, reparation for their loss and fulfilment of their rights.”

The resolution, included in a series of other Palestinian motions, calls for the commemoration of the Nakba at the General Assembly Hall in 2023, and the dissemination of relevant archives and testimonies.

Each year on May 15, Palestinians remember the events leading up to the creation of Israel in 1948 that would claim hundreds of lives and affect many generations in the years that followed.

“Seventy five years ago, a very different General Assembly adopted a resolution partitioning Palestine without ever consulting the people of Palestine,” Mr Mansour said.

He said that, 75 years later, Israeli policies were still uprooting Palestinians, with seven million refugees part of the global diaspora.

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron participate in a rally marking the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), referring to their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. EPA

Palestinians carry a large national flag during a Nakba Day rally to mark the displacement of thousands of Palestinians after the founding of the Israeli state in the aftermath of the Second World War. AP

Nakba Day, marked here in the West Bank city of Ramallah, commemorates the 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee and seek refuge in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. AP

Israeli security forces were on high alert on Sunday after warnings by Hamas as Palestinians marked Nakba Day in places such as the West Bank city of Ramallah. EPA

Palestinians marching in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah in a Nakba Day rally to mark the biggest tragedy in Palestine’s history. AFP

A young Palestinian waves national flags from a rooftop as people march in a rally marking the 74th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah. AFP

A Palestinian man at a Nakba rally in Ramallah holds a key to symbolise property lost during the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes after the formation of Israel. Reuters

Palestinians mark the 74th anniversary of the Nakba in Ramallah. Reuters

Demonstrators remembering the Nakba, the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes after the formation of Israel. Reuters

A Palestinian girl takes part in a Ramallah rally marking the 74th anniversary of the Nakba. Reuters

Mr Mansour warned that the two-state solution had reached “the end of the road”.

“Either the international community summons the will to act decisively or it will let peace die passively,” he said.

He also called on the international community to pressure Israel and for the UN to grant the Palestinians a state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel’s UN representative, Gilad Erdan, accused the body of spreading a “false” narrative about the Nakba, which he said the Palestinians caused by refusing to accept the partition plan.

“By supporting resolutions that single out, condemn and vilify Israel, you are telling the Palestinians that their path of incitement and terror-funding truly pays off,” Mr Erdan said.

Also addressing the body was Csaba Korosi, president of the 77th session of the General Assembly.

Mr Korosi implored the international community to help “break the vicious circle of hatred and violence” and shift the dynamics from disagreement to engagement.

Women and children carry personal belongings on the five-kilometre journey through no man's land to the Arab lines in Tulkarim, June 1948. They were brought by lorry to this point from an Arab village near Haifa. Getty Images

An elderly Palestinian refugee in the Hussein refugee camp, also known as the Camp of Return. Reuters

The day after the state of Israel was founded, a group of Haganah fighters celebrate after taking control of the Arab town of Jaffa, to the south of Tel Aviv. Reuters

Arabs carrying possessions on their heads flee from a village in Galilee about five months after the creation of the state of Israel. Reuters

Arabs fleeing from a village in Galilee pass a burnt-out vehicle on a mountain road about five months after the creation of the state of Israel. Reuters

Arab refugees return to their village after its surrender during the 1948 war that followed the foundation of Israel. AFP

Palestinians speak with Israeli soldiers near a captured Arab village during the 1948 war. AFP

“As said by Mahatma Gandhi, 'An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” he said. “Let us give young people a reason for hope.”

On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the occupation to end.

Mr Guterres blamed the conflict on occupation, settlements, home demolitions, evictions and closures of Gaza crossings.

He also underlined his commitment to a two-state solution.

“The United Nations’ position is clear — peace must advance, the occupation must end,” he said.

Tor Wennesland, the UN envoy to the Middle East, on Monday warned that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was “reaching a boiling point”.

This year is on course to be the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN started tracking deaths in 2005.

The UN says that Palestinian refugees live mainly in territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, in neighbouring Arab states and in camps in the region.

The sister of Palestinian artist Diana al-Amour, 22, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli bombardment days before, looks through her sketches in her room at the family home near the border with Israel, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

Diana al-Amour's brother in her old room at the family home east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

Diana al-Amour's brother inspects her sketches in her former room in the family home in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

The artist's brother with one of her sketches. AFP

Duniana al-Amour's father, Adnan, in her damaged room, which was hit by an Israeli strike. The young woman was one of the first people killed by Israeli strikes in the latest round of violence. Shrapnel tore through her bedroom during Israel’s surprise opening salvo last Friday. AP

Drawings by Duniana al-Amour in her damaged room. AP

A damaged wall in the young woman's bedroom at the family home in the southern Gaza Strip. AP