Israeli Envoy Slams UN Nakba Day Event

Palestinians will mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the displacement of more than 700,000 Arab Palestinians from their homes during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli war.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan appealed to member states to boycott what he described as “an abominable and blatant attempt to distort history.”

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour called the UN observance “historic” and significant because the General Assembly played a key role in the partition of Palestine.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is slated to speak at the event.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, will also speak at the event.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to recommend the partition of British-controlled Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, a resolution that was rejected by Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states. Amid rising violence that included the flight of hundreds of thousands of Arab refugees from villages and towns conquered by Jewish militias, as well as the displacement of Jews from areas conquered by Arab forces, Britain withdrew from Palestine in May 1948, leading to the declaration of independence by Israel. This sparked an invasion by surrounding Arab states. By the end of the resulting Arab-Israeli war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs had been displaced from their homes. The war ended in 1949 with a truce, resulting in the division of the region: Israel was established on about 78% of Mandatory Palestine, Transjordan gained control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. No Palestinian Arab state was established.

The Nakba remains a major issue of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians insist on a right of return for the surviving refugees and their millions of descendants to the homes and properties from which they fled or were expelled 75 years ago. Israel rejects demands for a mass return, saying it would threaten the country’s Jewish character.