Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded on Monday that the United Nations (UN) “suspend” Israel for “aggression” and “occupation” of the Palestinian territories, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the “Nakba”.

For the first time, thanks to a resolution approved in November, the UN celebrated this Monday at its headquarters in New York, presence of Abbas, what the Palestinians call the “Catastrophe” (“Nakba” in Arabic), the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948.

“We now formally demand, in accordance with international law and (UN) resolutions, that Israel be assured of abiding by those resolutions or that Israel’s membership in the UN be suspended,” the president said. the Palestinian Authority, in a speech at one o’clock.

Abbas, of which “State of Palestine” has observer status with the UN, spoke in Arabic at a special session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, where dozens of ambassadors to the United Nations were present.

The representative of Israel, Gilad Erdan, wrote to his counterparts in other member states urging them to “not attend” this meeting which he called a “heinous event” and a “blatant attempt to distort history”

Erdan argued that those present would tolerate anti-Semitism and give the Palestinians a “green light”. “to continue to exploit international bodies to promote their slanderous narrative.”

32 states were absent

According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, 32 states, including the United States, Canada, Ukraine and 10 European Union countries, were absent.

For her part, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, reaffirmed the “clear position of the United Nations”: the occupation must end because it is “illegal under international law”.

In a strong and moving speech, Abbas also attacked the “colonial” powers, that it would be “Britain and the United States, which have a direct, political and moral responsibility in the Nakba”.

The “catastrophe” suffered by the Palestinians is not yet over

According to the chief, the “catastrophe” suffered by the Palestinians “did not begin in 1948 and did not end after that date”.

Israel, occupying power, “continues its occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people, continues to deny the Nakba and rejects international resolutions on the return of palestinian refugees“, Abbas said.

The UN estimates that the Palestinians of 1948 still alive and their descendants form a group of 5.9 million refugees scattered across the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The exodus and the armed conflict after May 15, 1948 was a “catastrophe” that Palestinians report every year, while Israelis celebrate the independence of their state, proclaimed on May 14, 1948.

For President Abbas, born in 1935 and in power since 2005, Israel “has never fulfilled its obligations and preconditions for membership” of the UN since its independence in 1948, following a resolution of November 29, 1947 dividing Palestine into two Jewish and Arab states.