NEW YORK (Anadolu/TRT) – The UN will commemorate Nakba Day, which marks the creation of the Zionist regime in historical Palestine, for the first time in 2023, according to media reports.
“Commemorating the Nakba must be at the top of our priorities in order to preserve our narrative, which we must adhere to and convey to the whole world,” the Palestinian WAFA news agency quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas urged all Palestinians to commemorate the Palestinian tragedy of 1948 “to confront all lies and false narratives that attempt to distort history and facts.”
Nakba Day is marked annually by Palestinians on May 15 to remember the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and areas in 1948 after the founding of the occupying regime.
“What Palestinians everywhere are required to do is to commemorate this tragedy, because it is the first time that the global community does not deny the Nakba,” said Abbas.
“On these blessed days, we call on all our people to stand together to face the challenges facing our cause, our land and our sanctities, and to focus our compass towards confronting the occupation and getting rid of it,” he added.
This year marks 75 years of Nakba, or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes by then Zionist paramilitaries in 1948 and onward.
“The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [CEIRPP] will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at UN Headquarters in New York,” the UN said.
“For the first time in the history of the UN, this anniversary will be commemorated pursuant to the mandate by the General Assembly.”
“Commemorations... will bring to life the Palestinian journey and will aim at creating an immersive experience of the Nakba through live music, photos, videos, and personal testimonies.”
Nakba, Arabic for Catastrophe, resulted from the first Arab-Zionist war in 1948.
Following the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their homes and areas, paving the way for the establishment of the Zionist regime.
Arabs in general and Palestinians in specific often mark May 15 as a reminder of their collective suffering, their ancestral home, the continued occupation of the West Bank and the blockaded Gaza.
Palestinians legally hold the “right of return” to their own lands, which are now considered occupied territories, according to the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.
Millions of Nakba survivors are living with their descendants in refugee camps in blockaded Gaza, occupied West Bank and other neighboring countries.