The United Nations commemorated yesterday the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is organized annually on November 29 marking the adoption of UN resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine, with the inauguration of an art exhibition and activities organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights in cooperation and coordination with the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations.
The event began with a special meeting, in which the Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, delivered a speech by President Mahmoud Abbas, on this occasion.
The meeting was attended by the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, the President of the General Assembly, Denis Francis, the President of the Security Council, Zhang Jun, a group of diplomatic delegations and intergovernmental organizations, and representatives o
f civil society who made statements on the issue of Palestine, affirming their solidarity with the Palestinian people, and stressing the need for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and reaching a comprehensive and radical solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution.
Mansour also inaugurated an exhibition: Palestine: A Land with a People at UN headquarters in the Visitors’ Lobby in New York, which will remain on display until January 8th, 2024.
The exhibit commemorates the Palestinian Nakba (meaning catastrophe), a deeply traumatic event, which took place during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. This exhibit showcases photographs, videos, and art depicting different episodes in the Palestinian journey before, during, and after the Nakba when more than half of the Palestinian people were expelled from or fled their homes during violence and war from 1947 to 1949. It serves as a reminder that close to 6 million Palestinians remain refugees to this day, scattered throughout the region. Hundred
s of thousands of these refugees have experienced an additional forced displacement while thousands were killed, during the 2023 Gaza war, amid a situation described by the UN Secretary-General as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.
In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (resolution 32/40 B). On that day, in 1947, the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine (resolution 181 (II))
In resolution 60/37 of 1 December 2005, the Assembly requested the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights, as part of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November, to continue to organize an annual exhibit on Palestinian rights or a cultural event in cooperation with the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN.
The resolution on the observance of the International Day of So
lidarity with the Palestinian People also encourages Member States to continue to give the widest support and publicity to the observance of the Day of Solidarity.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA