Palestinians confirm their right to security, protection and an independent state
The 47 anniversary of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People comes this year while Gaza Strip and all of the Palestine are being subjected to a brutal Nazi Israeli aggression before the eyes of the entire world, and in the light of an international system dominated by double standards, where the United States and its Western allies prevent the cessation of the aggression, and encourage the Zionists to claim the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, by supporting the entity with money and weapons and providing it with protection in international forums.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly declared November 29 as a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, coinciding with the anniversary of its adoption of Resolution No. 181 of 1947, known as the unjust partition resolution that planted the usurping Israeli entity on the land of Palestine after displacing hundreds of thousands of its people outside their homeland in an ongoing catastrophe. The General Assembly noted that this step aims to focus the attention of the international community on the fact that the Palestinian people have not yet obtained their inalienable rights as defined by the United Nations, which are the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right of refugees to return to their homes from which they were displaced by the occupation.
On November 29, 2012, Palestine joined the United Nations as a non-member observer state. On September 30, 2015, the Palestinian flag was raised in front of the headquarters and offices of the United Nations around the world. In the midst of the Israeli war of extermination, Palestine submitted a request to the Security Council early last April to reconsider the request it submitted in 2011 to obtain full membership in the United Nations. Its request was voted on the 18th of the same month, but the United States, a permanent member of the Council, thwarted the approval of the project by using its veto despite the vote of 12 of the 15 Council members in favor of the draft resolution submitted by Algeria. On May 10, the General Assembly adopted, by a majority of 143 votes, a resolution confirming that the State of Palestine is fully qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with its charter, supporting its request for full membership, and recommending that the Security Council reconsider the request.
The 47th anniversary commemoration kicked off on Tuesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held a special event in which it called on the international community to take decisive action to end the Israeli occupation, ensure accountability for perpetrators of violations, and support the long-awaited rights of the Palestinian people.
Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Cheikh Niang, said: “The continued deprivation of the Palestinian people of their rights is a betrayal of the principles of humanity and justice that we claim to adhere to. The commemoration of the event this year comes amid unprecedented suffering and tragedy, extending to more than 400 days, as the Palestinians in Gaza Strip suffer from a humanitarian catastrophe that we have not witnessed since World War II. He underlined the urgency of moving decisively to end this humanitarian, political, legal and moral catastrophe.
The Permanent Representative of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, pointed out in a speech during the event that the commemoration of the anniversary coincides with the Palestinian people being subjected to an ongoing war of genocide due to the disregard for their legitimate rights, and the treatment of the occupation entity as if it is above international law, and providing it with protection to escape accountability, prosecution and punishment for its crimes, and even providing it with financial and military support.
In a speech on this occasion, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that no matter how tyrannical the occupation is, it will end, and the Palestinian people will continue to struggle to obtain their rights to self-determination, and to achieve their freedom and independence on their land and the land of their ancestors, and to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Abbas noted that the international community adopted this international day to support the rights of the Palestinian people, which requires taking practical and radical steps to achieve this, and finding a solution to the Palestinian issue based on international legitimacy resolutions. He wondered: How long will the world remain silent, unable to deter the occupation from its crimes, and hold it accountable to force it to abide by international law.
In a letter to the United Nations, Syria reiterated its firm position in support of the Palestinian people and their rights to self-determination, return to their homeland, and establish their independent state on all their occupied territories with Jerusalem as its capital. At the same time, it expressed its deep dissatisfaction with the inability of the United Nations and all its agencies to stop the barbaric Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and hold its perpetrators accountable, due to the shameful position of some Western countries, most notably the United States, in supporting the aggression and providing political cover for it.
The activities to commemorate the International Day kicked off in Palestine on Wednesday under the slogan: “Our Right to Security, Protection and an Independent State.” The activities include a series of popular activities organized in schools, universities, public institutions, and in front of the headquarters of international institutions to remind the world of the tragedy of the Palestinian people, the justice of their cause, and the necessity of providing international protection for them.
Global solidarity movements and free people of the world are also organizing cultural activities, political festivals, and mass events in support of the Palestinian people, in addition to activities held by Palestinian embassies, and activities by governments and civil societies, including issuing special messages in solidarity with the Palestinian people, holding meetings, distributing publications, and screening films to expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
Inas Abdulkareem