NEW YORK, May 15, 2025 (WAFA) – On the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, President Mahmoud Abbas called for a genuine international movement to end the ongoing suffering and historic injustice endured by the Palestinian people.
The commemoration was organized at the United Nations headquarters in New York by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in cooperation with the Division for Palestinian Rights.
Palestine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Minister Riyad Mansour, delivered a speech on behalf of President Abbas. In his address, the President expressed appreciation for the UN’s historic decision to officially commemorate the Nakba of 1948, a milestone he described as the "catastrophe of catastrophes."
President Abbas reflected on the events of 1948, stating that the Nakba involved over 50 documented massacres, widespread atrocities, and the forced displacement of more than half the Palestinian population by Israeli forces. He emphasized that this tragedy remains an open wound, with its consequences still felt by millions of Palestinians today.
Following is the full text of President Mahmoud Abbas' speech:
"Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you,
At the outset, I extend my gratitude and appreciation to you for the historic decision to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba, as we mark the passing of its 77th year, representing a catastrophe of disasters, the mass murders of Palestinian children, women and men in more than fifty documented massacres, and the forced displacement by the violence of iron and fire of over half of the Palestinian people from their homeland, crimes which were perpetrated by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people in 1948. This day, the fifteenth of May of each year, marks the anniversary of the Nakba, this painful occasion that is still present, after being ignored for so many years past.
The series of Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people has not stopped. After the catastrophe of the Nakba in 1948, and the confiscation of 78 percent of the land of historic Palestine, the occupation disaster came in 1967, with the seizure of the remaining territory of Palestine – in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – and the continuation of its settlement colonization campaign and the land theft, particularly in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, to this very day.
Today is very similar to yesterday. What the Israeli occupying forces have been doing for 19 months in full view of the whole world, are crimes of genocide, destruction and starvation, with the aim of displacing our people from the Gaza Strip, in addition to the crime of the continued theft of the land of the State of Palestine, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The number of Palestine refugees, inside Palestine, the neighboring countries and across the world, has reached more than seven million Palestine refugees, and their suffering continues, especially in the refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. What has made the suffering more severe over the past two years is the targeting of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for the Palestine refugees, and the obstruction of its activities inside Occupied Palestine, which is a grave violation of international law, depriving our people of basic services such as in the fields of education and health that cannot be replaced and other essentials of life, in Gaza absolutely vital for their survival.
The continued denial of the crimes of Zionism and the Israeli occupying forces against our Palestinian people will be of no use. It will not cancel the truth or erase the memory. History is indelible, and justice is not time-bound. Today, we stand before you, not only to commemorate this somber anniversary, but to renew the pledge that the Nakba was not and will not be the permanent and inevitable fate of our people, and that the right of return, the right to self-determination, and the independence of the Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, are steady and inalienable rights, guaranteed by the international law and the United Nations resolutions, and will not be forsaken by our people and all who stand in solidarity with them, through history and to the present day.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The time has come for real and effective international action to stop this historic injustice and ongoing tragedy, which have become a disgrace to humanity. The war that Israel has been waging on the Gaza Strip for nineteen months, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, the majority women and children, destroyed its homes and infrastructure, and forcibly and repeatedly displaced more than 1.9 million Palestinians within the Strip, is merely a continuation of the chapters of a catastrophe that has continued unabated since 1948.
We affirm from this platform that we are ready to undertake our full national responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, as in the West Bank, by the assumption of the State of Palestine of its political, economic, social, civil and security responsibilities, ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid and the return of the displaced to their areas, consolidating them on their land, implementing the early recovery and reconstruction plan without displacement from Gaza, and mobilizing the necessary international funding at the reconstruction conference in Cairo once a ceasefire is achieved. Above all, we must emphasize the imperative for the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a comprehensive ceasefire throughout the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as the urgency to embark on a political process for the implementation of the two-State solution and the embodiment of the independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the realization of the inalienable rights of our people, foremost to live as a free and dignified people in their homeland.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The international community, represented by this United Nations organization, and while working for an immediate halt of the aggression against our people, their land and their sanctities, is required today, more than ever, to take concrete steps to provide them with international protection, and in this regard, we look forward, with great importance, to the convening of the International Peace Conference this coming June in New York, aimed at implementing the two-State solution, in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions, and to mobilize efforts for the international recognition of the State of Palestine, as well as obtaining its full membership in the United Nations, and bringing an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of the territory of the State of Palestine occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.
In this regard, we also call upon you to continue firmly supporting UNRWA and providing it with the necessary funding, as well as confronting the malicious attempts to undermine its role as per its General Assembly mandate. UNRWA represents a lifeline for millions of our refugees, a living witness to the catastrophe of our people, and political responsibility andlegal and humanitarian reference for the Palestine refugee question until a just solution is achieved for them, in accordance with Resolution 194 (III).
In closing, and on behalf of the steadfast Palestinian people, and in the name of more than fifteen million Palestinians, including seven million Palestine refugees, we renew our pledge that we will remain, adherent to our rights and will continue our legitimate struggle for freedom and independence until they are realized. We will also continue knocking on the doors of justice, until accountability is realized for all the crimes perpetrated against our people, until the day of freedom arrives for Palestine, until the legitimate rights are restored to their rightful owners, and until peace, stability and prosperity are achieved for all in the entire region.
Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you."
M.N
