NEW YORK, May 15, 2026 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas stated on Friday that the Palestinian cause will remain the greatest test of the international system and its credibility.
In a statement delivered on his behalf by Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, at the commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Nakba by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the UN Headquarters in New York, President Abbas stressed that the Palestinian people have the right to live in their homeland in freedom and dignity.
He added that the Palestinian people also have the right to defend themselves, their existence, and their national rights, and expect the nations of the world and this international system to help them achieve their freedom and independence, and to live in peace and security like all other peoples of the world.
“Whoever believes that peace and security can be achieved without realizing the rights of the Palestinian people, ensuring the independence of their state on the 1967 borders, and uprooting the Israeli occupation from it, regardless of how long it takes, is delusional,” he stressed.
“The Nakba of Palestine has always carried a painful, profound, and enduring impact in the memory and conscience of the Palestinian people. Its annual commemoration at the United Nations, and its recognition by the world, makes it an exceptional — indeed historic — event and an acknowledgment of the historical injustice that has befallen us, and from which we have not yet healed,” he said.
“Israel believed it could erase our existence as if we had never existed, and steal our wealth, heritage, and culture. Yet, we remained, and we rose from the ashes of the Nakba. We struggled until the United Nations and the entire world recognized our right to self-determination. The Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, has led the Palestinian struggle in all its forms; popular, political, legal, and diplomatic,” he added.
Following is the complete text of President Abbas’ statement:
H. E. Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
H. E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock, President of the United Nations General Assembly
H. E. Ambassador Coly Seck, Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the United Nations
Excellencies, Heads of Delegations and Representatives of States and International Organizations
Ladies and Gentlemen
Today, in these difficult circumstances that our people are enduring, we commemorate the seventy-eighth anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe that is ongoing until this very day, and the crime of ethnic cleansing inflicted upon our Palestinian people. This crime, carried out by Zionist militias with the support of colonial powers, led to the uprooting of 950,000 Palestinians from their cities and villages, and their removal from the land of their ancestors, which they had inherited and inhabited for thousands of years, to be displaced and replaced, transforming them into a people of refugees, witness to the attempts to steal, falsify and erase their history and heritage.
This heinous crime, the Nakba, was accompanied by numerous massacres during which tens of thousands of our people were slaughtered and killed, and their cities and villages destroyed. More than 531 towns and villages, once vibrant with cultural, economic, social, and political life, were erased.
We will not leave, and we will not forget.
We, the Palestinian people and our refugees, did not emigrate from Palestine nor leave it voluntarily in 1948, as Israel and the Zionist movement have claimed, rather, we were forcibly and coercively expelled from it. The truth is that the Palestinian people rose up repeatedly to defend their historic homeland and their existence on their land. We still remember the Palestinian revolution of 1936–1939, but colonial powers provided the Zionists with every means and force necessary to seize the land of Palestine by force of arms.
The Zionist movement’s reliance on false narratives, mythology, and the infamous Balfour Declaration from the colonial era, along with the selective manipulation of fabricated historical events does not create rights, nor does it nullify the deeply rooted historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination. It also does not negate international law or the Charter of the United Nations.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At a time when the world was shaping a new international order, drafting the UN Charter, and adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Palestinian people were excluded and deprived of the very rights enshrined in those charters. Therefore, commemorating this anniversary is an acknowledgment of the historic injustice committed against the Palestinian people, who remain deeply rooted in their land, and a step in the right direction toward rectifying it. It affirms that our vibrant people cannot be ignored, nor can their inherent right to self-determination, independence, return, and sovereignty, similar to all other nations. No one in this world, and I repeat, no one else, has the right to determine the fate of the land of Palestine, and whoever believes that peace and security can be achieved without realizing the rights of the Palestinian people, ensuring the independence of their state on the 1967 borders, and uprooting the Israeli occupation from it, regardless of how long it takes, is delusional.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, our Palestinian people, wherever they are, young and old, in Palestine and in the diaspora, commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, reaffirming their eternal bond with their land. Israel believed it could erase our existence as if we had never existed, and steal our wealth, heritage, and culture. Yet, we remained, and we rose from the ashes of the Nakba. We struggled until the United Nations and the entire world recognized our right to self-determination. The Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, has led the Palestinian struggle in all its forms; popular, political, legal, and diplomatic. Since its founding to this day, and through every stage of the struggle to confront attempts to erase us from existence, preserve our rights, restore us to the international map, root us in our land, and expose the falsity of the Zionist narrative, all the way to the recognition of the State of Palestine as a non-member observer state at the United Nations, its accession to international agencies and treaties, and the raising of the flag of the State of Palestine at UN headquarters by a UN resolution.
Distinguished Guests,
Israel, the illegal occupying Power, continues to commit crimes against our people and has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, destroying more than 85% of residential buildings, hospitals, schools, universities, churches, and mosques. It is working to expand its crimes and transfer their severity into the West Bank, including Jerusalem, through settler terrorism, accelerated settlement expansion and annexation, and the piracy of our funds by withholding more than five billion dollars, with the aim of undermining the work of our governmental and national institutions. It is also plundering our wealth, water, and resources, and practicing violence and incitement against an entire people in all its categories.
The occupying forces continue to kill and arrest our people, withhold the bodies of our martyrs, abuse and torture our prisoners, impose racist death sentences upon them, terrorize our children, sever the ties between our villages, and displace, invade, bombard, and besiege our cities and refugee camps.
The occupying forces and extremist groups, led by ministers of this Israeli government, also continue to violate the historic and legal status quo in the city of Jerusalem, including at Al-Haram Al-Sharif, in violation of agreements and international law, while destroying the two-state solution in full view of the entire world, without accountability or punishment, and without justice for the Palestinian people and their rights.
We welcomed President Trump’s plan for a ceasefire, the entry of aid, and the alleviation of the suffering of our people in Gaza. We also welcomed Security Council Resolution 2803. This came after extensive efforts we undertook in partnership with the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, which resulted in the International Peace Conference co-chaired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France, as well as the recognition of the State of Palestine by 21 countries during 2024 and 2025, bringing the total number to 160 states. These efforts also led to the issuance of the New York Declaration to take irreversible steps toward implementing the two-state solution, ending the Israeli occupation, and realizing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, and in a manner that fulfils the inherent rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return for refugees pursuant to resolution 194.
However, the ceasefire remains fragile, our people are being killed, Gaza’s geography is shrinking, and aid delivery is still obstructed, in a clear Israeli violation of President Trump’s vision.
Together with mediators and partners, we are now working to move into the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, in order to proceed to the recovery and reconstruction phase. In this regard, we reaffirm our vision of one State, one Government, one Law, and one Weapon, and the necessity of a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine, and transitional arrangements must be conducive to the reunification of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the realization of our people’s right to self-determination and the independence of our State. After all this death, destruction, displacement, and devastation, the time has come for life, recovery, and rebuilding.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Israel continues its aggression against our people and the peoples of the region, and continues to enact racist laws, the latest of which is the law to execute prisoners, while entrenching an apartheid regime. Those who commit genocide, create apartheid, or kill, execute, and assault peaceful peoples can not claim to be either democratic or moral.
These ordeals have tested our resilience, but they will not weaken our determination. We will continue work on building and developing our state institutions. Our government is working with full capacity to implement broad reforms program in various areas of governance, transparency, digital transformation, strengthening the rule of law and justice, developing the education sectors, unifying social protection systems, and strengthening the democratic path, in which we have already made progress after completing local council elections and are heading towards National Council elections next November, drafting a new constitution, and preparing laws for political parties and general elections, on the path toward parliamentary and presidential elections, all alongside our legal and diplomatic efforts in international fora aimed at ending the illegal Israeli colonial occupation.
We will not relent in protecting the future of our children and our people until the historical injustice and colonialism are ended, and the world fully recognizes the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital. We will continue to strengthen our identity and preserve our memory. Even if the elders pass away, our young ones will not forget, contrary to what they believed, planned, imagined, and fabricated.
Israel has also failed to strip the free people of the world of their awareness and conscience. Blessed are the millions of supporters from peoples around the world, whom we thank for standing with Palestinian rights. The Palestinian cause will remain the greatest test of the international system and its credibility.
Here, in my own name and on behalf of the Palestinian people, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to all those who have believed in and supported the justice of our historic cause and its centrality around the world, and to all the countries and peoples who stand in solidarity with us and support our legitimate struggle, and who bear witness to our steadfastness and resilience on our land, with Jerusalem at its heart, as well as in the refugee camps in the homeland and the diaspora.
I also extend my gratitude to the Chair and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the United Nations for their tireless and dedicated efforts in international fora and across the world to achieve the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, the independence of their State, and their right to return.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Over the years, this international organization has adopted more than a thousand resolutions affirming the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in their homeland, including resolution 181 of 1947, which called for the establishment of an Arab State for the Palestinian people on 45% of historic Palestine alongside the State of Israel, as well as resolution 194 affirming the right of Palestinian refugees to return. The obligation on Israel to implement these two resolutions was a condition for its admission to the United Nations. Unfortunately, Israel has persisted in disregarding and violating these resolutions in a manner that undermines justice, morality, and human values, and renders its membership in the United Nations incomplete.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, more than ever, the world must stop denying the Nakba and the crime of ethnic cleansing inflicted upon the Palestinian people, for nothing deepens tragedies more than denying them. Seventy-eight years after the Nakba, the most basic principles require the world to recognize this tragedy and acknowledge that the events of 1947–1948 against the Palestinian people constitute ethnic cleansing as defined under international law, resolutions and international courts.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Finally, I would like to salute the steadfastness of our Palestinian people in Palestine, in the refugee camps, and throughout the diaspora. I honor with pride our martyrs and courageous prisoners. I say to them all that the memory of the Nakba will remain alive in our consciousness and a guiding light and motivation for our people until the occupation ends and freedom and independence are achieved. And I repeat once again: the occupation will come to an end, and Palestinian rights will ultimately prevail, no matter how long it takes.
Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
K.F.
