PA: UN confirms PA ideology that Israel's creation was “a crime”
- Israel's creation is “more criminal” than the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- UN commemoration of Palestinian Nakba Day proves that “a crime took place” and constitutes "UN recognition of the perpetual historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people and a refutation of Zionism’s myths regarding the establishment of Israel”
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel and for Palestinians the commemoration of the Nakba -the “catastrophe.” This year was special for the PA, because for the first time the UN decided to officially mark the Palestinian Nakba Day, May 15, inviting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to speak at the UN. The PA understood the UN event as the UN’s confirmation that Israel's creation was indeed a catastrophe and “a crime.”
In response to the UN event, the PA amplified it's anti-Israel hate speech, adding this year that the UN has confirmed the PA narrative. The following are some of these fundamental components of PA hate speech:
Colonial Europe’s hatred of the Jews was justified because of their evil nature, which caused the Europeans to create Israel as a place to send the Jews
The PA disseminates the lie that Israel was created at the initiative of the European colonial powers to “get rid of the Jews” and to serve the colonialist powers as a “pawn” that would divide and help control the Arab world. As Abbas said in his May 15th UN speech: “They decided to establish and plant another entity in our historical homeland … to get rid of the Jews and enjoy having them in Palestine – two birds with one stone”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “Britain and the United States, specifically, bear direct political and moral responsibility for the Nakba of the Palestinian people. They are the ones who participated in making our nation a victim, when they decided to establish and plant another entity in our historical homeland, and this for their own colonialist purposes. It was called a land without a people so that it would be given to Israel. The truth is that these countries, the Western [countries], wanted to get rid of the Jews and enjoy having them in Palestine – two birds with one stone.”
[Archive News, YouTube channel, May 15, 2023]
Referring to the “Nakba”, PA Prime Minister Shtayyeh denied Israel's right to exist, also calling it a “colonialist entity”:
“The anniversary of the establishment of Israel is the anniversary of Palestine’s Nakba. This is a colonialist entity that was established by the Western states to serve their interests… Israel was built on our land belonging to us, the owners of the land, the native residents. We are the ones who gave this land its name.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
5.6 million refugees must “return” to Israel
When Israel declared its independence in May 1948, it was attacked by the local Arabs and armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq, leading to Israel's War of Independence. The “Nakba” = “catastrophe” is the PA term for the establishment of Israel, the defeat in the war, and the displacement of Arab civilians. However, as Palestinian Media Watch has documented, it was arab leaders, who told Palestinians to leave their homes “for a few weeks,” promising they would “soon” return. Since then, the number of Palestinian “refugees” have grown, and the PA now claims the “right to return” for 5.6 million “refugees.” The refugee issue is central in the PA victimhood identity and were a core issue in Abbas’ UN speech, in which he said that they “will return.” He called on the UN to “suspend” Israel as a member of the UN unless it lets all refugees back into Israel:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “The Palestinian narrative regarding the Nakba, and the Palestinian issue in general, has begun to carve its way into the consciousness of the peoples and states, which have begun to expose the fictitious Israeli narrative… It [Israel] still denies the Nakba, and refuses the international decisions on the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes and cities and villages, from which they were expelled by force and intimidation … Therefore, we are asking you today, officially, according to international law and international resolutions, to oblige Israel to respect these decisions of yours, or to suspend its membership in the United Nations... It [Israel] took upon itself to recognize and implement [Resolutions] 181 and 194 to become a member of the United Nations… There are refugees, they will return. I am a refugee, a Palestinian refugee. I want to return to my city, my brother, I can’t live even if you give me Paris or New York… I don't agree, I want Safed (i.e., an Israeli city).”
[Archive News, YouTube channel, May 15, 2023]
UN recognition of NAKBA seen as UN adopting and endorsing PA ideology
The fact that the UN decided to commemorate Nakba Day was understood by the PA as “proof” and endorsement by the UN that “a crime took place” when Israel was created. Abbas emphasized that the UN has recognized the “historical injustice” done to the Palestinians, and his expectation that the UN will “realize… the refugees’ [right to] return to their homes”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “This [UN] resolution [194] constitutesrecognitionby your noble organization [the UN] of the ongoing historical injustice that befell the Palestinian people in 1948, and also before and after that year… I am certain and hope that this international organization will spare no effort to restore the Palestinian people’s status… through action to realize the Palestinian people’s national rights, including the right to self-determination… and the refugees’ [right to] return to their homes from which they were removed.”
[Archive News, YouTube channel, May 15, 2023]
PLO Central Council member Ghassan Barakat: “This decision [by the UN to mark Nakba Day] emphasizes that a crime took place, and international law and the international resolutions acknowledge that a crime took place against the Palestinian people... There are international resolutions that confirm that a crime took place, whose perpetrators are the State of Israel and the Zionist gangs in 1948 and prior to this – from the days of [Zionist leader Theodor] Herzl and before Herzl they planned this crime.”
[Official PA TV, Personal Encounter, May 4, 2023]
“President Mahmoud Abbas today urged the colonial states to redress the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Speaking before at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York in high-level meeting dedicated for the first time in UN history to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, President Abbas held colonial powers, particularly the US and Britain, directly responsible politically and morally for the Nakba and stressed that they have a historical responsibility to bring the historical suffering inflicted on Palestinians to an end.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 15, 2023]
"[Abbas] concluded by pointing out that the UN decision to commemorate the Nakba on May 15 constitutes a UN recognition of the perpetual historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people and a refutation of Zionism’s myths regarding the establishment of Israel.
He voiced his confidence that the UN would not spare any effort in order to redress the historical injustice imposed upon the Palestinian people and eliminate the consequences of the Nakba.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 15, 2023]
The PA’s governor in the Jenin district reached the same conclusion: That by marking Nakba Day, the UN “debunked the Zionist narrative”:
“[Jenin] District Governor Akram Rajoub said that the late commemoration of the Nakba by the UN debunks the Zionist narrative, confirms that the occupation is illegal, and negates its claims concerning Palestine, its history, and its people…
Rajoub continued [recounting] the historical progression that preceded 1948, in which the colonialist powers attempted to create a foreign body in Palestine.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 26, 2023]
A cartoon shows how significant the PA sees the Nakba event at the UN, interpreting it as a promise of “return.” The cartoon shows the UN logo on the right, and on the left is a modified version of the logo with the continents and other parts removed so that the remaining lines form the words: “We will surely return”:
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
World responsibility – Israel's creation worse than A-bombs on Japan
Abbas’ deputy in Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul went further, accusing “the entire world” of having committed the Nakba against the Palestinian people:
“Fatah Movement Deputy Chairman and [Fatah] Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization Mahmoud Al-Aloul said that ’75 years have passed since our people’s Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,”) that the entire world committed against us…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
An unprecedented conclusion was reached by one of the regular columnists of the official PA daily. Bassem Barhoum described the “Nakba” as “more criminal” than “the American nuclear bombs that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan” because “Japan remained” but in the case of “Palestine,” the Western “colonialists” wanted to “completely erase” it:
“Compared to the American nuclear bombs that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan – which are one of the most criminal, destructive, and barbaric parts of World War II whose horror and severity cannot be taken lightly – what happened to Palestine and the Palestinian people is more criminal, because in the end Japan remained and the Japanese people remained and the two disaster stricken cities were rebuilt. But in the case of Palestine, the colonialist goal was to completely erase it from the map and cancel the existence of the Palestinian people as a people and turn it into refugees devoid of the right of return to their homeland and every right on their historical land.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
The key – the symbol of the Palestinian refugees' “right of return”
One of the central symbols in the Palestinian narrative is a key which symbolizes the homes the Arabs left behind when they left in 1948 and the “right of return” of the Palestinian refugees. The key is present in most PA visual material like posters, logos, and sculptures, and also often part of the decorations/accessories at ceremonies and cultural performances.
This year, the key symbol became more central than ever as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wore a key-shaped pin when he spoke at the UN.
Headline: “The [PA] president to the UN: The clear and only truth is that we were here on our land since the dawn of history and that we will remain until the end of the world”
Caption: “The president with the key of return on his chest, while delivering his speech at the UN ([official PA news agency] WAFA)”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
The PA explained the meaning of Abbas’ key pin in an editorial in its official paper:
“We will not speak much about [Abbas’] speech… because the image is what conveys the meaning that… [he] wanted to convey… The image of the key… The key that President Mahmoud Abbas wore on his chest on Nakba Day at the UN podium was not just the key to his home in Safed (i.e., an Israeli city); at its essence, it is the key to the occupied Palestinian home whose owners, refugee members of our people, still keep carefully so as to return to it sooner or later…
There are refugees who never were and never will be numbers, but rather ‘witnesses to the homeland’s identity and the names of the place’; there are Martyrs, there are prisoners, there are countless troubles – and following all this, there is a key that still resists the rusting of time, so that it will continue to tell in public about its home that is there, in the occupied homeland. This is the key that is still hanging on the walls of the Palestinians’ homes in the refugee camps and the diaspora.
Therefore, this is the key speech, the speech of the vision and the position. ‘The clear and only truth is that we were here on our land since the dawn of history, and we will remain until the end of the world’ (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period) – and the key is our guide. It will continue to clear the path of return for us, with the memories and determination that we bear. And since after everything is said [and done] it will remain, this key is the key of truth, justice, and peace.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2023]
PA PM Shtayyeh too mentioned the keys to the homes of the refugees, stressing that they “know for a certainty that their dream of returning to the homes… will be realized”:
“[Israel] expelled more than 900,000 Palestinians who lived in Palestine to the refugee camps inside [Palestine] and in the diaspora, and the homeland is still in their memory. They still keep the keys of their homes to bequeath them to their children and grandchildren from generation to generation.
They are full of hope and know for a certainty that their dream of returning to the homes and to the property that they left behind 75 years ago will be realized.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2023]
On Nakba Day the official PA daily adorned its front page with a giant key in the background of the articles:
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
The key symbolizes what the PA claims is an indisputable and “authentic” right for all refugees “to return” to their homes in Israel. PA PM Shtayyeh also stressed this in one of his Nakba Day speeches:
“In his speech at the start of the weekly [PA] government meeting, which… was dedicated to the topic of the Nakba and our people’s right of return, [PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh] added: ‘The Nakba is a crime that has continued for 75 years. Our people is still paying with its blood and flesh the price of the aggression, and we are continuing the struggle to restore its rights and thwart the colonialist and expansionist Zionist project.’ …
‘After 75 years since the Nakba, we still believe in the right of return and fight for it, because return is an authentic right of the refugee members of our people worldwide.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
Official PA TV stressed the “inevitable return” of “nearly 7 million refugees” while repeating the libel that “Zionist gangs committed 70 massacres during the Nakba”:
Official PA TV host: “This key is older than their [the Jews’] lives, more ancient than their false history that they outlined through 70 acts of slaughter and massacre… Nearly 7 million Palestinian refugees scattered worldwide believe in inevitable return.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, May 14, 2023]
Abbas’ Presidential Guard made the same statement: “There is no alternative to the right of return,” posting an image of a carrying a large key with “Returning” written on it:
Text on image: “From generation to generation
There is no alternative to the right of return”
Posted text: “May Allah gladden your morning with all the best
#Palestine
#Al-Quds”
[PA Presidential Guard, Facebook page, May 25, 2023]
The key also appeared in this cartoon in the official PA daily, showing a rendition of Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam,” which depicts God touching Adam’s finger. In the cartoon God is replaced by an elderly Palestinian refugee, who is handing a large key to a young Palestinian boy.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
The key appeared in the following two drawings as well:
The image shows a woman in traditional Arab clothing, with her arms and clothing forming the number “75” in reference to the 75th anniversary of the “Nakba.” The woman
is holding a large key symbolizing the Palestinian refugees’ “right of return.” Next to the woman is written in English and Arabic “Nakba,” with the first letter “A” in English replaced by a refugee tent.
Posted text in English and Arabic: “I am proud to share the image that will serve as logo for the first ever Commemoration of the Nakba by the UN (Nakba 75). With our thanks to the artist Ramzy Taweel” (sic., This was not the official UN logo for Nakba Day -Ed.)[Fatah, Twitter account, May 8, 2023]
The drawing shows a woman in traditional Arab clothing standing next to a man with a keffiyeh (Arab headdress) around his neck, who is holding a large key and pointing at barbed wire in the shape of the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as “Palestine.” There is a blue card inside the map featuring the UN logo and the number “194,” a reference to UN resolution 194 on the issue of Palestinian refugees – see note below. Below them is a picture of Arab refugees. In the upper right corner is written in English and Arabic: “75 years of Nakba.” In the upper left corner is the PA map of “Palestine” with a large key inside it and the word “Return” in English and Arabic. To the right of it is the PLO logo featuring a flame, the Palestinian flag, and the PA map of “Palestine.”
In the upper left of the image is written in English and Arabic: “The Nakba is an ongoing crime and the return is our right.” At the bottom is written in English and Arabic: “PLO – Department of Refugee Affairs / National Committee for the Commemoration of the Nakba”
[Fatah, Twitter account, May 8, 2023]
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above and additional reports on Nakba Day:
Headline: “In a UN speech, President Abbas urges colonial states to redress historical injustice inflicted on Palestinian people”
“President Mahmoud Abbas today urged the colonial states to redress the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Speaking before at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York in high-level meeting dedicated for the first time in UN history to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, President Abbas held colonial powers, particularly the US and Britain, directly responsible politically and morally for the Nakba and stressed that they have a historical responsibility to bring the historical suffering inflicted on Palestinians to an end.
The Nakba (Arabic for the “catastrophe”) refers to the 1948 displacement and dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians due to massacres carried out by Zionist militias. 500 Palestinian towns and villages were ultimately destroyed.
President Abbas stated that the UN has either to oblige Israel to respect the United Nations' resolutions, particularly the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 and UNGA Resolution 194, or else suspend Israel’s membership in the UN.
He highlighted the pressing need to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, explaining that the most important prerequisites for regional peace and security is the recognition of the Palestinian people’s rights not only to self-determination, but also to independence, the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the resolution of the refugees issue based on UNGA Resolution 194 and the release of all Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Touching upon the founding myths of Zionism, President Abbas stated that the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba has begun to make its way to the awareness of the peoples, who have come to uncover the fraudulence of the Israeli narrative and listening to the Palestinian narrative and their tragedy.
He refuted the Zionism’s founding myth of “a land without a people for a people without a land”, a myth that transformed in time to the idea of the uncultivated land, the greening of the desert and the idea of Israel’s defensive wars, while stressing that the indigenous Palestinian people have lived in their homeland, Palestine, since time immemorial and explaining that this myth has served as a cover to Zionism and Israel’s incessant attempts to obliterate the existence of the Palestinian people.
He made reference to that Tantura: an explosive documentary directed by Israeli filmmaker Alon Schwarz that contains eye witness accounts of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians at the hands of the Zionist militias in 1948.
Reversing the infamous myth made in 1973 by Israeli diplomat Abba Eban that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” President Abbas said that it is the Palestinians who have lacked a partner for peace, and the it is Israel that has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
He wondered how it could be that there is no a Palestinian partner for peace and that the Palestinian people do not have a genuine interest in peace when they have recognized Israel’s sovereignty over 78 percent of historic Palestine on the assumption that they would be able to exercise sovereignty over the remaining 22 percent.
He affirmed that the Israeli occupation, Israel’s settler-colonialism and the ongoing Gaza siege are the root cause of the spiraling violence, whose effects were being felt around the world.
He posed the question as to how long shall Israel remain above the law and how long shall it enjoy impunity, while stressing that the root causes of the “conflict” and the Palestinian Question would remain unaddressed as long as Israel continues to act as a state above the law, demonstrate contempt for the law, fails to acknowledge its responsibility for the Nakba, seek forgiveness, redress the Palestinian people for this historical injustice and implement UN resolutions.
If such a case persists, the Palestinian people would pursue all legal means to safeguard their rights, including pressing war crimes charges against Israel with the International Criminal Court, Abbas added.
He stressed his keenness to achieve national unity within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and commitment to resolutions of international legitimacy.
He concluded by pointing out that the UN decision to commemorate the Naka on May 15 constitutes a UN recognition of the perpetual historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people and a refutation of Zionism’s myths regarding the establishment of Israel.
He voiced his confidence that the UN would not spare any effort in order to redress the historical injustice imposed upon the Palestinian people and eliminate the consequences of the Nakba.
The UN commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba comes based on a resolution adopted by the General Assembly on Nov. 30, 2022, which stipulated that May 15, 2023, is considered a day to commemorate this memory.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 15, 2023]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “Like a badge on his chest”
“We will not speak much about this speech (refers to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the UN on May 15, 2023, as the UN for the first time commemorated “Nakba Day,” marking “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel -Ed.)…
We will not speak about it, because in this event we saw a different speech by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, and we say ‘we saw’ because the image is what conveys the meaning that the one who appeared in it wanted to convey. Our intent is to the image of the key, which President Mahmoud Abbas wore on his chest while speaking to the world from the UN podium (refers to Abbas wearing a pin in the shape of a key, symbolizing the Palestinian refugees’ “right of return,” during his speech -Ed.).
The key that President Mahmoud Abbas wore on his chest on Nakba Day at the UN podium was not just the key to his home in Safed (i.e., an Israeli city); at its essence, it is the key to the occupied Palestinian home whose owners, refugee members of our people, still keep carefully so as to return to it sooner or later…
There are refugees who never were and never will be numbers, but rather ‘witnesses to the homeland’s identity and the names of the place’; there are Martyrs, there are prisoners, there are countless troubles – and following all this, there is a key that still resists the rusting of time, so that it will continue to tell in public about its home that is there, in the occupied homeland. This is the key that is still hanging on the walls of the Palestinians’ homes in the refugee camps and the diaspora.
Therefore, this is the key speech, the speech of the vision and the position. ‘The clear and only truth is that we were here on our land since the dawn of history, and we will remain until the end of the world’ (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period) – and the key is our guide. It will continue to clear the path of return for us, with the memories and determination that we bear. And since after everything is said [and done] it will remain, this key is the key of truth, justice, and peace.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2023]
Headline: “Shtayyeh: We are continuing the struggle to restore our people’s rights and thwart the colonialist Zionist project”
“[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh demanded that the UN stop excluding Israel from implementing international law and international humanitarian law, not allow the criminals to evade punishment, and take action to put an end to the historical injustice that the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) caused our people.
In his speech at the start of the weekly [PA] government meeting, which was held yesterday [May 15, 2023] in Ramallah and was dedicated to the topic of the Nakba and our people’s right of return, the prime minister added: ‘The Nakba is a crime that has continued for 75 years. Our people is still paying with its blood and flesh the price of the aggression, and we are continuing the struggle to restore its rights and thwart the colonialist and expansionist Zionist project.’ …
He continued: ‘On the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, our people has proven that even if the elderly die, the young people are not forgetting. After 75 years since the Nakba, we still believe in the right of return and fight for it, because return is an authentic right of the refugee members of our people worldwide.’
The prime minister called for the world conscience to wake up, and also to start correcting the historical injustice that the Zionist movement and the international system caused the Palestinian people. He added: ‘On behalf of 14 million Palestinians, we say that the largest massacre has been committed against us, the largest injustice has been caused to us, and the largest theft and hijacking of assets and property has been committed against us.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
Excerpt of a column by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Suggestions for commemorating Nakba Day (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel)”
“Compared to the American nuclear bombs that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan – which are one of the most criminal, destructive, and barbaric parts of World War II whose horror and severity cannot be taken lightly – what happened to Palestine and the Palestinian people is more criminal, because in the end Japan remained and the Japanese people remained and the two disaster stricken cities were rebuilt. But in the case of Palestine, the colonialist goal was to completely erase it from the map and cancel the existence of the Palestinian people as a people and turn it into refugees devoid of the right of return to their homeland and every right on their historical land (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period and no state of “Palestine” ever existed).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
Headline: “For the first time since 1948, the UN commemorates Nakba Day”
“Fatah Movement Deputy Chairman and [Fatah] Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization Mahmoud Al-Aloul said that ’75 years have passed since our people’s Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) that the entire world committed against us, and its consequences on our people continue wherever it is.
He called on the [Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) to realize the national unity and family unification, to enact plans of resistance to the occupation, and to unite around the PLO, the sole legal representative of our people.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
Mahmoud Al-Aloul also serves as Fatah Central Committee member.
Headline: “A march and central rally in central Ramallah to commemorate Nakba Day”
“Masses of our people participated in the march and central rally to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) in central Ramallah…
Chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee of the Arab Public in the 1948 Territories (i.e., the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel) [and former Israeli Arab Parliament Member] Muhammad Barakeh said: ‘We are not just numbers, but rather witnesses to this homeland’s identity and the names of the place, which Israel attempted to eliminate. We are witnesses to the attempts to make the place Western and Zionist.’ He conveyed to the refugee members of our people the message that they will surely return, for they own the land. Barakeh noted that the right of return will not be cancelled, and that we will not relinquish it…
During a press conference held in front of the mausoleum of eternal Martyr [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat to announce the launch of the Nakba [Day] events, [PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that the Nakba is the start of the tragedy that our people has been experiencing for 75 years, as foreigners occupied its land and expelled most of its members to the diaspora and the refugee camps.
He added that the Nakba was the most difficult historical station that our people passed through, and the direct reason for its suffering since then and to this day…
He noted that our people has suffered alone, because the world not only pressed its tragedy to the margins, but even gave full support to establishing the State of Israel and adopted its narrative that ‘Palestine is a desert and Israel came to turn it into a paradise.’
Shtayyeh continued: ‘We say to those who are celebrating the establishment of Israel and adopting its narrative that green Palestine has been and still is green for thousands of years (sic., first-hand historical accounts, such as American author Mark Twain’s “The Innocents Abroad” from 1869, testify that the land of Israel was desolate and there was no state of “Palestine” in it), as fig trees, olive trees, grapevines, and pomegranate trees are planted on its mountains. It has the Negev Desert (i.e., in southern Israel), and those who believe the lie need to open their eyes to see the truth. Palestine is a fact, Jerusalem is a fact, the Palestinian people is a fact. The truth and those who tell it will defeat the myth and its propagandists.’
He added: ‘Palestine is the land of plenty and of growth, a land flowing with milk and honey since ancient times, as crops grow in it in all seasons. The Palestinians were the first to use the plow to work the land; in 1860 Palestine exported approximately two million crates of Jaffa oranges to Europe, 88 years before the establishment of Israel (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period).’ He also said: ‘The anniversary of the establishment of Israel is the anniversary of Palestine’s Nakba. This is a colonialist entity that was established by the Western states to serve their interests. It was established on the ruins of 531 Palestinian towns and villages that were destroyed. Its gangs committed more than 50 massacres between the years of 1936-1948, whose victims were 15,000 defenseless Martyrs – children, women, young people, and elderly. It expelled more than 900,000 Palestinians who lived in Palestine to the refugee camps inside [Palestine] and in the diaspora, and the homeland is still in their memory. They still keep the keys of their homes to bequeath them to their children and grandchildren from generation to generation.
They are full of hope and know for a certainty that their dream of returning to the homes and to the property that they left behind 75 years ago will be realized.’
He noted that the conflict over Palestine is based on the principle of a zero-sum game, in other words, every dunam (i.e., 1,000 sq. meters) that Israel expropriates is a dunam that Palestine loses, and every liter of water that Israel steals is a liter of water that we lose. Israel was built on our land belonging to us, the owners of the land, the native residents. We are the ones who gave this land its name, as it is our holy land, our prophet Jesus’ birthplace and the place of our Prophet Muhammad’s [Night] Journey.’”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
Headline: “The 75th anniversary of the Nakba was commemorated at Tel Aviv University”
“Yesterday [May 15, 2023], the Arab students at Tel Aviv University (Sheikh Munis) commemorated the 75th anniversary of Palestine’s Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).
Ceremonies to commemorate Nakba Day were held with participation of Arab student forces and political leaders. The Arab students waved Palestinian flags, wore keffiyehs (i.e., Arab headdresses), wore black shirts, sang the song ‘Mawtini’ (i.e., “My Homeland,” previously the anthem of the PLO), and made nationalist calls.
Coordinator of [the Israeli Arab] Balad [political party’s] student department Yusuf Taha told [the Israeli Arab website] ‘Arab 48’: ‘For 13 years the student movement in the Palestinian Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) has been commemorating Nakba Day. The response of so many students to the united student call to commemorate Nakba Day is a message that proves that the young Palestinian generations are adhering to their identity and their historical roots in Palestine, and also to their eternal right that will not be erased due to a statute of limitations to return to the lands from which our people was uprooted. The right of return will only be cancelled when every refugee returns to his land and to the town from which he was uprooted.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]
Headline: “For the first time since 1948, the UN commemorates Nakba Day (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel)”
“The [PA] Supreme Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine said that the [Palestinian] refugees’ right of return is a sacred and legal right, and all of the relevant international bodies must bear their responsibility and duties to allow the Palestinian refugees to return according to UN Resolution 194 (see note below -Ed.).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
Headline: “For the first time since 1948, the UN commemorates Nakba Day”
“The [Palestinian] Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said that the UNRWA records (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) indicate that the number of [Palestinian] refugees registered with it in December 2020 stood at approximately 6.4 million Palestinian refugees, of whom approximately 2 million were in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a report that it published yesterday [May 14, 2023] on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), PCBS explained that approximately 28.4% of the refugees registered with UNRWA live in its 58 official refugee camps: 10 in Jordan, nine in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and eight in the Gaza Strip.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 15, 2023]
Official PA TV newsreader: “The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) says that the UNRWA records (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) indicate that the number of [Palestinian] refugees registered with it as of December 2020 is 6.4 million Palestinian refugees, of whom 2 million were in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In a report that it published on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), PCBS explained that 28.4% of the refugees registered with UNRWA live in its 58 official refugee camps. According to the report, the number of Martyrs since the Nakba in 1948 and until today has reached nearly 100,000 Martyrs, and more than 1 million cases of arrest have been recorded since 1967.”
[Official PA TV News, May 14, 2023]
Posted text: “75 years and the Na.k.ba continues (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel; the periods added to the word are apparently an attempt to evade Facebook’s algorithm). Therefore, turning [your] back on the Palestinian cause as if it does not concern you is no longer acceptable. Just as you cannot continue to compare your position with the positions of others, especially considering the historical, moral, and human responsibility that you bear towards an entire people.
Britain in the period of the new King [Charles III] must change. Whether it is in a brave decision that will receive great appreciation today, or by force of the development of the map of support for Palestine, and the ethnic increase of residents who support the Palestinians, due to the increasing waves of [Muslim] immigration…
Turning [your] back is no longer acceptable
By: [Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary] Dr. Sabri Saidam
#Return_is_a_right”
The image is a historical photograph of an elderly Arab man laying his head in the lap of an Arab girl, with the sea visible in the background.
[Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, Facebook page,
May 14, 2023]
Sabri Saidam also serves as Fatah Revolutionary Council Deputy Secretary and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor for communications and information technology, and is a former PA Minister of Education and Higher Education.
the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), we participated in launching the campaign of posting and tweeting on social media platforms the hashtag ‘#Return_is_a_right,’ which was opened by the PLO Department of Refugee Affairs and the Central Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, with the participation of a number of bloggers and influencers from the southern and northern districts (i.e., the Gaza Strip and West Bank). Your participation is support for our people’s right to return to our cities and villages whose residents were expelled.
Headline: “Senior Palestinian officials in Lebanon: The [PA] president’s speech at the UN is a legal and moral report debunking the occupation’s false narrative”
“Since homelands are not erased by the invaders’ arrogance or replaced by the oppressors’ promises, Palestine remains the homeland of its residents, regardless of how the transients settle in it, and its leadership is continuing to adhere to its people’s rights.
From this international and historic stage, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas had his say clearly and expressed his absolute faith in the Palestinian right and the right of every refugee who did not surrender to the events of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) and who still adheres to his land and his identity (refers to Abbas addressing the UN on May 15, 2023, as the UN commemorated “Nakba Day” for the first time -Ed.)…
Secretary of Fatah and the PLO factions in the Tyre area Tawfiq Abdallah saluted leader Mahmoud Abbas… who again emphasized before the entire world – with cutting evidence – that Palestine is ours…
Abdallah again saluted the president and our heroic Palestinian people in the homeland and the diaspora. He again promised that we will remain committed to the promise of the Martyrs until we liberate our land from the Zionist occupier, and he noted that this occupation will pass in the end, Allah willing.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2023]