麻豆APP

Commemoration of the 78^th anniversary of the Nakba

麻豆APP Headquarters, New York, 15 May 2026

CHAIR STATEMENT

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Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

78 years ago, the Palestinian people endured the Nakba, the catastrophe of dispossession, exile and loss.

For the Palestinian people, the Nakba is not a chapter closed in 1948.

It is not a memory confined to photographs, keys, deeds and stories passed from one generation to the next.

It is a continuing catastrophe.

It continues in the refugee camp.

It continues at the checkpoint.

It continues in the demolished home.

It continues in the uprooted olive tree and the lost orange groves.

It continues in Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust.

This year, we mark the Nakba while Gaza lies in ruins.

Families who survived bombardment now face hunger, disease, displacement and the daily struggle to find water, medicine and shelter.

A recent assessment estimated direct physical damage in Gaza at 35.2 billion US dollars, with reconstruction and recovery needs exceeding 71 billion dollars.

These figures are staggering.

But behind every figure is a home.

A school.

A hospital.

A life interrupted.

A future deferred.

And even now, Palestinians in Gaza are told there is a ceasefire.

But what kind of ceasefire leaves children killed, families displaced, aid obstructed, and whole areas beyond reach?

This is not a CEASEFIRE. It is LESS FIRE.

And less fire is not peace.

Peace cannot be measured by the reduction of explosions alone.

Peace means safety.

Peace means dignity.

Peace means the right of a people to live, to rebuild, to return, and to determine their own future.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The ongoing Nakba is also visible across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Settler violence has reached appalling levels.

Demolitions, forced displacement, land confiscation, illegal settlement expansion and movement restrictions are not isolated incidents.

They are part of a system that denies the Palestinian people their inalienable rights.

This Committee was created because the question of Palestine is a question of justice.

It is a question of international law.

It is a question of the credibility of this Organization.

On this solemn anniversary, we remember the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians uprooted in 1948.

We honour their descendants, millions of Palestine refugees, whose rights CANNOT expire with time.

We reaffirm that the right of return, the right to self-determination, and the right to independence are not symbolic claims.

They are rights under international law and repeatedly affirmed by the 麻豆APP.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

The Nakba continues because impunity continues.

It will end only when unlawful occupation ends.

It will end only when displacement ends.

It will end only when the Palestinian people are free.

Today, we call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, for full humanitarian access.

Today, we demand accountability for violations of international law.

Today, we reiterate our commitment to the two-State solution as the only path to a sustainable peace.

Today, we maintain that Palestine must be independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable, based on the pre-1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

78 years is too long.

The Palestinian people have waited long enough for justice.

The world must not ask them to wait any longer.

Thank you.

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Related documents:

• President of the General Assembly urges the international community together with the parties to “work to end the illegal occupation, create a credible and irreversible pathway to achieve the Two-State-Solution”, 78th commemoration of the Nakba – Question of Palestine
• The Nabka is “the world’s longest standing protracted refugee crisis”, UN Assistant Secretary-General says at the 78th commemoration of the Nakba – Question of Palestine
• 428th Committee Meeting: Commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Nakba – 15 May 2026 – Question of Palestine
• “The world must stop denying the Nakba and the crime of ethnic cleansing inflicted upon the Palestinian people” says President Mahmoud Abbas at the 78th Anniversary of the Nakba – Question of Palestine