ith a vote of 90 to 30, the United Nations voted to hold a commemorative event in honour “Nakba Day”—using the Palestinian delineation of the establishment of the State of Israel. The UN General Assembly voted in favour of a resolution that commemorates the “Nakba,” which means catastrophe in Arabic, referring to the modern State of Israel’s establishment in 1948. The international community has never before branded a country’s birth a “catastrophe.” Those voting for the resolution included Arab states that have formal peace agreements with Israel, such as Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. Countries that voted against the resolution included Israel, the US, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, and Australia. The resolution calls for the commemoration of the Nakba at the General Assembly Hall in 2023, and the dissemination of relevant archives and testimonies. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said that by “passing such an extreme and baseless resolution, the UN is only helping to perpetuate the conflict.”
