NEW YORK – The United Nations General Assembly has voted in favor of a pro-Palestinian resolution to commemorate the day of the Nakba (catastrophe), … marking the Israeli regime’s claim to existence in 1948. The draft resolution passed with 90 votes in favor (30 against and 47 abstentions).

The initiative was sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Senegal, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinians and was approved despite opposition from the United States, England and Israel. Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands were also among the countries that voted against.

UN commission urged to also investigate Nakba and apartheid practices
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, called on the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, … to “investigate the Nakba and the uninterrupted existence of a colonial regime with apartheid characteristics.” Infopal reports.

Chairman of the High Monitoring Committee for Arab Citizens of the Occupied Territories, Mohammed Barakeh, and representatives from Adalah appeared before the CoI in Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday to investigate the “root causes” of the conflict, including the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes referred to as the Nakba (Catastrophe).

The U.N. Commission was, in addition, urged to investigate the “massive confiscation of land from Palestinians; the continued ban on Palestinian family reunification; systematic discrimination in the distribution of state resources, which deepens the gap between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of the Occupied Territories; and restrictions on political participation.” Adalah highlighted discriminatory laws, such as the Jewish nation-state law, the Law of Return and the Absentee Property Law.

“Adalah welcomes the establishment of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which allows an independent U.N. body to thoroughly examine, for the very first time, the root causes of the conflict and the gross human rights violations committed against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line,” the rights group said.

“There is abundant evidence that Israel pursues racist practices against all Palestinians under its control, practices contrary to the norms of international law that have no place in the world. Now that Israel has constitutionally enshrined Jewish supremacy under Jewish nation-state law, it is a moral obligation to defend the human rights of all Palestinians, including those with Israeli citizenship.”