Israel Racializing Palestinians as Security Threat to Normalize Its Genocide, Scholar Says, as Palestinian Rights Committee Marks Nakba Anniversary
“Palestinians are racialized as a security threat, because they — we — refuse to disappear,” the Palestinian Rights Committee heard today from a scholar who spoke at a special event remembering the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Nakba.
The meeting was hosted by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. “Nakba” — an Arabic word that means “catastrophe” — refers to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948. Today’s meeting was mandated by General Assembly resolution 77/23 (2022), which requested the UN Secretariat to annually commemorate that historic event.
Much of the discussion drew a parallel between that tragedy and the ongoing violence and displacement, especially in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian-American scholar Noura Erekat, Professor of International Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, dismissed Israel’s talking point that it is only targeting Hamas. The Israeli army has used quadcopters to shoot injured children sprawled on the floor, executed Palestinian patients with their hands zip-tied, sexually assaulted detainees captured without charge or trial, bombed safe routes where Palestinians were ordered to flee, tortured medical doctors to death, and destroyed universities, factories, libraries, bakeries and places of worship, she said.
She also recalled Israeli Agricultural Minister Avi Dichter’s November 2023 statement that “this is Nakba 2023”, as well as the current bid of the Administration of United States President Donald . Trump to build a Gaza riviera and remove Palestinians to Sudan, Somalia or Syria. Clearly, she underscored, Palestinian civilians are the target and Hamas combatants are the “collateral damage”.
“If you normalize genocide, you will have nothing left,” she warned delegates. Pointing to the International Court of Justice’s determination of plausible genocide, its advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation, as well as the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, she stressed: “This is not a legal controversy; it is a political one.”
Do Not Look to the United States for Moral or Political Leadership
“Do not look west for moral or political leadership,” she said, noting that the United States has vetoed five ceasefire resolutions to end this genocide. Member States have other choices — they can acknowledge Israel’s campaign as genocide and impose an arms embargo and sever diplomatic ties. “If genocide is too much, you can confront this atrocity as a war” and regulate it with laws of war and protect hospitals and schools and shelters, she said.
“If war is too much, you can confront this atrocity as a humanitarian tragedy” and send in a peacekeeping mission to protect Palestinians, she said. And if that is too much, “find a way to have mercy on Palestinian children”, she said — do not sit in a seat of power and do nothing.
State of Palestine Leaders Ready to Assume Full Responsibilities in Gaza, West Bank
Also delivering opening remarks was Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, who read a statement by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. The Nakba was a “catastrophe of disasters”, involving more than 50 documented mass massacres and the forced displacement of over half of the Palestinian people “by the violence of iron and fire”, he recalled. But, he added: “The Nakba was not and will not be the permanent and inevitable fate of our people.”
“We are ready to undertake our full national responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, as in the West Bank, by the assumption of the State of Palestine of its political, economic, social, civil and security responsibilities,” he said. This includes the delivery of humanitarian aid, the return of the displaced to their areas and the implementation of the early recovery and reconstruction plan, among other tasks.
Welcoming the convening next month of the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, to be chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, he called on delegates to mobilize efforts for the international recognition of the State of Palestine, as well as its full membership in the United Nations. The international community must also continue firmly supporting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and providing it with the necessary funding, he said.
Mounting Evidence of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity
Ahmad Faisal Muhammad (Malaysia), Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, noted the endless Palestinian struggle for “a State to call their own”. The prolonged Israeli occupation has been determined to be illegal by the International Court of Justice, but it continues to be enforced through displacement and denial of fundamental human rights. “This is the ongoing Nakba,” he said.
Over 52,000 people have been killed in Gaza while thousands remain trapped under the rubble. In the West Bank, 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and many displaced amid deepening occupation and settler violence. “These are not mere statistics — they reflect a devastating human tragedy,” he said, adding that mounting evidence points to patterns consistent with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Upcoming High-Level International Conference for Peaceful Settlement of Question of Palestine, Implementation of Two-State Solution ‘Crucial Opportunity’
Speaking on behalf of Philémon Yang (Cameroon), President of the General Assembly, Blanca Montejo, Deputy Chief of Staff of his Office, recalled that one of the first main tasks of the United Nations was to find a just solution to the question of Palestine — for 77 years, this task has remained on the Assembly’s agenda. In the meantime, generations of Palestinians lived through despair, each hoping they would see a resolution within their lifetime. “Yet, here we are,” she said.
The Assembly must seize every chance to help chart the path towards the two-State solution. The upcoming High-Level International Conference will present a crucial opportunity to set a political horizon, she said.
The Nakba has been unfolding for decades. Highlighting the pain and trauma this catastrophe has brought to the Palestinian people, she stressed “it is time to recognize that the suffering of civilians on both sides will end only when Israelis and Palestinians are able to live side by side in their own sovereign, independent States, in peace, security and dignity.”
Gaza Has Become ‘Humanitarian Hellscape’
Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, pointed out that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to the world’s longest refugee crisis — more than 5 million registered Palestine refugees are spread across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. “It is a crisis that remains unresolved, shaping identity, lives and the enduring pursuit of justice and self-determination for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Since the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and continued holding of hostages, over 1.9 million Palestinians — more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s population and almost 80 per cent of them Palestine refugees from 1948 — have been forcibly displaced, many repeatedly, some 10 times or more. In parallel, since early 2025, over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the occupied West Bank due to Israeli military operations, most of them from Palestinian refugee camps in northern West Bank, he added.
Gaza has become a “humanitarian hellscape”, he said, calling for unrestricted humanitarian access and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza. Steps must also be taken to reverse settlement-expansion and unilateral steps that undermine the Palestinian Authority. As the promise of a two-State dwindles to the point of disappearance, he said, the upcoming Assembly-mandated International Conference in June offers an important opportunity to support a viable two-State solution. “Let us build political momentum towards that end,” he stressed.
Delegates Urge Immediate Ceasefire, Highlight National Efforts to Resolve Situation
When the floor opened for discussion, several delegates, including the representatives of Jordan, Namibia, Bolivia, Türkiye, Malaysia, Senegal, Pakistan and Cuba, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause, calling for an immediate ceasefire, as well as the realization of the two-State solution.
Speakers also highlighted their national efforts to resolve the situation. Egypt’s delegate noted that his country is part of the mediation efforts to end Israel’s brutal war. While working towards the release of hostages and detainees, Egypt is also working on the Arab recovery and reconstruction plan for Gaza.
The representative of Saudi Arabia, who said the Palestinian question is a principal issue for his country, highlighted the upcoming International Conference in June, which will be co-chaired by his Government. Namibia’s delegate said that Conference is an opportunity to restore justice and peace to the Palestinian people.
China’s delegate was one of many who warned that the continued expansion of settlements is diminishing the chance of realizing a two-State solution. The major Powers with influence over the parties must take tangible actions to ease the situation, he said. Guyana’s delegate said the occupation remains an affront for all that the United Nations was built on. She stressed the need for accountability, as did the delegates of Nicaragua and South Africa.
Film Screening and Civil Society Consultations
The Committee went on to hold a film screening of From Ground Zero, which is an anthology of short films from Gaza, as well as consultations with civil society organizations under the theme “International Action towards Ending the Nakba and Realizing the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People”.