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UN PhotoUN / PALESTINIAN PEOPLE INALIENABLE RIGHTS
STORY: UN / PALESTINIAN PEOPLE INALIENABLE RIGHTS
TRT: 04:10
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 15 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
15 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly:
“The situation in Gaza and the West Bank has not only deteriorated, but is approaching a breaking point, exacerbated by the conflict in Gaza, the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, the increase in settler attacks against Palestinians, and the broader instability engulfing the Middle East. According to OCHA, since January 2023, 45 Palestinian communities have been fully displaced across the West Bank due to settler attacks and related access restrictions, including nine communities in 2026, with reports of women and girls increasingly exposed to sexual violence. All in violation of international law, including applicable UN resolutions.”
4. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly:
“I therefore urge Member States again, to recommit to the New York Declaration and embrace it also here in these UN halls, to redouble efforts towards the realization of the Two-State Solution. Recognizing that a future where the State of Israel and the State of Palestine can live side by side in peace, security, and mutual respect is neither a threat for Israel nor a reward for violence, but rather an investment in long-term peace, security, dignity and equal rights for all.”
6. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific:
“Excellencies, the United Nations has been clear. Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, constitute a single political and territorial unit. Addressing one while neglecting the other, entrenches fragmentation and perpetuates instability. Sustainable peace will not be achieved through humanitarian mitigation alone. Illegal measures to alter East Jerusalem's demographic composition and restrict freedom of worship and Palestinian presence threaten the city's unique religious, cultural and historical character.”
8. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific:
“If implemented comprehensively, the 20-point US plan to end the Gaza conflict, endorsed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, could offer a way forward. Addressing these outstanding issues. On this anniversary, the United Nations renews its commitment to dignity, justice and the rights of the Palestinian people.”
10. UPSOUND (Arabic) Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab:
“My child was executed with 335 bullets by the Israeli occupation army. And yet I know I'm not the only mother. Tens of thousands of mothers in Gaza have endured and continue to endure devastating losses. But their voices are unheard and their stories undocumented. Tens of thousands of children remain trapped beneath the rubble, crying out to be saved. But their small voices were silenced, either by the silence of the world or by a second airstrike.”
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“We will not leave, and we will not forget. We, the Palestinian people and our refugees did not emigrate from Palestine nor leave voluntarily in 1948, as Israel and the and the Zionist movement have claimed. We have rather been forcibly and cohesively expelled. The truth is that the Palestinian people rose repeatedly to defend their historic homeland and their existence on their land, and we still remember the Palestinian revolution of 1936 - 1939. But colonial powers provided the Zionists with every means and force necessary to seize the land of Palestine by the force of arms.”
12. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
“The situation in Gaza and the West Bank has not only deteriorated, but is approaching a breaking point, exacerbated by the conflict in Gaza, the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, the increase in settler attacks against Palestinians, and the broader instability engulfing the Middle East,” General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock told the Annual Event of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
As senior UN officials and Palestinian representatives gathered at Headquarters to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba today (15 May), citing UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs figures, Baerbock said that since January 2023, 45 Palestinian communities have been fully displaced across the West Bank due to settler violence and related access restrictions (including nine communities in 2026 alone) with reports of women and girls increasingly exposed to sexual violence. “All in violation of international law, including applicable UN resolutions,” she said.
Also addressing the event, Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, said, “Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, constitute a single political and territorial unit. Addressing one while neglecting the other, entrenches fragmentation and perpetuates instability. Sustainable peace will not be achieved through humanitarian mitigation alone. Illegal measures to alter East Jerusalem's demographic composition and restrict freedom of worship and Palestinian presence threaten the city's unique religious, cultural and historical character.”
He also said, “If implemented comprehensively, the 20-point US plan to end the Gaza conflict, endorsed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, could offer a way forward. Addressing these outstanding issues. On this anniversary, the United Nations renews its commitment to dignity, justice and the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Member States received a video testimony from Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child killed in Gaza. “My child was executed with 335 bullets by the Israeli occupation army. And yet I know I'm not the only mother. Tens of thousands of mothers in Gaza have endured and continue to endure devastating losses. But their voices are unheard and their stories undocumented. Tens of thousands of children remain trapped beneath the rubble, crying out to be saved. But their small voices were silenced, either by the silence of the world or by a second airstrike.”
Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, delivering a statement on behalf of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, rejected historical narratives that Palestinians left voluntarily in 1948. “We will not leave, and we will not forget. We, the Palestinian people and our refugees did not emigrate from Palestine nor leave voluntarily in 1948, as Israel and the and the Zionist movement have claimed. We have rather been forcibly and cohesively expelled.”
The annual commemoration, convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People aims to preserve Palestinian historical memory and examine ongoing manifestations of dispossession and displacement, while mobilizing international action toward a just and lasting solution to the Question of Palestine in accordance with international law.
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