Human rights groups urged on Wednesday the United Nations to reconsider its Resolution 181 passed some 70 years ago and which called for the partition of Palestine.
A rally staged by the Coordination Commission to Commemorate al-Nakba outside the UNESCO’s headquarters in Gaza condemned the United Nations Resolution 181 passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947.
Speaking on behalf of the commission Islamic Jihad leader Ahmed al-Mudalal strongly condemned a recent statement by Israel’s Minister of Social Equality Gila Gamliel who has called for the establishment of a Palestinian state in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Al-Mudalal stressed the Palestinians’ commitment to their land and rights adding that the Palestinians will not accept to live anywhere in the world but in Palestine.
The commission hailed Egypt for refusing Gamliel’s proposal.
The statement delivered by the Islamic Jihad leader said the Israelis shall have no sovereignty over Palestine and that the Palestinian people and resistance will keep up their anti-occupation struggle until every single inch of their motherland is liberated.
It further stressed the need for the Palestinians to heal all internal rifts and combine forces in the face of the underway conspiracies weaved by the Israelis and their allies.
The statement appealed to the UN to deactivate the partition resolution among other documents giving Israel green light to grab hold of occupied land.
Addressing the Palestinian Authority (PA) chaired by Mahmoud Abbas the commission pushed for serious steps to criminalize the Israeli occupation and mobilize the world’s support for the Palestinian cause.
Head of Hamas’s Refugee Department Issam Udwan also held the UN responsible for the repercussions of the Palestinian Nakba saying Resolution 181 led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians and that two thirds of the Palestinian refugees were forced out of their land in favor of Jewish settlers.
Udwan urged the UN to reconsider the resolution and work on restoring Palestinians’ right to return to their motherland.
At the same time the Turkish Association to Support Palestine—FIDDER—lashed out at the resolution and urged the international community to take up its historical and ethical responsibilities as regards the pledge.
FIDDER highlighted the need to unravel the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and cancel Israel’s membership at UN-run bodies.
FIDDER said Resolution 181 blatantly breaches the UN Charter and has led to the displacement of over 900000 Palestinians since 1948.
FIDDER added that the resolution enabled Israeli gangs to set up roots in Palestine with the help of the British Empire.
FIDDER appealed to the mass media to draw the world’s attention to the ceaseless crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against the native owners of the land—the Palestinians—and to sound the alarm over the calamitous fallouts of the UN’s partition resolution.
Passed in 1947 Resolution 181 called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (Latin: “separate entity”) to be governed by a special international regime. The resolution which was considered by the Jewish community in Palestine to be a legal basis for the establishment of Israel was rejected by the Arab countries.
