New York — May 15, 2026

Special Meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on “Commemorating the Seventy-Eighth (78th) Anniversary of the Nakba”

Unofficial Translation

Arab Group Statement

Delivered by Minister Plenipotentiary Essam Al-Quffah, Charge d’Affaires / Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Libya to the United Nations

Mr. President,

We gather today not merely to commemorate a historical date, but to stand before an ongoing tragedy and a wound that has remained unhealed for 78 years. In this venue, I am honored to deliver this statement on behalf of the Arab Group, expressing at the outset our appreciation for the efforts of this esteemed Committee in shedding light on the protracted suffering of the Palestinian people and defending their rights—rights recognized by divine laws and guaranteed by earthly charters, yet squandered on the ground by international double standards.

Mr. President, Excellencies,

Today, we listened to the testimonies of survivors. Perhaps the testimony of Ms. Wisam Hamada, the mother of the child martyr Hind Rajab, stands as a living and stark document of condemnation against the entire international system. The Nakba was never a passing event that occurred in 1948 and ended; rather, it is a sustainable policy of displacement and ethnic cleansing practiced daily before the eyes and ears of this Organization.

What the Palestinian people are witnessing today is not the byproduct of an “armed conflict,” but rather systematic terrorism and a blatant attempt to impose a “Second Nakba.” While the war of genocide continues in Gaza—albeit through different manifestations—we are witnessing, in tandem, a horrifying escalation in the West Bank and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem). UN reports for the first three months of this year have documented more than 540 terrorist attacks by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces, resulting in the martyrdom of 33 individuals.

This bloodshed coincides with an all-out demographic and economic war, manifested in the dangerous acceleration of settlement expansion aimed at fragmenting Palestinian lands, alongside deliberate policies of confiscating clearance revenues to undermine the Palestinian Authority and the essential requirements of life.

Within this framework, the Arab Group wishes to emphasize the following:

• First: Statements of denunciation and condemnation have outlived their purpose. We demand an immediate transition to taking coercive and binding measures to hold the occupying power accountable. International peace and security cannot be maintained while the occupation forces are permitted to act above the law.

• Second: The desired stability established by United Nations resolutions—including Security Council Resolutions 2334 and 2803, as well as the New York Declaration—will remain mere ink on paper unless accompanied by executive mechanisms that halt the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people’s rights and end the occupation at its roots.

• Third: The Arab Group condemns in the strongest terms the attempts at political and financial liquidation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This Agency is not merely a relief institution; it is a witness to the Nakba. Any compromise to its mandate is a desperate attempt to erase the refugee issue and abolish their sacred right of return. Consequently, we demand an end to all forms of systematic harassment and siege imposed on humanitarian work throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, the immediate lifting of restrictions placed on UNRWA operations, the free movement of its staff, the unrestricted flow of relief aid, and the facilitation of its mandates in compliance with relevant General Assembly resolutions, alongside ensuring its funding and protection.

Mr. President, Excellencies,

In conclusion, the Arab Group reiterates that security and stability in the region is an equation with only one solution: the complete and comprehensive end of the occupation, and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their historic, legitimate, and inalienable rights, foremost among which are the right to self-determination, the right of return, and the realization of their independent state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

Thank you, Mr. President.