Disdain and disrespect
While it is a good thing that the United States and other countries boycotted the recent UN commemoration of the “Nakba” (“US Shuns UN’s ‘Nakba Day’ event over UN anti-Israel bias,” May 17), the sad truth is that the UN routinely panders to the most extreme Palestinian narrative that considers Israel’s creation a “catastrophe.” Despite having given international legal legitimacy to the creation of Israel, the UN has consistently treated Israel with disdain and disrespect.
The most toxic expression of this attitude has been the maintenance – for some 50 years now – of a trio of UN bodies that target Israel for constant defamation and criticism.
While the “Nakba” program at the General Assembly may well be the first to feature that particular word, UN actions across many years incorporate implicit and explicit endorsement of the concept that Israel’s creation was a “disaster.”
Indeed, the very UN institution that sponsored the “Nakba” event, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) also plays a leading role in organizing an annual “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” that presents the one-sided extreme narrative of Palestinian victimhood. Its activities and the materials it produces are replete with references to the “Nakba.” The event held at the UN to mark 75 years since the supposed catastrophe of Israel’s creation was odious and despicable, but unfortunately, it was not unprecedented.
The Abraham Accords prove that Arab and Muslim countries can achieve peace with Israel based on mutual interests and mutual respect. Hopefully, the Palestinians will join this circle of peace in the near future. But this will never happen through the convening of propaganda festivals and the peddling of false narratives. DANIEL S. MARIASCHIN
RICHARD P. SCHIFTER B’nai B’rith International
I suppose what our enemies mean by the catastrophe of Nakba Day is that it was a catastrophe they didn’t manage to wipe out the Jewish population then living in Israel. If the Arab states had been victorious, there is little doubt that this would have happened.
As to the ridiculous statement by Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas about the Temple Mount, rejecting a Jewish connection, it is perhaps a good thing that this inanity only serves to highlight the other lies.
GERALD NORMIE