For the first time, a symposium marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba was hosted at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) Headquarters in Paris.

The symposium was organized by the Arab Group of UNESCO in cooperation with the permanent delegation of the State of Palestine to UNESCO and in conjunction with the meetings of organization’s Executive Council, during which two resolutions in favor of Palestine were adopted.

The symposium was attended by a large crowd of Arab and foreign ambassadors and diplomats accredited to UNESCO.

Speakers at the event, including the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to UNESCO, Mounir Anistas, Arab league representatives and others talked about the Nakba of 1948 and its impact over the years.

Anistas, thanked the attendees for accepting the invitation to this symposium, the importance of which stems from the fact that it is the first time for an intellectual and cultural symposium on the Palestinian Nakba to be organized at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Every year on May 15 Palestinians commemorate the day in which tens of thousands of civilians were forced out of their homes during the war that led to the creation of the self-proclaimed State of Israel in 1948.

 When Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (the catastrophe) on May 15, they are not only remembering a violent historical event that took place 75 years ago which led to the uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland; Nor just the destruction of more than 400 villages and towns and the killing of thousands others; They are also marking the fact that the Nakba did not end in 1948, but continues in different forms to this day.

This year, the Nakba Day comes amid deadly Israeli airstrikes on besieged Gaza, Jewish mob attacks and other forms of violent tactics imposed by the Zionist forces.

 Back in 1948, some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled into refugee camps that still exist in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

 Millions of Palestinians, including those displaced with the establishment of Israel, now found themselves having to live under military occupation, as well as further Israeli expansionism in their lands.

For many Palestinians, the Nakba is the first chapter in a process of land grab that began in 1948.