The Nakba and Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly,,,

Palestine will participate in the General Assembly’s commemoration of the Nakba for the first time in mid-May, and it is worth mentioning that the General Assembly places the Palestinian cause in the court of the International Court of Justice next July. The court will deal with the legitimacy of the long-term Israeli occupation on 7-25-2023, and this would It exposes the settlement's purpose of prolonging the occupation, which is a clear violation of international law.

Palestinian participation is an important opportunity, in which we hope that the Palestinian diplomatic work will focus on:

- Not being satisfied with an opinion about the nature of the occupation and directing the international system to the practical steps that follow to end the occupation.

- Directing the Court to focus on the importance of implementing the right to self-determination, as it is an obligation towards all members of the international community, and it is a commitment in which all countries have a mutual interest in achieving international peace, and here the international system has the right to take legal measures towards immediate effect without procrastination or yielding to repeated Israeli pressures under the framework of Coercive diplomacy from which the Palestinians have long suffered, especially under the current government.

The need to get rid of the commitment to the negotiation tool. Contrary to what was stated in the advisory opinion twenty years ago on the wall, the International Court of Justice cannot consider bilateral negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis as a single and sufficient tool to secure a politically independent Palestinian state, as the official negotiations have been frozen since 2014! It is necessary to direct the court to consider taking peaceful measures and peaceful means of resolving the conflict other than negotiations. It may resort to mediation, conciliation or arbitration from the methods that the court may deem appropriate, in order to avoid further delay in achieving Palestinian self-determination.

- Pressure towards draft resolutions related to settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the seriousness of settler violence and terrorism. And to put forward a draft resolution to release the administrative detainees in the occupation prisons and a decision to release the bodies of the martyrs as purely humanitarian demands.

- Serious preparation is required at a high national legal level. Palestine has submitted a request for a legal advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the nature of the Israeli colonial occupation, and the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which is the Special Committee on Political Issues, approved this decision by requesting an advisory opinion from the highest international judicial body on the matter. What is the existence of the Israeli colonial occupation in the land of the State of Palestine, including Jerusalem, as (98) countries voted in favor of the resolution, (52) countries abstained, and (17) countries voted against. The countries that voted against the resolution are: Canada, Australia, Austria, Estonia, Italy, Germany, Liberia, Micronesia, the United States, Palau, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Hungary and Israel. Hence, this requires serious preparation on the part of the Palestinians before it is too late, as the interests of states are the main driving force in their voting.

There are more than 800 General Assembly resolutions and more than 100 Security Council resolutions in favor of Palestinian rights, but they are not enforceable! The United Nations issued clear resolutions on the Palestinians' right to self-determination, on settlements, on refugees, on Jerusalem and on executions and repeated crimes, but it still obstructs the implementation of these resolutions under the justification of the need for both sides to agree on many issues. It is necessary to remind the international system of its responsibility and moral and legal obligations to implement its decisions according to the Charter of the General Assembly, and to consider the seventh item regarding the implementation of these decisions to establish peace. The decision of the International Court of Justice, if it is issued, enables the Palestinians to evade the justification for negotiations, because the issue of occupation becomes, by an international decision, a legal issue and not an issue for negotiation. There are Palestinian achievements in the international diplomatic arena whose importance we cannot ignore. On the contrary, official and public diplomatic efforts must be intensified, and this does not mean that they are the only tool. We must work in parallel and employ all available means, including legitimate self-defense, according to Resolution 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. It is necessary to employ diplomatic participation in the Assembly this month, not only to commemorate the Nakba, but to build on it.

- Dalal Erekat: Professor of Diplomacy and Strategic Planning, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Arab American University.