Beyond symbolic victories: the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
An old Palestinian woman in front of her humble dwelling in the Shati Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip
Ramzy Baroud writes in The Palestine Chronicle:
Although November 29 has galvanized pro-Palestinian communities around the world for decades, a few facts and problems about this day must be acknowledged and redressed.
To start with, the history behind that specific date is quite an ominous one. Palestine was partitioned, unjustly, on November 29, 1947. There was no moral or legal basis for that partition, as communicated in UN resolution 181 (II), into a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State”.
Jewish immigrants were granted 55 percent of the total size of historic Palestine and the “Arab State”, which never actualized, was accorded the rest. Jerusalem was to be given a special legal and political status, known in Latin as corpus separatum, and was to be governed through an international regime.
A few months after that unwarranted partition, well-trained Zionist militias moved from several fronts to “secure” the borders of their promised state, only to take over half of what was designated for the future of the Palestinian state, leaving the indigenous Palestinian Arab population of that land with 22 percent of historic Palestine. In June 1967, the Israeli army conquered whatever remained of Palestine. As a direct result of both military campaigns, millions of Palestinians became refugees.
The “Arab State” granted by UN Resolution 181 was a mere pretext to create a “Jewish State”, and there were no earnest attempts to bring about an independent Palestine. A Jewish one was established upon the ruins of historic Palestine.
That date can only be remembered in infamy, not as a fond memory worthy of commemoration.
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was designated to be a day of solidarity almost exactly 30 years after the partition plan took place. It was announced in successive resolutions, firstly in December 1977 (Res. 32/40 B) and, secondly, more substance to that resolution was added in December 1979 (Res. 34/65 D).