TEHRAN- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a statement on Tuesday describing Nakba (Catastrophe) Day as one of the most agonizing “disasters in human history”.

Nakba Day marks the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and destruction of more than 400 Palestinian villages by Israeli occupiers.

The statement by the president was issued on the 75th anniversary of Nakba Day, when Israel was established came into existence. 

The Nakba is generally commemorated on 15 May.

In a commentary on May 15 headlined “Nakba anniversary highlights continued Israeli repression”, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) quoted the Palestinian human rights group al-Haq as saying, “The legacy of the Nakba events is that about two-thirds of the Palestinian people became refugees,” while Israel “imposed a system of institutionalized racial discrimination over Palestinians who remained on the land.” 

President Raisi insisted on the Islamic Republic’s long-held policy that Iran will continue to back the Palestinians in their struggle to liberate their homeland from the occupation of Israeli occupiers.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates its solidity with this oppressed nation and emphasizes supporting the cause and legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people in the path of liberating the occupied territories and forming an independent and unified government in the entire historical land of Palestine with the capital of the holy Quds,” Raisi said in part of his statement.

The text of the message is as follows:

May 14, 1948 is a reminder of one of the most painful tragedies in human history. This ominous phenomenon caused the longest and saddest political and human crisis in the last one hundred years in the world and widespread insecurity in the West Asian region, the organized occupation and cruel usurpation of the Palestinian land, the killing of the oppressed Palestinians and the violation of the most obvious human rights of the original inhabitants of this holy land in 75 years.

Since the day that has been rightly named "Nakba Day", the Zionist regime has caused the displacement of millions of Palestinians, the targeted assassinations of Palestinian activists and ordinary people, the destruction of their homes, farms, and places of business and the violation of fundamental principles of international law, and it is obvious that the western supporters of this regime, especially the United States of America, are complicit in its crimes.

The Zionist regime continues its extreme and inhumane actions against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the desecration of Islamic sanctities in the holy Quds in recent months, and in recent days, with a large-scale attack on various areas of the Gaza Strip, especially residential buildings, and targeted assassination of Palestinian citizens to escape from increasing and multi-layered internal crises.

These crimes, which have led to the martyrdom of dozens of civilians, including Palestinian women and children, are the concrete manifestation of state terrorism and mass murder, which has been the constant approach of this regime for the past 75 years.

For more than 18 years, the residents of the Gaza Strip have been living in the world's largest natural prison under cruel siege in a major humanitarian crisis. The continuation of the illegal and inhumane siege of the Gaza Strip and the ongoing crimes of the Zionist regime against the people of this region is a gross and obvious violation of the fundamental principles of international law, human rights and humanitarian rights, and unfortunately, the silence and inaction of the self-proclaimed human rights activists only lead to the arrogance of more than apartheid regime has been done before.

While strongly condemning the crimes of the Zionist apartheid regime against the Palestinian nation and the nations of the region, and while emphasizing the need for immediate, effective and deterrent action by the responsible international institutions, led by the United Nations, to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime and support the Palestinian nation, the Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates its solidity with this oppressed nation and emphasizes supporting the cause and legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people in the path of liberating the occupied territories and forming an independent and unified government in the entire historical land of Palestine with the capital of the holy Quds.

At the end, I re-emphasize the Islamic Republic of Iran's democratic plan for the political solution of the Palestinian occupation crisis based on holding a public referendum with the participation of all the main inhabitants of the Palestinian land, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, in order to exercise the right to self-determination and to determine the type of political system.