Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan addresses a protest condemning the ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.’ Photo: Shahar Azran

Iran, Turkey, South Africa and Venezuela were among several countries that issued stridently anti-Israel statements on Monday to mark the United Nations-sponsored “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

Initiated in 1978 under the auspices of the UN’s Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People — itself part of a dedicated, multi-million dollar “Division for Palestinian Rights” that operates within the UN Secretariat — the annual solidarity day on Nov. 29 is billed as an opportunity for member states to express support for the Palestinians. On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the partition of the territory of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, a proposal roundly rejected by the Arab League.

In a message sent to Monday’s ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York, Iran’s hardline Islamist President Ebrahim Raisi blasted what he termed “more than seven decades of occupation of the Palestinian territory by the Zionist regime.”

Using the anti-Zionist terminology favored by opponents of Israel’s sovereign existence, the Iranian statement called for a “referendum” on the dissolution of the Jewish state — a member state of the UN since 1949.

“We attach great importance to the international community’s responsibility, especially the United Nations, in ending the occupation of Palestine and assisting the Palestinian people in realizing their inalienable rights through a referendum based on democratic principles and international law as the most democratic and principled solution to the Palestinian crisis,” the Iranian statement said.

In a separate message to Monday’s event at the UN, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the international body to increase pressure on Israel for its alleged human rights violations.

“The only way to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue is to end the Israeli occupation,” Erdogan declared. “We will continue to work together with the brotherly Palestinian people for the establishment of an independent, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

A more conciliatory tone was sounded by the European Union. In its statement to Monday’s event, the EU reiterated its “unequivocal position that rocket fire, including the launching of incendiary balloons and other attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups are unacceptable.” The EU statement also praised Israel for its steps “to ease some restrictions on Gaza.”

Outside the UN building, protestors led by the Israeli envoy to the UN slammed the event for “ignoring the founding of Israel” as well as “shockingly erasing stories of massacres and expulsions of 850,000 Jews from the Arab countries and Iran.”

The protest, organized in tandem with the World Jewish Congress (WJC), included large signs displayed on trucks showing the scenes of the persecution of Jews in Arab countries following Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. “Don’t erase Jewish history,” the text on the signs read.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambasador to the UN, remarked that the world body had “the audacity to hold a solidarity event for the Palestinians on the anniversary of the Palestinians’ own decision to choose violence.”

Said Erdan: “And on the day that the Palestinians chose violence, the UN also dares to advance the outrageous, false ‘right of return,’ a demand that would lead to the total obliteration of the Jewish state.”