Abu Taher
The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2025 has unfolded as one of the most dramatic and emotionally charged in decades. It was not simply another diplomatic gathering; it became a stage where long-suppressed truths about Palestine, Israel, and international complicity were laid bare before the world.
In one of the most striking moments, the Colombian president, after embracing the Brazilian leader in solidarity, delivered a historic and unapologetic speech. He compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to the atrocities of the Nazi regime, calling the ongoing conflict nothing short of a “massacre.” But his speech did not stop at condemnation. He called for the formation of an international liberation force to free Palestine—significantly excluding Arab states, whom he criticized for confining themselves to token statements of sympathy. Colombia even pledged 20,000 soldiers to such a mission, declaring that no ship carrying weapons should ever be allowed to reach Israel.
For the first time in years, a Latin American leader was not only denouncing Israel’s crimes but also committing tangible support for Palestinian liberation.
UNGA 80 opened on 9 September 2025, and the high-level General Debate commenced on 23 September 2025. Several European nations—France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Andorra, and Belgium—formally recognized Palestine during this session. Their move added to a growing tide: more than 150 out of 200 UN member states have now recognized Palestine. In their unfolding speeches, they stressed for end of Gaza war and humanitarian crises, but unfortunately their versions lack of pledge for sovereign Palestine state.
However, this recognition wave underscores how isolated the United States and Israel have become. While the world increasingly acknowledges Palestine as a state, Washington continues to provide Israel with diplomatic cover, military support, and political legitimacy. The US remains willing to justify even the most heinous of crimes under the pretext of “Israel’s security.”
For Palestinians, recognition in speeches and resolutions often feels hollow compared to the relentless realities of occupation. Across the West Bank, Israeli settlements continue to spread illegally, in open violation of international law. These settlements are not neutral towns; they are segregated, fortified enclaves constructed on stolen land. Palestinian families are violently displaced to make way for them, their homes demolished, their orchards uprooted.
The latest round of violence has been catastrophic. Reports from Gaza estimate nearly 100,000 lives lost, many of them women and children. Bombardment has flattened entire neighborhoods, while a blockade has cut off food, medicine, and electricity. Famine and preventable disease now claim more lives daily.
And yet, every time calls for a ceasefire grow louder, the United States intervenes—not to end the war logically, but to shield Israel. Ceasefire proposals, crafted by Washington, typically dodge the fundamental issue: the long-denied two-state solution and the right of Palestinians to live freely on their own land.
At UNGA 80, US President Donald Trump presented what he styled as a peace plan for Gaza. His proposal envisioned: Gaza becoming a “de-radicalized, terror-free zone.”; Israeli withdrawal contingent on Palestinian compliance; An international transitional authority, not elected by Palestinians, to govern Gaza; Amnesty for Hamas members only if they disarmed or agreed to exile; Prisoner exchanges and humanitarian aid tied to Israeli approval; and Gaza’s reconstruction managed as an economic zone with foreign investors.
At first glance, the plan appeared pragmatic. Yet, upon closer examination, it stripped Palestinians of their most fundamental right: sovereignty. It reduced Gaza to an enclave of controlled dependency, governed by outsiders and rebuilt not as a homeland, but as a monitored economic project. For many, the plan was less about peace and more about pacification.
The recent recognition of Palestine by more nations is a diplomatic victory, but it is also incomplete. What is being recognized today is not all of historic Palestine, but fragments—Gaza and portions of the West Bank. This effectively overlooks decades of dispossession, massacres, and the Nakba itself. It risks rewriting history as though the Palestinians’ suffering began only in recent years, rather than in 1948.
To Palestinians, true justice means more than international recognition of borders—it means acknowledgment of their right of return, restitution for stolen lands, and accountability for crimes committed against them. Anything less is an erasure of their history and sacrifices.
Still, the tide of history is turning. Israel, once able to project itself as a besieged democracy, is now increasingly seen for what it is: an apartheid state and a colonial power. Its global image has collapsed under the weight of its own actions. Once masked as a victim, Israel is now identified by much of the world as the perpetrator of systematic injustice.
The events at UNGA 80 signal a broader awakening. The recognition of Palestine is not only about statehood; it is about affirming the humanity of a people long denied justice. It is about exposing the impunity of an empire built on displacement and violence.
But today, something new is emerging: a global refusal to look away. Israel’s mask has fallen, its empire of impunity shaken. And though the road to justice remains long, Palestine has once again become the beating heart of the world’s conscience.
