Under the auspices of the President of the Lebanese Republic, General Michel Suleiman, UN-ESCWA holds an official ceremony tomorrow at 10:00 AM, to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (29 November), at the UN House, Riad Solh Avenue-Beirut.

The ceremony will be attended by a quorum of official, diplomatic, media, economic and cultural figures. Statements will be delivered by UN Under-Secretary-General and UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader Omar AlDafa, representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon Abbas Zaki, and Minister of State Khaled Qabbani, representing President Suleiman. Chief of the UN-ESCWA Conference Services Section Ahed Sboul, will be the master of ceremony during the event.

Following the ceremony, a three-fold cultural exhibition will be inaugurated that includes paintings by Palestinian children in Lebanon, and photographs taken by them (Lahza) in the refugee camps. In addition, Palestinian Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs) will hold a handicrafts bazaar.

UN-ESCWA had prepared a publication entitled “One More Year” on the situation of Palestinians inside and outside Palestine, as well as some TV spots broadcast on Lebanese television stations. The publication will be distributed during the event.

The General Assembly designated 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in its resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977. The date of 29 November was chosen because on that day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), known as the Partition Resolution, which provided for the establishment in Palestine of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State,” with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (separated body) under a special international regime. The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People provides an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine is still unresolved.