Why 29 November? On that day in 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the partition of Palestine.
At the founding commemoration of the international day, the then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim expressed a view echoed by successive secretaries-general that “events of these last years have made the world painfully aware that the Palestinian people and the recognition and implementation of their rights are the key to any solution in the Middle East.”
Watch how the UN created the international day here, part of our #ThrowbackThursday series showcasing epic moments across UN history, cultivated from the UN Audiovisual Library’s 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings.
Visit UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archive playlist here and our Podcast Classics series here. Join us next Thursday for another dive into history.
When this picture was taken at Khan Younis in 1955, the tented refugee camp in the Gaza Strip had just been replaced by cement block houses. These youngsters were happy to have more weatherproof shelter against the summer sun and winter rains.