The US and UK are expected to stay away from the UN General Assembly’s first-ever commemoration of Nakba Day on May 15.

Israel called on UN member states to shun the event held 75 years after Arab armies attacked the nascent Jewish state on that same day in 1948.

Israel calls to boycott the event

“Israel will not be pressured by this slanderous campaign to rewrite history, and therefore calls on all member states who truly support reconciliation not to attend this shameful and antisemitic event,” Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said.

May 15 is traditionally the day that Palestinians mark what for them is the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment and the impact of the War of Independence that led 750,000 Palestinians to flee.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the UN, along with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, NGO representatives and others. The speeches will take place during a morning session held by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, while the commemorative event with music, videos and personal testimony will be held in the UN General Assembly hall at 6 p.m.