Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the United Nations to freeze Israel's membership over its aggression and occupation of Palestinian territories.

Abbas made his appeal yesterday as Palestinians marked the 75th anniversary of the Nakba ("The Catastrophe"), as they call the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from their lands after Israel's creation.

The State of Palestine has observer status at the United Nations. This year, the world organization marked the Nakba for the first time on the basis of a resolution adopted in November.

Mahmoud Abbas attended a special meeting of the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People yesterday in New York. The meeting was attended by the permanent representatives of dozens of UN member states.

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan strongly condemned the meeting. According to Israel, 32 countries, including the United States, Canada, Ukraine and 10 members of the European Union, listened to his call not to participate in the meeting.

Abbas himself, born in 1935, is among the estimated 700,14 Palestinians forced to flee their lands since the establishment of the Jewish state on May 1948, 5.

In his speech, which was very sharp, Abbas also criticized the "colonial powers." "The UK and the US bear direct responsibility, politically and morally, for the Nakba," he said.

The U.N. Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Peacebuilding, Rosemary DiCarlo, reaffirmed the United Nations' "clear position" that "the occupation must stop" because it is "illegal from the point of view of international law."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemns Israeli operation in Nablus city