Committee to Hold Special Meeting on 30 November to Observe

International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People

The Palestinian Rights Committee will hold a special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 10 a.m. on Monday, 30 November 2009, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.

Speakers at the observance will include the Chairman of the Committee -- known formally as the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People -- the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General, the President of the Security Council, a representative of Palestine, the Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, several intergovernmental organizations, and a representative of civil society.  The meeting will also hear a keynote presentation on the question of Jerusalem by Walid Khalidi, a renowned Palestinian historian and General Secretary of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington, D.C.  The meeting will be webcast.

All Member States and Observer Missions have been invited to attend the special meeting, as have organizations of the United Nations family, intergovernmental and civil society bodies.  The proceedings, including the texts of messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people received in connection with the observance, will be published in a special bulletin of the United Nations Secretariat’s Division for Palestinian Rights.

The Committee has arranged for the screening of a film entitled Jerusalem –- The East Side Story in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 1 p.m. on 30 November.  Also under the Committee’s auspices, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will present a photo exhibition, “The United Nations and the Palestine Refugees, 60 Years Later”, for which an opening ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. the same day, in the North-East Gallery of the Public Lobby of the General Assembly building.

Expected to speak at the opening will be Paul Badji (Senegal), Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; Sylvie Lucas (Luxemburg), President of the Economic and Social Council; a representative of Palestine; and Mr. Andrew Whitley, Director of the UNRWA Liaison Office in New York.