A Palestinian woman crosses an empty street during a general strike in the West Bank city of Nablus, 11 December 2023. Palestinian activists and grassroots organizations have called for a global strike on 11 December to demand an immediate ceasefire amid the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.The call for the strike has been given by the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of major Palestinian factions, to Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and supporters across the world to participate in a strike that would include 'all aspects of public life' in a show of solidarity amid relentless Israeli attacks. Israeli forces resumed military strikes on Gaza after a week-long truce expired on 01 December. More than 18,000 Palestinians and at least 1,200 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. EPA-EFE/ALAA BADARNEH Ministers, diplomats and activists attended the Geneva event where Volker Turk invoked the spirit in which the newly-formed United Nations adopted the declaration in December 1948, in response to what the document calls "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind".
"I view today's event as a call to hope, and a call to action," said Turk, an Austrian, who said the declaration had inspired successes such as the end of racial segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa.
"At a time of so little solidarity, and so much divisive and short-sighted vision, I view it as a call to overcome polarisation."
But he also lamented failures in the struggle, such as war, referring to "millions of people suffering unbearably in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably in Gaza, and Israel" as well as famine, discrimination, repression and pollution.
Never before in the period after World War Two has the world seen so many conflicts, with 55 now active, including a war between rival military factions in Sudan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations said.
In communications about the two-day event, Turk's office has avoided the word "celebrate" in referring to the anniversary, preferring instead the term "mark".
Other U.N. officials were more downbeat than Turk.
Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said human rights were under assault more than two months after Hamas' deadly cross-border attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, followed by a retaliatory Israeli bombing campaign.
"In 2023, I should not have to issue such a statement," she said. "It is as if we have learned nothing in the past 75 years."
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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