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Original article: Cuando la fuerza prima sobre la ley: 78 años de una Nakba que no termina

By Vera Baboun, Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Chile

Today, marking seventy-eight years since the Nakba, we face not only a historical tragedy but also the clearest demonstration that when power overrides law, the international order disintegrates.

The events of 1948 are not relics of the past. That systematic plan of ethnic cleansing—resulting in the destruction of over 530 Palestinian villages and the forced displacement of 70% of our population—paved the way for a sophisticated system of occupation and apartheid that has never ceased and continues to violate the fundamental tenets of International Law.

After World War II, International Humanitarian Law was created to ensure that brute force could never again determine the fate of peoples. However, in Palestine, impunity has become the norm.

More than 1,100 resolutions from the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the United Nations Human Rights Council condemning the occupation have gone unheeded. When the International Court of Justice declared the entirety of the Israeli occupation illegal in July 2024—not just the wall, but every settlement, every restriction, every meter of territory seized by force—Israel simply ignored it. This is the most compelling proof that without sanctions, International Law is not law; it is merely a suggestion.

The same logic of force is currently ravaging Gaza. The ceasefire in October 2025 could not halt the slaughter: since then, Israel has killed 854 more Palestinians, while the total death toll exceeds 72,551, including 21,283 children who were denied the right to wake up one more day. Over 38,000 women and girls (22,000 women and 16,000 girls) have lost their lives in an attack aimed at shattering the very heart of our society.

Additionally, there is a suffocating territorial redesign. Disregarding all norms and international agreements, the occupying power has militarily occupied 64% of the Gaza Strip by imposing the so-called “Orange Line”. This dispossession confines 2 million Palestinians to just 36% of the territory, forcing them to survive in extreme overcrowding.

It is a brutal confinement where the systematic denial of humanitarian aid and the complete absence of basic sanitary conditions are used as weapons of extermination.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Nakba advances differently: through the deliberate fragmentation of territory. Today, over 750,000 settlers live in illegal settlements, directly violating Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory.

The separation wall, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice over 20 years ago, remains as proof that impunity can last decades. It is a wall that denies our territorial contiguity and nullifies one of the most fundamental principles of International Law: the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This disregard for legality and morality has reached a new extreme with the institutionalization of the “Death Penalty Law”. The words of the occupation’s security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, say it all: “As someone who took everything from them, I also want to take their lives. This is correct, this is just, this is the truth.” Here lies, unabashed, the conviction of someone who believes that force grants rights above any treaty or human convention.

Amid this reality, we deeply appreciate Chile’s stance. Defending International Law, supporting the Palestinian people’s right to sovereignty and self-determination, and rejecting the notion that force can impose its will over law is not a fleeting policy; it is a historical state conviction shared by different generations.

Chile understands that allowing force to prevail in Palestine endangers the security of all peoples around the world.

Nearly eight decades ago, it was believed that “the old would die and the young would forget.” Today, after 78 years of resistance, it is clear that this calculation has failed. Palestinian identity cannot be erased by walls or military decrees. It lives in the memory of every family and in the determination of each new generation defending their roots.

78 years later, Palestine remains standing. Our mere existence is the greatest act of resistance against the primacy of force over law. We will not leave. Our roots are deeper than their destruction.

Vera Baboun, Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Chile

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