A new year has begun at the United Nations, and this one is dedicated to Palestinian solidarity.

As promised in resolution A/68/12, 2014 is The International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (IYSPP) at the United Nations.

Thursday marked the official launch of the initiative, coinciding with the 2014 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

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Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor lambasted the event, declaring the United Nations a “mechanism which serves Palestinian propaganda.”

“Rather than putting an end to the provocative Palestinian campaign against Israel,” he continued in an official statement to the media, “the UN provides a stage for these performances.”

The purpose of the event, according to the UN website, is “to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people as a central theme, contributing to international awareness of (a) core themes regarding the question of Palestine, as prioritized by the Committee, (b) obstacles to the ongoing peace process, particularly those requiring urgent action such as settlements, Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and; (c) mobilization of global action towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on November 26 2013 by 110 votes to 7, with 56 abstentions. Australia, Canada, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and the United States voted against.

“While Palestinians seek the UN’s solidarity,” Prosor’s statement argued, “they continue to educate an entire generation to hate Israel and deny the connection between the Jewish people to their homeland. The time has come to stop this hypocrisy and ask why there is no solidarity with the Israeli victims of terrorism and their families.”