The United Nations for the first time is declaring May 15 “Nakba day,” even as the spokesman for Secretary-General Guterres attempted Thursday to deny that the word is part of the official language of the world body. 

The most noted May 15 event involving the Mideast harks back to 1948, when Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, declared the establishment of an independent Jewish state. Armies of neighboring Arab countries then joined the long struggle of their brethren in the newborn state, and launched a war to destroy it. They now commemorate Israel’s birth as a “Nakba,” or catastrophe. 

The UN spokesman’s office on Thursday published the text of a speech by Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari “on the commemoration of the anniversary of the Nakba.” In the UN daily press briefing, the Sun asked Mr. Guterres’s deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, if this is the first time the word has been used by UN officials. 

“Has the UN ever before referred to May 15 as the Nakba, or is that the new item on the calendar?” the Sun asked. “That’s not our title,” Mr. Farhan said. “That’s the title of the sponsors of the event.”

Here is the rest of the exchange, according to the UN spokesman office’s transcript:

The Sun: “So does the UN confer legitimacy to the commemoration of May 15 as a Nakba?”

Spokesman: “No. What I can tell you is that we’ve spoken at these events before. This is a yearly event, and we’ve been there.”

The Sun: “My question is about the word Nakba. Is May 15 a Nakba according to the UN?”

Spokesman: “This is a title brought in by different member states of the UN. That’s their choice.”

The Sun: “It’s a UN official [who made the speech] and you sent a memo highlighting it.”

Spokesman: “No. What I can tell you is that, we go to the events on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. And for anything further on the event, you can talk to the members of the committee.” 

It took a reporter for the Palestinian newspaper al Quds al Arabi, Abdelhamid Siyam, to set the record straight. The UN General Assembly recently “adopted a resolution marking May 15 as a Nakba day,” he said, adding that “this is the first year they celebrate that.” So, he told the spokesman, “you cannot argue yes or no. There is a resolution.” 

It turns out, then, that the UN indeed now commemorates the date on which one of its earliest member states was founded as a “catastrophe.” No other UN member suffers such characterization of its birth. “I’m well aware that this is a General Assembly resolution,” Mr. Haq ended up saying after attempting to smooth over the insult to Israel.