A UN-facilitated side event featured speaker-after-speaker objecting to the existence of the UN member state of Israel. UN-accredited NGO
BADIL said: "Deliberate policies of forcible transfer started in 1948...Zionists in 1948 established Israel...through attacks on civilians, massacres and other destruction and looting of property." Likewise, a Bedouin representative said: Israelis are "staying illegally in Palestine," and the Habitat International Coalition said it is "the Palestinian people who are the indigenous people." The UN-provided venue was also the scene of numerous efforts to demonize the Jewish state as racist, with speakers referring to Israel repeatedly as guilty of apartheid.