In Israel and the Occupied Territories, Palestinians marked the 61st anniversary of Al-Nakba Thursday, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians maintain their national aspirations despite more than six decades of dispossession and occupation.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “We are clinging to our national beliefs to establish our own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for refugees in the framework of a just and agreed solution based on UN Resolution 194.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, is set to meet with President Obama at the White House on Monday.