The "Return Key" pin provokes anger in Tel Aviv.. and the occupation's Foreign Ministry accuses Abbas of seeking a "new tsunami."

A key-shaped pin worn by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on his jacket during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly has provoked the ire of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which launched a sharp attack, considering the symbol to have the goal of 'erasing Israel' and seeking to create a 'new flood' to destroy the Jewish state.

This diplomatic spat brings to the forefront the deep conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli narratives, where the 'key' represents a fundamental symbol in Palestinian memory, while Tel Aviv sees it as an existential threat.

President Abbas appeared wearing the key pin during his speech delivered via video on September 22, on the sidelines of the United Nations meetings. The key is a traditional and deeply significant Palestinian symbol, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians from their homes and lands in 1948, known as the 'Nakba', and embodies the Palestinian people's insistence on the right of return to those lands.

Although Abbas's speech called for an end to the conflict and the establishment of lasting peace based on good neighborly relations between two states, the Israeli occupation's response focused entirely on the symbolic significance of the pin.

In a post on its official account on the 'X' platform, the Israeli Foreign Ministry described the key symbol as 'unequivocal in its goal of erasing Israel from the face of the earth.' It added that 'Abbas's key represents the old plan of the Palestine Liberation Organization: two states for one Palestinian people and the destruction of the Jewish state.'

The ministry went further, accusing Abbas of 'wanting to create his own flood', referring to the flood of Al-Aqsa, by returning millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees to what it considers 'Israeli' lands, with the aim of 'demographically destroying the Jewish state.'

In its response, the Israeli Foreign Ministry presented a counter-narrative, pointing out that during the 'War of Independence' in 1948, the number of Jews who were displaced from Arab countries was greater than the number of Palestinians who left their homes.