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News > News

Israel Complains About Palestinian Flag in UN

  • A man raises the flag of Palestine

    A man raises the flag of Palestine | Photo: Reuters

Published 1 September 2015
Opinion

The Israeli government considers the flag to be a cynical move from the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor issued a complaint letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday ahead of the proposal to raise the Palestinian flag alongside the flags of U.N. member countries at the U.N. headquarters.

The proposal will be discussed and voted by the General Assembly Sept. 10. However, the Israeli official claimed in his letter that Palestine has gathered enough votes for passing the resolution.

"Once again the Palestinians prefer to score easy and meaningless points at the U.N., simply because they can," Prosor wrote. 

The letter further claims that the resolution is a cynical move from the Palestinian Authority.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it was up to the General Assembly to decide whether to raise the Palestinian flag, despite Israel's effort to block the move.

The draft would allow non-member observer states – the Vatican and Palestine – to display their flags with the 193 member states.

RELATED: Vatican Recognizes Palestinian State

According to the Israeli delegation, the Palestinians misled other states by saying they were backed by the Vatican, however other news reports say the Vatican would back the resolution proposal since it is not yet a full U.N. member.

The Vatican would seek to fly their flag just before Pope Francis addresses the General Assembly on Sept. 25.

For now, the resolution has been openly backed by 21 countries including Jordan, Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Israeli news agency said both Israel and the United States will likely rally against the proposed resolution.

The U.N. General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign State of Palestine in 2012. Palestinian authorities failed to secure a full membership. 

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