Palestine gets the honour to hoist flag in the UN for the first time
Despite being a non-member state of the United Nations, Palestine has been given an opportunity to fly its flag high for the first time at the UN General Assembly headquarters in New York on Wednesday afternoon.
The General Assembly accepted a resolution drafted by Palestine, asking to allow the non-member states also to fly their flags besides the fully member states of the UN. The resolution was supported by 119 countries with 45 abstentions and eight nations against, including Australia, the U.S. and Israel.
UN witnessed the historic flag hoisting under the cloudy sky just after the state’s President Mahmoud Abbas finished his speech, in which he confirmed that Palestine was no longer bound by the Oslo Peace Accords with Israel. “They leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them,” Abbas said during his speech at the General Assembly, accusing Israel of not cooperating with Palestine on the Oslo Accords.
“We therefore declare that we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying power, because the status quo cannot continue.”
At the flag hoisting ceremony, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that it was the day of pride for the Palestinians, which has come with a new hope. “Now is the time to restore confidence by both Israelis and Palestinians for a peaceful settlement and, at last, the realisation of two states for two peoples,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Abbas’ speech as deceitful. He defended his nation by saying that Israel is very strict when it comes to maintaining status quo and is willing to continue with the agreements.
The Oslo Peace Accords contain a series of agreement between Israel and Palestine, signed by both the parties in the 1990s to make sure peace is maintained between the nations.
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