The Palestinian flag being raised at United Nations headquarters for the first time on September 30 in New York City
The Palestinian flag being raised at United Nations headquarters for the first time on September 30 in New York City

The Palestinian flag was raised at United Nations headquarters for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, September 30, in New York City, accompanying Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the world body.

At a flag-raising ceremony, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the event a “day of pride for the Palestinian people around the world” and said it is time “to restore confidence by both Israelis and Palestinians for a peaceful settlement and, at last, the realization of two states for two peoples.”

Yet on the same day, Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly that the PA would stop abiding by the 1993 Oslo Accords, which intended to create peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas’s speech was “deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East.”

The Palestinians have “non-member observer state” status in the U.N., a designation they secured in 2012.

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