Palestinians Want to Raise Flag at U.N.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/world/middleeast/palestinians-want-to-raise-flag-at-un.html

Version 0 of 1.

Palestinians want to raise their flag at the United Nations next month, a matter that could set off a diplomatic dispute in the General Assembly. Nearly 20 Arab countries, as well as Senegal and Venezuela, submitted a one-page draft resolution to the General Assembly this week calling for the organization’s two “nonmember observer states” to be granted the right to raise their flags at the gates of United Nations headquarters. The Palestinians gained nonmember observer status in 2012. The only other entity to hold that status is the Holy See. The Vatican did not add its name as a co-sponsor of the resolution. The effort has already met with a rebuke from Jewish groups like B’nai B’rith, which said in a statement that raising a flag was a “privilege” accorded to a member state and that part of the Palestinian territories is under the control of Hamas, “which is openly committed to the destruction of an existing U.N. member state, Israel.”