JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel has complained to the United Nations over a Palestinian proposal to raise its flag at the international organization’s headquarters in New York.
The flags of the 193 U.N. member states are flown outside U.N. headquarters and other U.N. offices around the world. Those of the two U.N. non-member observer states, the Vatican and Palestine, are not flown.
The Palestinian Authority is “attempting to swiftly change longstanding U.N. tradition in order to score political points,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said in a letter dated Tuesday that was sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the General Assembly president.
He added, “Not even one round of informal consultations was held before the resolution was formally submitted to the secretariat.”
The Vatican has not co-sponsored the initiative and has no plans to fly its flag at the United Nations, Prosor said.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press that a revised draft of the proposal requesting that “observer states maintaining permanent observer missions will raise their flags after member states” will be circulated to member states on Thursday and that a vote of the General Assembly could be held on Sept. 10.
The proposal would give the secretary-general 20 days to raise the flag of Palestine.
The United States told AP that it opposes the flag-raising proposal.
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