The Palestinian flag for the first time has been raised at the United Nations following an address delivered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the UN General Assembly.
The flag was raised in the rose garden at 1:00pm local time (6:00pm GMT) today as a large crowd of diplomats and reporters watched on.
Speaking to the crowd, Abbas dedicated the ceremony to “the martyrs, the prisoners and the wounded, and to those who gave their lives while trying to raise this flag”.
Hundreds of Palestinians assembled in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, where they watched the flag-raising on a large screen set up in Yasser Arafat Square.
“The mood is festive,” reported Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, adding that “families sang along to nationalistic songs and waved the Palestinian flag”.
Having been strongly criticised by Israel, the move was also opposed by the United States.
In an op-ed published at the Huffington Post, Abbas called the flag-raising a “moment of hope” and called on the international community to recognise “the independence of the state of Palestine, peacefully resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council member, Mustafa Barghouti, described the move as “an important symbolic step”.