In a symbolic gesture, the Palestinians on Tuesday raised their flag for the first time over the PLO diplomatic mission in Washington, as they continue a push for international recognition that is complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to restart stalled Middle East peace talks.
At a brief ceremony, the Palestinian’s chief envoy to the United States, Maen Areikat, hoisted the red, green, white and black banner outside the PLO General Delegation office. He expressed hope it would help in the Palestinian quest to win support for independence with or without a peace deal with Israel.
“We are proud to see the flag,” Areikat said. “It’s about time that this flag that symbolizes the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and statehood is raised in the United States. We hope that this will help in the international efforts to provide recognition for the Palestinian state.”
The envoy acknowledged the flag-raising has no practical effect for U.S. policy but said it was an “important, significant step” toward seeking recognition from the United States and others. He said he hoped the Obama administration would move to recognize Palestine as an independent state, which the United States has said it would do only after a negotiated peace deal is reached with Israel.
Palestinian statehood is “an international interest, a U.S. interest and in the interest of all the parties in the Middle East,” Areikat said.
The PLO office has had permission from the State Department to fly the flag since last August, when the mission was upgraded from a representative office to a general delegation but had been awaiting permission from the building’s owner before displaying it, he said.
The United States opposes any unilateral Palestinian move to establish statehood, but several other nations, notably in Latin America, recently have recognized Palestine, and the Palestinians are seeking broader support to bring statehood before the United Nations in September.
(Source: Canadian Press)
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palestinians already have a flag, its the jordanian flag, dna results prove jordanians are 100% exact same people as the palestinians, end of story. also there isnt much difference from egypt all the way to syria so whats the discussion they have over 20 flags and over 20 places they can go. they can leave and nobody dies, we have nowhere to go so they should prevent death of innocent people just like we would. end the double standards, they can move over no big deal, we’ve moved over ENOUGH.