United Nations raises Palestinian flag in New York

“As long as Israel refuses to cease settlement activities and to release of the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with our agreements, they leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements”, Mr Abbas said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Abbas presided over the packed ceremony in the rose garden after the Palestinian leader launched a searing attack at the General Assembly on Israel’s continued occupation.

The red, black, white and green Palestinian flag was then hoisted under dark clouds that threatened rain.

That will lead to the unfurling of the Palestinian flag “in its proper place – among the family of nations as a sovereign member state of the United Nations”, Ban said. The crowd broke out into cheers when it started to flutter in the gentle breeze.

In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, hundreds of people gathered to watch the flag-raising and Abbas’s speech, cheering loudly and waving flags as he spoke.

The Palestinians campaigned for a General Assembly resolution, overwhelmingly approved on September 10, that allows United Nations observer states to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 U.N. member states.

Australia was one of eight countries to vote against the flag being raised during a vote earlier this year.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly, President Abbas said that the terms of the Oslo Agreement of 1994, and subsequent agreements with Israel, had been undermined by successive governments.

“Palestine, which is an observer state in the United Nations, deserves full recognition and full membership”, he said.

Published by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, the poll also found that 51 percent of Palestinians no longer believed in the two-state solution, which Abbas has clung on to – with the belief that only negotiations with the Israelis can yield a Palestinian state.

A majority favor a return to armed uprising in the absence of peace talks and two-thirds want Abbas to resign.

Abbas’ speech was a far cry from earlier comments that he would drop a “bombshell” in his UNGA address.

“We therefore declare that we can not continue to be bound by these agreements and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying power”. He said the only way to deal with incidents like it is to fight terrorism, and he called on the worldwide community to press Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to act.

The Quartet stressed that the Palestinian commitment to building institutions, improving governance and strongly opposing incitement and violence in all forms remains critically important to laying the groundwork for a viable independent Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel.

In an impassioned speech interspersed with bouts of dramatic silence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned the Iran nuclear deal as empowering Tehran to spread unrest in the Mideast while leaving the country capable of making an atomic bomb. The last round of negotiations collapsed in April 2014.

In a shift, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League have been invited to the meeting, along with the foreign ministers of Russian Federation, the United States and European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.