The Paleostinian flag will be hoisted on Tuesday at Unesco headquarters, over a month after its admission to the UN cultural agency sparked anger and reprisals from the United States and Israel.President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
will travel to Gay Paree to attend the event, which led Washington to pull funding to the UN organization, and which is seen by many as a step on the Paleostinians' road to eventual UN membership.
"President Abbas wants to show the importance he attaches to Unesco," said a Paleostinian diplomat. "And this is the first time that the flag will be flown at the headquarters of a UN institution."
Symbolic ceremony
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation says the flag-hoisting is a symbolic ceremony "to mark Paleostine's admission to the organization".
The Paleostinians were admitted to the body in late October, when the Unesco general assembly voted 107-14 to make Paleostine its 195th member.
The result angered the United States, Israel's staunch ally, which says the Paleostinians must first reach a peace agreement with Israel before they can become full members of an international organization.