The Palestinian Mission in London held a flag raising ceremony on Monday, after the UK formally recognized Palestinian statehood this weekend, along with Australia and Canada.

The head of the Palestinian mission in Britain, Husam Zomlot, unveiled the flag at a site which will will become the Palestinian embassy in London.

The UK has had a historic role in the politics of the Middle East over the past 100 years, having carved up the region following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

As part of that carve-up, Britain became the governing power of what was then Palestine.

It was also the author of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which backed the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people.”

However, the second part of the declaration has been largely neglected over the decades.

It noted “that nothing shall be done, nothing which may prejudice the civil and religious rights” of the Palestinian people.

Hours before French President Emmanuel Macron officially recognizes the state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly, some French mayors have defied government orders and flown Palestinian flags on town halls.

Mathieu Hanotin, the mayor of Saint-Denis, the Paris suburb hosting the national soccer stadium, had a Palestinian flag raised alongside the French and European Union flags atop the Saint-Denis city hall.

Accompanied by the Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure and local officials, the Mayor told journalists afterward that this was a one day gesture that was in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Faure said this was a flag of a people facing what he labelled as “genocide” and was not a Hamas flag.

Yonathan Arfi, the President of Representative council of French Jewish institutions, criticized the displays as divisive, and claimed they could be dangerous for the French Jewish community.

The French interior ministry said the raising of the flag on public buildings went against the principle of neutrality in public services.