Thirty-two countries have written to a UN General Assembly committee asking the United Nations to recognise Judaism's holiest day, Yom Kippur, as an official holiday.
The letter to the assembly's Committee on Conferences, circulated yesterday, says the UN "recognises the major festivals of many of the world's main religions, yet Judaism is not represented."
"We believe that the United Nations calendar should reflect the organisation's founding principles of coexistence, justice and mutual respect," the 32 countries said. "We urge the United Nations to correct this inequity and recognise the holiest day of the Jewish faith."
Israel launched a campaign in May to make Yom Kippur a UN holiday.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in May that a report from the Committee on Conferences would go to the assembly's budget committee and then to the General Assembly's 193 member states for a final decision.
Israel has had an often difficult relationship with the United Nations and is attacked regularly over its dealings with the Palestinians and the failure to reach a peace deal that would create an independent Palestinian state.
The letter to the committee was dated June 30, before the current Israeli-Hamas war began. But it was circulated on a particularly tense day between Israel and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned an attack on a UN school in Gaza that killed at least 16 people yesterday as "outrageous," adding that "nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children." He said "all available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause."
Ban, the US, and many other nations are demanding an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
The 32 ambassadors who signed the letters were from the US, Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Micronesia, Monaco, Nauru, Nigeria, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, South Sudan, Suriname, Togo, Uruguay and Vanuatu.
There are currently 10 official UN holidays including the Christian holidays Christmas and Good Friday and the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The six others are major US holidays New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving.
