GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Authority is preparing to file a formal complaint against Israel at the 14th United Nations Biodiversity Conference, to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 17-29, on the grounds that the Jewish state has “seized the symbol of Palestinian diversity.”

This Palestinian action comes in response to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) declaring the Palestine viper as Israel's official national snake. The deadly viper was renamed as "Land of Israel Viper," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The snake was selected following an online vote, between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31, initiated by Avi Zobel, a snake catcher and activist for the preservation of reptile species in Israel. Zobel’s campaign was launched in partnership with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and under the auspices of the INPA. The viper won with 39% of the total of 9,419 votes, thus getting the status as a national symbol of Israeli biodiversity.

Adalah al-Atira, head of Palestine’s Environmental Quality Authority (EQA), told Al-Monitor that at the conference the Palestinians will argue that the Israeli action contravenes the principle of the Convention on Biological Diversity, created in 1992 under UN auspices.