Palestinians won a crucial vote to enter UNESCO as a full member on Monday.
Palestinians won a crucial vote to enter UNESCO as a full member on Monday, scoring a symbolic victory in their battle for statehood ahead of a similar vote at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
"The general assembly decides to admit Palestine as a member of UNESCO," said the resolution adopted by 107 countries, with 14 voting against and 52 abstaining.
"This vote will help erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people," Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki told the assembly as the vote took place.
France, which had voiced serious doubts about the motion, approved it along with almost all Arab, African, Latin American and Asian nations, including China and India.
The Zionist entity, the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany voted against, while Japan and Britain abstained.
The United States and Zionist entity are set now to withdraw their funding from the U.N. cultural body, while other U.N. agencies may have to debate the thorny issue.
US, Zionist Reaction
The U.S. has slammed the move as counterproductive and premature, while ‘Israeli’ ambassador Nimrod Barkan admitted before the vote that he was resigned to the Palestinians gaining entry.
Staunch Israel ally the United States in the 1990s banned the financing of any United Nations organization that accepts Palestine as a full member, meaning the body would lose $70 million, or 22 percent of its annual budget.
U.S. ambassador to UNESCO David Killion said after the vote that "this action today will complicate our ability to support UNESCO programs."
Barkan warned that those who voted for the resolution would lose influence over the occupying entity.
"It certainly will weaken their ability to have any influence on the Israeli position," Barkan told Agence France Presse.
Barkan slammed countries that "have adopted a science fiction version of reality by admitting a non-existent state to the science organization ... UNESCO should deal in science not science fiction."
He admitted that the vote, while symbolic, could have a knock-on effect: "There is potential for a cascading effect of this resolution on many other U.N. specialized agencies and in New York."
For its part, ‘Israeli’ foreign ministry rejected the resolution. "This is a unilateral Palestinian maneuver which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement."
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas submitted the request for membership of the U.N. General Assembly in September, and the Security Council is to meet on November 11 to decide whether to hold a formal vote on the application.
UNESCO
As a permanent U.N. Security Council member, the U.S. has a veto that it says it will exercise at the U.N. General Assembly, but no one has a veto at UNESCO.
Arab states braved intense U.S. and French diplomatic pressure to bring the motion before the UNESCO executive committee in October, which passed it by 40 votes in favor to four against, with 14 abstentions.
The Palestinians previously had observer status at UNESCO.
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said Friday she was very concerned about the possible withdrawal of U.S. funding.
"This would have serious consequences, programs would have to be cut, our budget would have to be rebalanced," she told AFP.
"The U.S. administration supports UNESCO, but (the Americans) are trapped by laws adopted 20 years ago," Bokova said, adding she was "neutral" on the question of Palestinian membership.
The United States only returned to UNESCO in 2003, having boycotted the organization since 1984 over what State Department calls "growing disparity between U.S. foreign policy and UNESCO goals."
The Europeans had tried to convince the Palestinians to be satisfied for now with joining three UNESCO conventions.
