Following the decision of Palestine being allowed full membership in UNESCO, US has announced to cut down the funds of UN’s cultural arm as a result of defying the warnings of America and Israel.
The session, which was unusually dramatic, witnessed the motion being approved by an extensive majority. The resolution was passed in Paris, at the UNESCO headquarters, among the cheers and grumbles of the voting parties.
The infuriated US officials declared that Washington is withdrawing its share of funds which was to be $US60 million, amounting to almost a quarter of the overall budget of UNESCO.
In September, Palestine submitted a bid to the Security Council, and UNESCO is the first UN agency that the country has decided to join after that. Result of full UN membership will come out next month.
Earlier, the decision which was made through voting was greeted with loud applause by the 107 countries that voted in favor. The 14 countries that voted against the act included United States, Australia, Israel, Canada and Germany. It was a surprise for everyone when France voted ‘yes’, and the decision was followed by loud cheers. All Asian, Arab, Latin American and African countries followed suit, along with Austria and Ireland while 52 countries abstained from voting, including Japan, New Zealand and UK.
UNESCO’s membership is seen by the Palestinian authorities as a step that will help them in getting recognized internationally and also for putting pressure on Israel for their demands.
Riyad al-Malki, Palestinian foreign minister, who was also present at the time of voting, showed his happiness at the results. The decision is considered to be a historic moment for Palestine and a symbolic victory. “The vote will erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people”, al-Malki said after the announcement of result. On the contrary, the vote is not enough to make Palestine a state, as the concern for borders remains unresolved, along with other disputes which have mutilated peace in the Middle East for years.
Some parties are even of the view that it will be even harder for Palestine to achieve its goals which includes security for the country, placement of Palestinian refugees and the future of Jerusalem.
Jay Carney, White House spokesman, regarded UNESCO’s judgment a ‘premature’ act. He also said that this move has played its part in undermining the efforts of international community to carry on with an effective peace plan for Middle East. He also called it as a hindrance in the goal which was to restart peace talks between Palestine and Israel.
Nimrod Barkan, the Israeli Ambassador, talked about the decision saying, “UNESCO deals in science not science fiction”. “However, a large number of member states, though most emphatically less than two-thirds of the member states of this organization, have adopted a science fiction version of reality”, he further commented.
Full membership of UNESCO has given Palestine options to seek membership of other UN agencies such as the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. One of the very first moves of Palestine as a result of UNESCO membership could be an application to list Church of Nativity in Bethlehem as a world heritage site.
This vote has opened up Palestine to take steps for gaining international recognition which will pave their way to achieve statehood. Victoria Nuland, Washington State Department spokesman told the reporters that the United States will continue to be a member of UNESCO and its participation in the organization, which comes up to around 22% of its annual funds.
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The UNESCO deals with education & cultural preservation! How could you deny the Palestinians from these simple rights ?!
I wonder what would a U.S citizen reaction be if an Indian suddenly came and chased him out of his house & claimed that 2000 years ago this was his grandfathers land!!!!!
This is an extremley ambiguous comment the Native Americans are peoples of nations the same as the peoples of Africa and Europe are made of diffrent nations themselves this is a historical shame for the Americans they stole a continent. The Arabs have not lived in Israel for even the past 1500 years they are colonialists themselves.Fact the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem was one of a Kurdish and Persian army not Arab. This was headed by Saladin who was a Kurd, who after this victory then went over to Eygpt and Conquered the land from the Coptic pepole. However instead of writing a meandering history essay I would like to simply leave you with another ambiguous comment, “Claiming Jerusalem for a Palestinian National capital and Muslim Holy site could be likend to a none muslim religion trying to establish Mecca for themselves”.
This is just rethoric and serves no intellectual purpose.
These are some interesting comments posted, Slim it’s interesting to see the way you view this. But i must say that I strongly agree with you, the U.S. puts up this front label as the Democratic Nation; Land of the Free and a “democratic” seeking force for unprivileged nations and peoples of all backgrounds, i.e. to state the case of Iraq from the American point of view (government view) to be exact, not all believe those motives! This is a classic who is who case, and considering the relationship between U.S. Israel, Canada (what i call home) and other members of that rejected the vote; and in terms of the money, stating that because it’s U.S. Law not to fund any organizations that associate with the Palestinian Liberation Organization the funds must be cut is a bogus move; it contradicts everything I as a person once thought about the U.S. government, and my outlook on the Palestinian issue. Israeli minister of foreign affairs: “this a unilateral Palestinian maneuver which will bring no change on the ground, but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement”! WHAT PEACE TALKS is he talking about? someone please tell me how a suppressed people (nation) can continue to sit and wait for their suppressors to grant them..”human rights” to land, peace and continuous prosperity. Is that not what the U.S. preaches on many of their military missions worldwide? Ilena Ross-Lehtinen R-Florida states that the vote was anti-Israel and anti-peace! saying Americans should not have to spend their taxed dollars on biased entities! this is just outright stupidity by individuals with such powers…this is not an issue of doing the right thing anymore, but a situation of who not piss off and what significance they have. Slim, I agree with you and the U.N. is nothing but a group of individual countries trying to protect their international interests; economically of course..MONEY TALKS,
It will all come to an end very soon. The world is bringing the prophecies of the bible together now.
Nations are fighting against Nation. Earthquakes happening in diverse places.( places where they don’t normally have earthquakes.)
Tornadoes, Tsunami’s, every day you hear of mothers murdering their children. Evil continually today, When all these things happen simultaneously, KNOW THAT THE END IS NEAR. Look up, your redemption draweth near. Millions of Christians will disappear. The Rapture will happen. Then, you will see tribulation on this earth as never before.
Men will cry out to die, but cannot. Hail, the size of rocks will fall from heaven. The sky will darken, and the moon turn to blood. All this is coming on the earth in God’s wrath for judgement on the earth, the 3rd World war is near.
PEOPLE, WAKE UP! Read the scriptures and you will see what is happening now.That is exactly what is prophesied in God’s Word.
There is a way of escape. Look for it in the Word of God.
D. Easthom
The Americans chose not to vote for the Palestinians which is nothing new and we all know that. But how undemocratic for a big and powerful country to publicly blackmail and threaten UNESCO and Palestine with financial withdrawals! What does that make them, word that comes to mind “childish, bully and narrow minded after all”. It’s like those child abuses who would take their plate of food from children for absolutely no apparent logical reason. They want the Palestinians to go back to the negotiation table, for WHAT!!!. what is left to negotiate about, the Israelis have almost totally swallowed all of what was Palestine, there’s only 2 small chunks of land left, I guess they want that too!!!. United Nations has been created for one sole purpose, to allow Israel to kill and steal as long as they want. United Nations is just another American mob, it doesn’t stand for justice, equality, respect and dignity. Otherwise this issue would have been dealt with years ago with Israel( the ONLY) not having so many UN resolutions breached against its name. How can one VETO for a country knowing fully of the atrocities being committed against a small and weak country.
It’s not childish. Why should the U.S. fund something it doesn’t believe in? If you take the money of the American people, you can’t outright defy their beliefs. And if you do, why would it be wrong for them to pull funding? Should Americans be forced to pay for something that contradicts their beliefs? Absolutely not. UNESCO can get the funds from other countries that voted for this measure. If those countries aren’t willing to pay, perhaps they should have thought of that before alienating the U.S. Beyond the actual dispute, the fact is U.S. needs to begin pulling funds and reducing its international commitments in light of deficit in the United States. The UNESCO decision simply makes that task easier for Americans by essentially having a recipient of U.S. funds “volunteer” to be stripped of contributions.
I would also like to address some of the other comments made in the previous post. The UN is entirely comprised of Arab, OIC and small dictatorships who rely on Arab resources (120 / 197 countries). So all these resolutions, directed towards Israel but not China, Turkey, Syria, Iran …. The list goes on and on. Of course resolutions against Israel in the United Nations don’t count. The organization is simply a mechanism for allied OIC countries to use Israel as a smokescreen for the atrocities they commit against their own citizens. It is reasonable to completely reject the UN resolutions against Israel under this basis.
It is just that the US gets imports from the Israelis and that the Israelis threatened to cut the oil and the UN has done a great deal to help the world.