CAIRO: Yesterday, Palestine was elected the 195th member state of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN institution's highest ruling body. According to news releases, 107 member states voted in favor, 14 voted against and 52 costed blank ballots. The resolution needed 81 votes to pass, as abstentions are not counted, UNESCO said. “The admission of a new member state is a mark of respect and confidence,” UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said following the vote, though expressing worries over the budget of the body in light of claims that the US will cut its funding for the organization to protest the vote. “It is well-known that funding from our largest contributor, the United States, may be jeopardized,” she noted. Many UN member states have called on Palestine to postpone their bid for recognition in UNESCO until it's application to join the UN is considered. “Palestine has the right to become a member of UNESCO whose vocation is to work towards generalizing a culture of peace within the international community,” the French ministry said in a statement yesterday, reporting, however, that it would have preferred a postponing of the bid. “However, since it has been raised today, we must assume our responsibilities and respond to the substance of the issue,” the statement continued. Some consider the UNESCO plea a trick to obtain UN membership “through the backdoor,” dubbing it a step of “bad timing.” Austrian UNESCO ambassador Ursula Plassnik, whose country voted in favor, said she regretted that the European Union could not arrive at a common position on the Palestinian issue. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt commented on his country's rejection of the membership bid. “Our attitude is solely a matter of timing – it has nothing to do with the context of the case,” he said. Danish foreign minister Villy Søvndal defended the Danish abstention, referring to the Middle East Quartet's propositions for peace negotiations. The Quartet believes that Palestinian admittance to the UN will put a halt to Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. “Palestine should be admitted to the UN through the main door – not the back one,” he said. “The timing of this vote is all wrong when considering the Quartet's efforts to revive peace negotiations.” However, the number of member states giving a “no” was surprisingly small. As such, the vote is perceived by many as a diplomatic victory for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' quest for Palestinian Statehood. To Israel, on the contrary, this is a hard blow to efforts of ending its diplomatic isolation at the UN. A Wikileaks cable dated February 24, 2010, marked unclassified but “sensitive,” summarizes a discussion between US Deputy Secretary Jacob J. Lew and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The cable, as reported by the Electronic Intifada, reads that Ayalon asked for US “assistance in placing an Israeli candidate as Assistant Director General for International Cooperation at UNESCO.” Saying that Israel was working hard to overcome diplomatic hardships, Ayalon wanted to submit the candidate at UNESCO. He asked for the U.S. intervene with new UNESCO Director General Bokova, who “owes you guys her life.” Obviously, these efforts were unsuccessful, as no Israeli diplomats were appointed in July 2010 by UNESCO Director-General Bokova to any of the several assistant director-general positions of the body. Israel and the US have effectively demonstrated their aversion to the Palestinian quest for UN recognition in general by stopping all financial support to UNESCO. From the US alone, UNESCO was expecting an amount of 60 million US dollars this November. Hamas spokesmen today applauded Abbas' success at UNESCO, hoping that the membership will help Palestine reclaim and protect some of it religious heritage sites. “Hamas congratulates Palestine on this important step for the Palestinian cause,” spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ma'an News Agency. Various sites in the Palestinian territories are of great importance to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Palestine plans to submit the supposed birthplace of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the ancient walled city of Jericho, and the Mosque of Ibrahim, for UNESCO heritage status. Following the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet his eight senior ministers on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of sanctioning the Palestinian Authority. According to a senior Israeli official, it is still unclear whether a decision will be reached on Tuesday, but various proposals aimed at taking punitive measures against the Palestinians are expected. BM
