Source: The Guardian
Harriet Sherwood
Harriet Sherwood
The United States has cut off funds to Unesco as a punitive action
after the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the UN agency as a
full member in defiance of American, Israeli and European pressure.
The overwhelming backing for the Palestinians' bid to join the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation was a huge boost for
their campaign for international recognition of an independent state,
and a blow to Israel and the US, who had opposed the move.
Members
voted by 107 votes to 14 to accept Palestine as a full member state to
loud cheers from delegates in Paris. Fifty-two countries, including the
UK, abstained.
Within hours, the US announced it would withhold
its huge contribution to Unesco's budget as a result of the vote. State
department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US had no choice due to a
21-year-old law prohibiting the payment of funds to any UN body
accepting the Palestinians as full members.
A $60m (£38m) transfer
that was due later this month would be halted in a move that will have
serious consequences for Unesco activities. The US contributes 22% of
the agency's annual budget.
Unesco's decision was "regrettable,
premature and undermines our shared goal to a comprehensive, just and
lasting peace [between Israelis and Palestinians]", said Nuland.
Israel
also hinted at punitive measures. A statement from the foreign ministry
said it would "consider its further steps and ongoing co-operation"
with Unesco following the decision. The move was a "unilateral
Palestinian manoeuvre which will bring no change on the ground but
further removes the possibility for a peace agreement", it added.
Nimrod
Barkan, Israel's ambassador to Unesco, described the vote as a
"tragedy". "Unesco deals in science, not science fiction. They forced on
Unesco a political subject out of its competence," he said.
Palestinian
officials, who described the vote as historic, were jubilant. "This
vote will erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian
people," foreign minister Riyad al-Malk told the Unesco gathering in
Paris.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the vote "represents support for freedom and justice".
In
a statement to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, he said: "This vote is
for the sake of peace and represents international consensus on support
for the legitimate Palestinian national rights of our people, the
foremost of which is the establishment of its independent state."
Some
ridiculed the US response. "You would think we were asking to be
accepted by al-Qaida," senior official Nabil Shaath said before the
vote.
The swift action of the US in withdrawing funding is likely
to increase cynicism among Palestinians about the credibility of the US
as a mediator between them and the Israelis.
Membership of Unesco
is largely symbolic, although it will allow the Palestinian Authority to
seek world heritage status for historical sites. Israel would be
expected to vigorously object to applications for sites in areas of the
West Bank and East Jerusalem currently under its control. The
Palestinian Authority is expected to seek Unesco world heritage status
for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, believed to be the
birthplace of Jesus.
A nomination attempt was rejected earlier
this year because the Palestinians were not a full Unesco member. The
nomination of other sites is expected to follow.
The vote was the
first taken in a UN body since the Palestinians embarked on their
campaign for recognition of an independent state in the international
arena. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, submitted a formal
application for full membership of the UN in September in defiance of US
opposition.
The process has become mired in UN bureaucracy after
the security council set up a subcommittee to examine the application.
No date has been set for a decision, which is bound to go against the
Palestinians as the US has pledged to veto the move.
The
Palestinians may then take their case to the UN general assembly, which
is barred from granting full membership without security council
approval.
Monday's vote at the Unesco general conference is an
indication of the extent of support for the Palestinian case in the
international community.
France was among those voting in the
Palestinians' favour, a move which could indicate its as yet unstated
stance in the forthcoming security council vote on full membership of
the UN.
The UK has not declared its voting intentions but is expected to line up with the US.
Others
countries that voted in favour included China, Russia, India, Brazil
and South Africa. The US, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands voted
against. US and European diplomats made unsuccessful efforts to seek a
postponement of the Unesco vote in the runup to the debate at the
general conference in Paris.
Despite US and EU insistence that
negotiations are the only way to secure a lasting settlement and an
independent Palestinian state, efforts led by the Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair to restart talks between the two parties have made little progress.
Palestinian
negotiators have largely despaired of securing a state through talks
with Israel while the latter continues to build and expand settlements
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
They are also deeply
disappointed in the lack of pressure exerted on Israel by the US. Many
feel that taking the Palestinian cause into the international arena has a
greater potential for progress.
