It wasn’t even close. Only 13 of the 194 members of UNESCO voted with Israel against granting full membership to Palestine. As many as 107 voted for, while 52 abstained and the rest were absent. Even the European Union did not vote with Israel as a bloc. France sided with the Palestinians and Britain abstained.
This shows how isolated Israel and its dwindling backers have become because of Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence toward the Palestinians.
In fact, the picture is worse when you consider that many of those 13 governments, including American and Canadian ones, are acting against the wishes of their own people, who favour granting the Palestinians full status at the United Nations and its agencies, according to a recent BBC poll.
The U.S. is yanking its $80 million a year contribution to UNESCO’s $643 million budget. The cutback, decreed by Congress, is going ahead even though the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization advances a western agenda around the world, especially in Afghanistan — literacy, schooling, teacher training, gender equity, clean water and basic health. The Stephen Harper government is, to its credit, keeping Canada’s $10 million a year support.
OTTAWA - Canada will not help fill UNESCO's funding gap in a signal to the United Nations cultural agency that its decision to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a full member will be costly.
In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO’s annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn’t worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies.
PARIS — Palestine became a full member of UNESCO on Monday in a highly divisive breakthrough that will cost the agency a fifth of its budget and that the U.S. and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts.
Palestine became a full member of the UN cultural and educational agency Monday, in a highly divisive move that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts.