U.S. official: “There are no shortcuts” to negotiations; move is “counterproductive”.
Israel: UNESCO engaging in “science fiction”.
The Palestinians, in another ploy to unilaterally gain statehood without negotiations, successfully lobbied for membership to the United Nation’s cultural and scientific body during a meeting in Paris today.
UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - voted 107-14, with 52 countries abstaining, to admit the Palestinians. The membership provides the Palestinians an avenue to interfere with cultural and archeological activities and religious sites in Israel. Among the countries that voted against the measure were the United States, Canada, Germany and Holland.
To gain membership as a non-U.N. member-state, the Palestinians required a two-thirds majority vote by the General Conference of Member States, which meets once every two years.
The vote triggers the United States to cease funding to all U.N. agencies. The United States supplies 22 percent – or $70 million – of UNESCO’s budget.
The Palestinians’ UNESCO application is part of its campaign to become a full member-state in the United Nations. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a bid for U.N. membership last month and the matter is pending before the Security Council. The Palestinians have not mobilized the nine votes necessary for passage and the United States has promised to veto the measure if necessary.
U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO Ambassador David T. Killion, spoke passionately against the move, saying in a statement, “No nation is more committed to the quest for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians than the American people. The only path to the Palestinian state that we all seek is through direct negotiations. There are no shortcuts, and we believe efforts such as the one we have witnessed today are counterproductive.”
President Obama made his own stance on the matter clear in May, stating, "A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples; Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people; each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace."
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement, “Today’s reckless action by UNESCO is anti-Israel and anti-peace. It rewards the Palestinian leadership’s dangerous scheme to bypass negotiations with Israel and seek recognition of a self-declared ‘Palestinian state,’ and takes us further from peace in the Middle East.
Israel also reacted strongly against the UNESCO vote. Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s representative to the agency, said after the vote that UNESCO has now "adopted the science fiction version of reality by admitting a nonexistent state to the science organization.”
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “This is a unilateral Palestinian maneuver which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement. This decision will not turn the Palestinian Authority into an actual state yet places unnecessary burdens on the route to renewing negotiations. The Palestinian move at UNESCO, as with similar such steps with other UN bodies, is tantamount to a rejection of the international community’s efforts to advance the peace process.”
Israel agreed last month to a call by the Middle East Quartet to restart negotiations, while the Palestinians rejected it. The Palestinians have said they will only return to talks if Israel ceases all construction activities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank – a new precondition they have begun placing on negotiations. The Quartet comprises the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
