NOTE: This story advances an earlier article about the
UNESCO vote that is running in the
paper edition of this week’s j.
The earlier article can be viewed below.
jerusalem | The Palestinian Authority said it would stop trying to gain membership to U.N. agencies on the same day that Israel said it would stop paying dues to UNESCO.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Thursday that the Palestinians would shelve their plans to gain admission to other agencies and focus on their application to become a full member of the United Nations General Assembly. The statement contradicts a statement made two days earlier by the Palestinian envoy to the U.N. headquarters in Geneva indicating that the Palestinians would pursue membership to some 16 U.N. agencies.
Thursday’s decision comes as Israel said it would freeze its contributions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in the wake of the agency’s vote on Monday to give full membership to the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s $2 million annual contribution to UNESCO would be withheld and instead be directed to cooperative initiatives in the region working toward the same goals as UNESCO.
“Such steps will not advance peace; they will only push it further away,” Netanyahu said following the announcement, referring to this week’s vote. “The only way to reach peace is through direct negotiations without preconditions.”
The United States, applying a long-standing law, cut funding to UNESCO following the vote. Its annual dues make up more than 20 percent of the agency’s budget.
Meanwhile, the director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, called on the United States to reinstate its funding, saying the cutoff jeopardized programs that are important to the U.S. Bokova also said that without the U.S. funding, the agency will not be able to maintain its current level of activity, the Associated Press reported.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told AP on Thursday that Palestinian efforts to seek membership in other U.N. agencies are “not beneficial for Palestine and not beneficial for anybody.”
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Here is the older article:
UNESCO vote puts cachet in Palestinians’ pocket
josef federman & mohammed daraghmeh | associated press
Emboldened by their admission this week to UNESCO, the Palestinians plan to seek membership in other international bodies as part of their campaign for statehood.
Full U.N. membership, which the Palestinians are also pursuing, is not required for membership in many of the U.N. agencies.
Elated by the 107-14 vote in Paris Oct. 31 that granted them membership in UNESCO — the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — jubilant Palestinian officials said that they want to seize the momentum and expand their U.N. presence.
“We have gotten a precedent that might open the road for us to join other agencies,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian envoy to the U.N. in Geneva. He said the Palestinians are now studying whether they can join 16 other U.N. agencies.
The moves come as the Palestinians are increasingly seeking unilateral moves toward statehood that would bypass peace talks.
A key test of those efforts could come soon. The Palestinians have asked the U.N. Security Council to grant them full membership in the United Nations, and a vote is tentatively set for Nov. 11.
The United States, as a permanent member of that council, has promised to veto the request. But the Palestinians are still trying to rally the required nine-vote majority that would trigger the veto, believing that would give them a moral victory by placing the U.S. at odds with the international community.
If the Security Council bid fails, the Palestinians are expected to seek the lesser status of a U.N. nonmember observer state, like the Vatican. This would require approval by the General Assembly, a virtual lock in a 193-member chamber dominated by pro-Palestinian developing countries.
Israel and the United States have opposed the Palestinian attempts to win U.N. membership, saying that peace can only be reached through negotiations.
U.N. membership would not change the situation on the ground, but the strong international endorsement of the Palestinians’ goals could isolate Israel and boost the Palestinian position should peace talks resume.
Officials believe that even as a nonmember of the U.N., the Palestinians could join influential international bodies such as the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Criminal Court.
While membership in some of these bodies would be largely symbolic, other agencies could provide a platform for the Palestinians to push their agenda. Last year, for example, UNESCO infuriated Israel by defining West Bank holy sites sacred to both Jews and Muslims as “Palestinian.”
Israel is especially concerned about the Palestinians joining the International Criminal Court, fearing they would try to pursue war crimes cases against Israel.
The Palestinian prospects of being admitted to the other organizations is unclear, with each having its own admission procedures and political context.
In Jerusalem, Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said the Palestinian strategy could cause grave damage to the workings of the United Nations by trying to “hijack” any agencies they join to press an anti-Israel agenda.
He warned the Palestinian effort would be a “dismal omen” for direct negotiations because the ability to accomplish their goals through U.N. votes would eliminate the incentive for Palestinians to engage in peace talks, leading to continued tensions.
Immediately after Palestine was voted in as a full member of UNESCO, the United States cut off its funding to the organization. Until now, the U.S. has provided one-fifth of UNESCO’s annual budget, but U.S. law bars funding an organization that has Palestine as a member before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.
That decision had an immediate effect: The U.S. canceled a $60 million payment that was scheduled for Nov. 1, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
The funding cut will be quickly felt at UNESCO, which protects historic heritage sites and works to improve literacy, access to schooling for girls and cultural understanding. UNESCO had been warned for weeks that a cutoff of U.S. funding was inevitable if the agency granted full membership to the Palestinians.
Before the State Department announcement, White House spokesman Jay Carney called UNESCO’s decision “premature” and said it undermines the international community’s goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan.
But Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that the “victory at UNESCO marks but a beginning. Our admission to UNESCO is not an alternative; [it] is no substitute for something else.”
In the Gaza Strip, the militant Hamas government praised the UNESCO decision, as well, saying that Hamas’ confrontational approach toward Israel was behind the vote.
“It also indicates that the Palestinian cause is getting more support while American policy is regressing,” said Hamas official Salah Bardawil.
In an address to the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized the Palestinians’ strategy and warned his government would “not sit quietly.”
To wit, on Nov. 1, Netanyahu ordered expedited construction of 2,000 homes in eastern Jerusalem and two West Bank settlements in response to the UNESCO vote. The Prime Minister’s Office said the housing was in areas that would remain in Israel’s hands in any future peace deal.
In addition, the inner Cabinet decided to withhold from the Palestinian Authority $82 million in tax money that Israel collected in October (the money was to pay Palestinian policemen and government employees). The ministers also decided not to allow UNESCO missions to enter Israel.
While Netanyahu praised the United States for cutting off its UNESCO funding, Israel did not commit to withdraw its own funding of UNESCO, amounting to about 3 percent of the agency’s budget, or to pull out of the organization. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it would “consider its further … cooperation with the organization” after the vote.
While Israel has sometimes clashed with UNESCO — such as in 2010, when UNESCO declared that Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs are “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories” — the agency also has taken actions that are seen as friendly. In 2003, UNESCO designated Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus blocks (the “White City”) as a world heritage site, which facilitates international fundraising for historic preservation, and UNESCO runs Holocaust education programs in countries that have otherwise been hostile to such learning.
Ron Kampeas of JTA and additional Associated Press reporters contributed to this report.