Palestine gets full Unesco membership

The vote of Unescos full membership was 107 to 14,with 52 abstentions.

Palestine became the 195th full member of Unesco on Monday,as the United Nations organisation defied a threatened cutoff of US funds under federal legislation from the 1990s. The vote of Unescos full membership was 107 to 14,with 52 abstentions.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the vote triggered a long-standing congressional restriction on funding to UN bodies that recognise Palestine as a state before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached. She said the US as a result would refrain from making a $60 million payment it planned to deliver in November.

Cheers filled the hall at Unescos headquarters here after the vote. The Palestinian foreign minister,Riad al-Malki,praised the organisation,saying that this vote will help erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people and will help protect world heritage sites in Israeli-occupied territory.

In a long speech that was met with applause,Malki said the Palestinian request for membership in Unesco was linked in no way to our request to join the United Nations.

The Obama administration,which values its membership in Unesco,tried unsuccessfully to keep the vote from taking place,while Irina Bokova,the American-supported director-general of the organisation,travelled to Washington to meet with congressional leaders and ask them to alter the law.

Addressing Unescos general conference after the vote,the US ambassador to the organisation,David T. Killion,said that the US remains deeply committed to Unesco. But he repeatedly called the vote on Monday premature but said the US would seek other means to support the agency.

The US argues that Unesco should have waited to act because the Palestinians applied in September for full membership in the UN. US also argues that Palestinian statehood should emerge from negotiations with Israel. Both parties in Congress denounced the Unesco action.

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The Israeli ambassador,Nimrod Barkan,said that Unesco has done a great disservice to international efforts to restart negotiations. On Monday,the US voted against Palestinian membership,joined by Germany,Australia,Canada,Sweden,the Netherlands and Israel,among others. France and Belgium,voted in favour,joining China,Russia,Brazil,India and most African and Arab states.

WHAT THIS MEANS

Symbolic victory for Palestinians. Vote alone wont make Palestine into a state. That effort is still being studied at the UN.

Middle East diplomatic efforts may take beating. The Israeli foreign ministry called the vote a big diplomatic car crash.

Step will cost UNESCO one-quarter of its yearly budget 22 per cent contributed by US and another 3 per cent by Israel.

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Unless shortfall is met,Unesco will have to begin closing offices and laying off staff.

STEVEN ERLANGER & SCOTT SAYARE