UNESCO grants Palestinians full membership

Updated: 2011-11-01 09:37

(Agencies)

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The Palestinians went to UNESCO after making a bid for recognition of the over-arching United Nations system in September before the UN Security Council, which has moved the issue to a committee where it is likely to run into a veto from the United States.

"This vote is not directed against anyone, but represents support for freedom and justice," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement to the official news agency WAFA.

"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."

But the breakdown of the vote reflected deep divergences in international views on Palestinian statehood.

The United States, Canada, Germany and Holland voted against Palestinian membership. Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa and France voted in favour. Britain and Italy abstained.

For the European Union, which has stumbled in recent efforts to develop a common foreign policy, the UNESCO vote highlighted persistent rifts with some member states voting for and some against Palestinian membership.

Austrian UNESCO ambassador Ursula Plassnik, whose country voted in favour, said she regretted that the EU had failed to arrive at a common position on Palestinian membership.

France, which previously abstained from a vote on the subject of Palestinian membership in UNESCO, broke with precedent to vote in favour on Monday.

"Since it has been raised today, we must assume our responsibilities and respond to the substance of the issue ... On the substance, France says 'yes'- Palestine has the right to become a member of UNESCO," said Hubert de Canson, France's representative at UNESCO.

Israel has said the Palestinian bid would amount to politicisation of UNESCO that would undermine its ability to carry out its mandate. It said on Monday it would reconsider its cooperation with the agency.

"We regret that the organisation of science has opted to adopt a resolution which is a resolution of science fiction," said Nimrod Barkan, Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, who called the move a tragedy for the agency. "There is no Palestinian state and therefore one should not have been admitted today."  

The Israeli foreign ministry said the vote placed unnecessary obstacles on the road to renewing negotiations.

"This is a unilateral Palestinian manoeuver which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement," it said in a statement.

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