Palestine in UNESCO

During the vote on full state membership for Palestine in UNESCO, it was interesting that the French envoy voted yes, and heard huge applause for the French decision, after it had abstained in the Executive Council vote. The French decision, taken by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, was in line with France's stance of support for a Palestinian state. The Palestinian victory in UNESCO was truly a victory for justice. It also confirmed, once again, that the White House, as usual, and as it has for decades, stands against justice, even if it acknowledges the cause. President Obama proved once again that everything he spoke about in his Cairo Address was worthless, because he is unable to carry out any of it, as the alliance with Israel is stronger than anything else. Washington's decision to halt its funding for UNESCO is shameful for a superpower that gives lessons in democracy and claims to be working to spread education and culture in the world. It lobbied its neighbor Canada to pressure UNESCO member states to vote against Palestine's membership in the organization. It also threatened African countries, themselves threatened by poverty and a deficiency in educational systems, to withdraw its support programs in these areas.

The US is proud as it says it is working to mobilize assistance for the Palestinian state, and now cuts its funding of about $60 million from the UNESCO budget (to which it contributes 22 percent of the total). This is because 107 countries did not submit to Washington's pressure and in the end, followed their conscience, saying yes to Palestine as a full member of UNESCO. The American stance on the Palestinian issue will certainly generate anger and disgust, because it stands against justice and democracy. It is also not in Israel's long-term interest, if the US is keen to protect this. For how long will every US administration reject pressuring its Israeli ally to actually accept a Palestinian state?

The excuses offered by the White House about UNESCO – that the time was not right to see Palestine enter the organization, and that this should not precede Israeli-Palestinian negotiations – are silly and false. What kind of negotiations is the US talking about, as it rejects in any case the candidacy of Palestine for membership in the UN General Assembly? The pressure exerted on the Palestinian President nearly did away with him, had he not rejected it and surprised everyone by going to the Security Council for a vote on a Palestinian state. We have heard enough lessons on "lofty" American values and human rights. The US is exerting the utmost pressure on all states, to stand against justice. During the vote, we saw Canada mobilized to support the US in resisting a just cause. The European Union also showed that European unity does not exist. France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Greece and Serbia supported full membership for Palestine, while Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands abstained, and Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Poland, Hungary and Switzerland, outside the EU, voted no. Certainly, the American role was considerable, along with Israel, in pressuring these countries to reject Palestine's membership. However, how long will this bias against the rights of Palestinians continue? Forever, or until things blow up in the face of the White House and Congress?

We should be grateful to the countries that voted with justice, led by France, where UNESCO headquarters is located. France is also trying to push forward negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Its president has criticized the American method of dealing with Israeli-Palestinian talks, which have not and will not arrive at a solution. Unfortunately, the European countries that see the urgent necessity of creating a solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have not succeeded. This is because they cannot, despite their huge economic support for Israel, be united and stand up to the US pressure. As long as successive American administrations want to monopolize the negotiations and grant Israel all of the rights while pressuring only the Palestinians, and while the Arabs fail to exert any tangible economic pressure on the White House, the continuing American policy to resist the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people will be a losing one, because it stands against the world's peace and security.