<p>Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have joined as a full member since President Mahmoud Abbas applied for full membership of the United Nations on September 23.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Washington is likely to cut funding to Unesco over the vote. “The action today will complicate our ability to support Unesco,” David T Killion, US ambassador to Unesco, told journalists after the vote.<br /><br />“The US has been clear for the need of a two-state resolution, but the only path is through direct negotiations and there are no shortcuts, and initiatives like today are counterproductive.”<br /><br />Divisions<br /><br />The vote highlighted divisions over foreign policy within the European Union, some of whose 27 members voted for and some against Palestinian membership.<br /><br />Austrian Unesco ambassador Ursula Plassnik, whose country voted in favour, said she regretted the European Union could not arrive at a common position on the Palestinian issue.<br /><br />The Palestinians obtained backing from two thirds of Unesco’s members to become the 195th member of Unesco, with status as “an observer entity”. Of 173 countries that voted from a possible 185, 107 voted in favor, 14 voted against, 52 abstained and 12 were absent.<br /><br />Forty representatives of the 58-member board has voted in favor of putting the matter to a vote earlier this month, with four — the United States, Germany, Romania and Latvia — voting against and 14 abstaining.<br /><br />Admission will be seen by the Palestinians as a moral victory in their bid for full UN membership but could be costly for Unesco.<br /><br />Israel called the vote a “tragedy”. “This resolution is a tragedy for Unesco... Unesco deals in science and not science fiction and nevertheless (Unesco) adopted the science fiction reality,” said Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s ambassador to Unesco.</p>
<p>Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have joined as a full member since President Mahmoud Abbas applied for full membership of the United Nations on September 23.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Washington is likely to cut funding to Unesco over the vote. “The action today will complicate our ability to support Unesco,” David T Killion, US ambassador to Unesco, told journalists after the vote.<br /><br />“The US has been clear for the need of a two-state resolution, but the only path is through direct negotiations and there are no shortcuts, and initiatives like today are counterproductive.”<br /><br />Divisions<br /><br />The vote highlighted divisions over foreign policy within the European Union, some of whose 27 members voted for and some against Palestinian membership.<br /><br />Austrian Unesco ambassador Ursula Plassnik, whose country voted in favour, said she regretted the European Union could not arrive at a common position on the Palestinian issue.<br /><br />The Palestinians obtained backing from two thirds of Unesco’s members to become the 195th member of Unesco, with status as “an observer entity”. Of 173 countries that voted from a possible 185, 107 voted in favor, 14 voted against, 52 abstained and 12 were absent.<br /><br />Forty representatives of the 58-member board has voted in favor of putting the matter to a vote earlier this month, with four — the United States, Germany, Romania and Latvia — voting against and 14 abstaining.<br /><br />Admission will be seen by the Palestinians as a moral victory in their bid for full UN membership but could be costly for Unesco.<br /><br />Israel called the vote a “tragedy”. “This resolution is a tragedy for Unesco... Unesco deals in science and not science fiction and nevertheless (Unesco) adopted the science fiction reality,” said Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s ambassador to Unesco.</p>
