UNESCO votes to admit Palestine; U.S. cuts off funding

By Colum Lynch, The Waswhington Post,  October 31, 2011

NEW YORK — UNESCO voted Monday to admit Palestine into the organization as its newest member, and the United States promptly responded by cutting off funding for the agency.Acting under a legal requirement to cut U.S. funds to any U.N. agency that recognizes a Palestinian state, the State Department on Monday announced that the United States has stopped funding the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization because of the vote. Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters that the Obama administration would not make a planned $60 million payment to the agency due this month.

 

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke before the United Nations, saying that Palestine wanted a greater role in the organization. (Sept. 23)

The vote at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters follows a stalled effort by the Palestinians to seek recognition as a U.N. member state. It signaled that the Palestinians intend to pursue membership in a number of specialized U.N. agencies, which have their own rules for membership and where the United States does not have veto power.

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