EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
US Stops Payments to UNESCO over Palestinian Vote
WASHINGTON — The United States said Monday it is stopping financial contributions to UNESCO after the Palestinians were admitted to the organization as a full member.
Permanent delegate of the US to UNESCO David Killion, center, reacts as delegates vote on the Palestinian membership, during a session of UNESCO's 36th General Conference, in Paris, Monday Oct. 31, 2011. Palestine became a full member of the U.N. cultural and educational agency Monday, in a highly divisive move that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) The United States also acknowledged that it would lose its right to vote in UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization if it makes no payments over the next two years, saying the Obama administration will need to consult Congress about the impact on US interests.
"We were to have made a 60 million dollar payment to UNESCO in November and we will not be making that payment," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Nuland said the Palestinian admission "triggers longstanding (US) legislative restrictions which will compel the United States to refrain from making contributions to UNESCO."
The United States, Israel's top ally, in the 1990s banned the financing of any UN organization that accepts Palestine as a full member. The United States provides about 22 percent of the UNESCO annual budget.
The November payment amounts to a tranche of what US officials say is total a annual US contribution of $80 million to the UN organization.
Nuland echoed earlier remarks by the White House which said UNESCO's admission of the Palestinians as a full member was "premature" and undermined international peace efforts and hopes of direct talks on a Palestinian state.
The vote "is regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East," Nuland said.
The vote, backed by 107 countries in UNESCO, was a symbolic victory for the Palestinian drive towards full statehood recognition.
But the United States, which has vowed to block a separate Palestinian call for statehood recognition at the UN Security Council, believes the campaign detracts from tough bargaining needed with Israel on the terms of a Palestinian state.
Nuland said the United States is aware its own interests could be undermined by its withholding funding to UNESCO.
"Under UNESCO's constitution, a member state will have no vote in the general conference if it gets more than two years in arrears in its contribution. So our actual arrearage status will begin in January," she said.
"We now need to have consultations with Congress," she said.
"Not paying our dues into these organizations could severely restrict and reduce our ability to influence them, our ability to act within them, and we think this affects US interests," Nuland said.
"So we need to have conversations with Congress about what options might be available to protect our interests," she said, declining to elaborate.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
71 Comments so far
Show AllMazel Tov,
Thank you one and all for not having the influence of one shekel-grubbing Israeli purchaser of the US Congress.
Hmmmm.....I wonder how much of that aid, voted by Congress, we furnish to the 51st state of the Eastern Mediterranean ends up paying for the pro-Israel bias of of those same Conressmen.
AIPAC has cut the Educational, Scientific and Cultural nose off of America's face to spite world resistance to Zionist domination.
A message for the 1%
This is that time when you're twelve & your foster parents, scream @ U, if you're misbehaving, you will go to hell and furthermore, will never grow tall again Harry.
One of the strongest aspect of UNESCO is CHILDREN, EDUCATION & RIGHTS & if there is one thing that the INDUSTRIAL MILITARY & CORPORATE COMPLEX are good @, its precisely HOW TO EXPLOIT THEM. From shoving a PLASTIC BURGER IN THE MONTH OF A TODDLER BEFORE HE/SHE KNOWS MUMS MILK, to SENDING her/him TO VISIT AN OTHER COUNTRY & SLAY THEIR CHILDREN & COME BACK with PTS, MISSING LEG OR SIMPLY finish the job & SHOOT THEM @OCCUPY,
The world is changing except for the 1%, No surprise there.
If anything this could be the best thing, the ultimate TEST for world community to CONNECT, A FRESH NEW START its almost like a bad relationship that went for too long.
How many times do we need to tell "POWERS" These organisations are not banking or financial institutions, they are not leverage, they should not be a third world country, or a small nation to WHOM you give ten $ to add its vote along to Israel or some other dodge arrangement.
ENOUGH, enough and & make sure you close the door behind you, if you change your mind, by all means
No terror no torture just truth
This is truly a monumental blunder that will reverberate in the Middle East. Neither the security of Israel nor the security of our nation is at stake here. Not a square millimeter of Israel-occupied territory has to be returned to its rightful owners. Not a single illegal Israeli immigrant in Palestine must be evicted. It is all driven by pure pro-Israel, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim prejudice and for the second and third: hatred. What a shameful act this is.
Uncle Sam to the rest of the world: We may be only 1%, but to those 99%, screw you all!
Of note: The Palestinians have listed The Church of the Nativity as their first World Heritage Site. Why does the US hate Baby Jesus so much?
This is the true ugly face of a zionist controlled America who would rather penaloze innocent people than actually help the cause of peace and justice in the middle east. The racist regime of Israel backed up by the United States wans to crusht the Palestinians.
The silver lining in this is that the US mask of a "peace process" covering their unapologetic support for Zionist imperialism, is finally slipping off, and even the corporate media can no longer fail to notice the face behind the mask.
Case-in-point was the excellent pointed questions that even an AP reporter asked Ms. Nuland after this announcement, leaving her so flustered that she looked like an idiot.
No, goddamn it, NO. A thousand times NO. The original mission of the UN was NOT, repeat NOT, to ensure peace on the planet, but to ensure the long-term hegemony of the victorious colonialist powers. The pretty words were only window dressing for the gullible.
Sorry, but I disagree. Please learn about the UN. There are the valuable functions the General Assembly and UN agencies under it provide - noatbly UNESCO. Get rid of the Security Council, but keep the rest of the UN. Ask a Palestinian if they want to get rid of the whole UN. It is the only organization that is recognizing their right to exist as a state right now.
There is no way to get rid of the Security Council. The Security Council will not dissolve itself. The reason the UN exists so that there can be a Security Council-like body which calls all the shots on behalf of persistent colonialist interests.
Congratulations to the Palestinians!
And bravo to UNESCO for standing up to the US bullies and exposing them to the entire world as the Zionist ass-kissers they are. Acting like spoiled brats and halting payments to UNESCO will change nothing. It's too late. That cat is out of the bag. The US will no longer be able to so easily hide behind its vetoes and duplicitous rhetoric, claiming to support a Palestinian state, while doing everything it can to stop it from ever happening. The nations of the world have spoken and the people of the world have heard. Sure, the UNESCO vote is largely symbolic, but symbols can be very powerful things in contexts like these.
If the Israelis retaliate with even greater violence against the Palestinians, they'll only turn the world more squarely against them, isolate themselves further, and accelerate their own demise.
The terrible shame is that it's all so unnecessary. The Israelis have no need to abuse the Palestinians and steal their land. It would be so easy for Israel to live in peace with their neighbors - if only they could find a way to overcome the debilitating mental illness from which they suffer, Zionism.
Vindictiveness at its worst - FROM MahaYasmineh
US AID FREEZE IS PUNISHING DISABLED CHILDREN IN THE WEST BANK
Under pressure from the US Congress following the Palestinian statehood bid, USAID has unilaterally and without warning cut funding for several independent Palestinian Christian NGOs.
This action by the US governments aid arm has affected vital programmes which assist some of the neediest people in the West Bank, including disabled and other vulnerable children.
The chief executive of BibleLands has called this decision a scandal and unconstitutional.
USAID has denied that its budget has been frozen, but a number of Palestinian Christian NGOs, partners of BibleLands, have already been negatively affected:
The Princess Basma Centre for Disabled Children on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem learnt two weeks ago that USAID funding totalling $100,000 for an excellent community-based rehabilitation programme for disabled children in the West Bank would not be disbursed as promised. The Centre comes under the auspices of the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. BibleLands had previously agreed to part-fund this outreach project, which provides for Princess Basma medics and therapists to train staff in community centres for disabled children in Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarm and Jenin, but diverted funds to other projects in the West Bank when the USAID grant was agreed.
The Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR), a local Christian NGO, had attracted USAID funding for a psycho-social intervention programme with vulnerable and disadvantaged children, including training and capacity-building for child professionals and awareness-raising on child rights and child protection. USAID had also agreed to support BASR's strategic planning process. This funding has been withdrawn in the last week without any notice or reason. Again, BASR passed on other opportunities to fund these important projects because it assumed USAID funding was secure.
A Washington analyst has attributed the USAID decision to strong pro-Israeli lobbying. Lara Freedman, Director of Policy and Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now (APN), has said:
"The narrative that says that the-Palestinians-decision-to-go-to-the-UN-is-a-form-of-diplomatic-terrorism-that-cannot-go-unpunished," cultivated for months by the AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), Israeli diplomats, and most of the American Jewish and right-wing Christian community, has firmly taken root."
Commenting on these reports, Jeremy Moodey, Chief Executive of BibleLands said:
"This is a scandal. There cannot be any sense or justice in the US Congress 'punishing' disabled children in the West Bank just because their President had the temerity to ask for UN recognition of the Palestinian state. These are vital projects helping some of the most vulnerable children, and other NGOs including BibleLands were willing to provide funding, but stepped back when USAID grants were secured. US law-makers should perhaps take a look at their own Eighth Amendment, which guarantees proportionality between punishment and crime. This appears to have been ignored when it comes to disabled children in Ramallah and Nablus.
Mrs Maha Tarayra, Deputy Director of the Princess Basma Centre, added:
"This decision will deprive so many disabled children in the West Bank of the quality care they desperately need. Disabled children will not go away, even if USAID funding does. America should think again."
Rima Canawati, Director of Program Development at BASR, added:
"We were shocked that USAID funding towards development programs targeting vulnerable groups of the Palestinian population including those with disabilities was suspended without prior notice following the Palestinian statehood bid in the UN! It seems that the Palestinian people are doomed to suffer injustice, oppression and humiliation just because they are demanding their inalienable rights. Perhaps this is a new form of US preached democracy in disguise!"
Exactly what kind of arseholes are the people who can do this kind of thing?