Canada reconsidering role in UNESCO following PA admittance -
Canada will reconsider its role in UNESCO following the organization’s acceptance of Palestine as a member state, AFP quoted Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird as telling reporters on Monday.
“We are in the process of evaluating our future participation” in UNESCO, Baird told reporters, adding that “We are not happy with UNESCO’s decision. We are working to determine what our response will be.”
The United States on Monday froze funding to a United Nations educational body, after it became the first UN organization to recognize Palestine as an independent state.
In a dramatic move that inched the Palestinian Authority closer to its bid for unilateral statehood, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) accepted Palestine as the 195th member of its organization.
A huge cheer erupted in UNESCO’s General Assembly in Paris as it gave the Palestinians a symbolic victory in their unilateral statehood battle after 107 nations voted in favor, 14 against, and 52 abstained. The US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Israel voted against Palestinian membership. Countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa, Austria and France voted in favor. Britain and Italy abstained.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas thanked all the countries that supported its UNESCO membership bid.
“This vote is a vote for peace,” Abbas was quoted by the PA’s news agency, Wafa, as saying.
“The vote constitutes an international consensus to support the legitimate national rights of our people – first and foremost the right to establish an independent state.”
The vote is a “victory for Palestinian independence,” Abbas said. The entire world, he added, stood with the Palestinians today.
It also underscored the need to establish a Palestinian state as soon as possible, Abbas said.
“This vote is not directed against anyone,” he said. “It’s meant to support freedom and justice.”
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said after the vote: “Today’s victory at UNESCO is the beginning of a road that is difficult, but will lead to the freedom of our land and people from occupation.
Palestine has the right to a place on the map.”
Israel, however, warned that the UNESCO vote harmed ongoing Quartet efforts to jump-start the peace talks, which have been stalled since October 2010.
“The Palestinian move at UNESCO, as with similar such steps with other UN bodies, is tantamount to a rejection of the international community’s efforts to advance the peace process,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement it issued to the press.
It threatened to cut its ties with UNESCO.
“The State of Israel will consider its further steps and ongoing cooperation with the organization,” the Ministry said.