The Palestinian Authority has won a first diplomatic victory after the country gained initial approval of a bid for full membership in UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a move deemed “inexplicable” by the United States, says International Business Times. Despite strong pressure from the US and France, Palestinian leaders have managed to bring their membership motion before the UNESCO's 58-nation executive board, which passed it by 40 votes in favor to four against, with 14 abstentions including those from Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, while the American delegation joined Germany, Latvia and Romania in opposing the measure while Russia joined African and Arab states, among others, in support. Palestinians have held observer status at the UN and UNESCO since the mid-1970s. The next step will now lead to the submission of the Palestinian bid to the 193-nation general assembly of the UN cultural body at the end of the month for final approval. “We need the issue of the state of Palestine to be resolved in the UN system,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations. UNESCO, Mansour said, “is one place where we can acquire our rightful place among the community of nations as a full member.” Membership would allow Palestinian officials to seek the protection of Palestinian historical sites by the cultural organization which is in turn set to create further tensions with Tel Aviv given some of them are in territories annexed by Israel. The move has once again angered the US, which have become a starched critic of the Palestinian's statehood aspiration, with Washington urging all delegates to vote “no” at the general assembly. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, deemed the UNESCO decision “confusing”. “I found quite confusing and somehow inexplicable that you would have organs of the United Nations making decisions about statehood or statehood status while the issue has been presented to the United Nations,” she said. Before adding “the decision about status must be made in the UN and not in auxiliary groups.” With pushing ahead with its own plans, Palestine wants to show it wants to step outside of the shadow of the countries that have led the peace processes for many years and dictated what plans should be implemented and show it will take the risk of standing against what appears to be political bullying. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is urging European countries that have expressed past willingness to recognize a Palestinian state that “there is no time more appropriate than now.” Abbas addressed the parliamentary assembly of the 47-member Council of Europe Thursday after appealing last month for UN recognition of a Palestinian state. The assembly has urged its six members with Security Council seats — France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Portugal, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — to support the Palestinian bid. In Strasbourg, Abbas hailed that appeal and noted some European nations, which he did not identify, have said they would recognize a Palestinian state “at the appropriate time.”
