UNESCO votes to admit Palestine – Australia votes against

November 1, 2011 by J-Wire Staff
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The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO] has voted 107-14 in favour of granting membership to Palestine. Australia joined Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany in voting against the motion.

 

France joined China and India in supporting the Palestinian membership. 52 countries abstained including Britain and Japan.

The U.S. is likely to withdraw its considerable financial support to  UNESCO following the vote. $60 million was due to be paid to USECO this month.

US ambassador to UNESCO David T Killion says the vote is premature as the September application to by Palestine to join the United Nations remains under study.

The Quarter continues to strive to get Israel and Palestine to the peace table to attempt to create the two state solution through negotiation.

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby said:  “Australia opposed the ploy of the unilateral Palestinian Bid at the UN by voting against their attempt to gain precedent at UNESCO.

Australia joined 14 other countries including Germany, the United States of America and Canada in supporting direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians by voting against the UNESCO decision to admit the Palestinians as a member of the Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Prime Minister Gillard has again shown that Australia is a strong friend of Israel”.

Mr Danby added: “UNESCO has already shown its discriminatory behaviour by classifying one of the tombs of the Matriarchs- the tomb of Rachel, as a Palestinian Heritage site.”

Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry told J-Wire: “The ECAJ commends the Australian government for deciding, together with  14 other countries including Germany, the USA and Canada, to cast Australia’s vote at the UN against the Palestinian application to become a member of the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

The Palestinians’ own top legal advisers have signed their names to a statement that says that the Palestinians do not as yet satisfy the legal criteria for statehood, because they do not have one effective government that controls the West Bank and Gaza Strip.   That reality cannot be changed by any vote in UNESCO or by wishful thinking.”

 

 

Comments

28 Responses to “UNESCO votes to admit Palestine – Australia votes against”
  1. david singer says:

    To ben

    This is what article 6 of the PLO Charter ACTUALLY says:

    “The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.”

    In the text of the resolutions of the 4th Palestinian National Council it is stated in the official report:

    “The Assembly affirm, moreover, that the aggression against the Arab nation and the territories of that nation, began with the Zionist invasion of Palestine in 1917, and that, as a consequence “the elimination of the consequences of aggression” must signify the elimination of all such consequences since the beginning of the Zionist invasion and not merely the the June 1967 war.”

    Yahia Hamuda, the acting Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee declared:

    “The aggression against our land began in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration”

    Get it yet ben? – The Jews Mr Abbas will tolerate as Palestinians in Palestine (now called Israel,Gaza the West Bank and Jordan) are those that lived there before 1917 and possibly their offspring. What happens to the rest is anyone’s guess – deportation?, confiscation of property without compensation?, dhimmi status wearing yellow stars? maybe G-d forbid even the Nazi solution?

    I’d love to see Mr Abbas – The President of Palestine and Chairman of the PLO – being asked to deny that this is what Article 6 of the Charter means – before the UN vote to admit Palestine is taken.

    The PLO can have any policy it likes – but no one has to accept it or be brainwashed into believing it or its policy has any hope of resolving the conflict between Arabs and Jews.

    To the contrary – when this rabid anti-Jewish hatred is recognized as totally unacceptable and is denounced by people like you and by the 137 non-Islamic member states of the UN -there may be hope that the conflict can be ended.

    I only hope that what you write is done in ignorance because you simply know no better – and not because you actually endorse the genocidal and racist intent of Article 6.

  2. Otto Waldmann says:

    Just realised that my last posting of Nov. 3rd, had the last sentence badly truncated.

    Please read:” I strongly suggest that any normal………………”

    Here is something else I suggest.

    The imputation of attacks at hominem is rendered absurd by the mere fact that those plaintiffs suggest that I, for example, would consider the objects of my attacks as hominus !!!

  3. ben says:

    Article Six says The Jews who are normally resident in Palestine before Zionist colonisation etc will be considered Palestinians. That is an expression of secular nationalism s againt againts ethnocratic racism.

  4. david singer says:

    When you give a team 56 points start (the number of Islamic States in both the UN and UNESCO) then a final score of 107-86 in the trial game played at UNESCO is a petty good result for the losers.

    It is an even better result when you consider that only 51 of the 137 non-islamic states were prepared to unconditionally back Palestine being admitted to UNESCO. That means 86 were not prepared to play ball.

    Why this result when the PLO has been predicting a landslide of 74+ – yet only secured 51?

    Perhaps it has a lot to do with the following racist and highly offensive comments made by PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas a few days before the UNESCO vote: :

    “First of all, let me make something clear about the story of the ‘Jewish state.’ They started talking to me about the ‘Jewish state’ only two years ago, discussing it with me at every opportunity, every forum I went to – Jewish or non-Jewish – asking: ‘What do you think about the “Jewish state”?’ I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I will never recognize the Jewishness of the state, or a ‘Jewish state.’

    Seems to me that those 86 non- islamic nations – including Australia – gave the PLO either a red card or a yellow card for these outrageous remarks – which – if unretracted – clearly signal that the UN can wave goodbye to the two-state solution earnestly and sincerely sought by it to end the Jewish-Arab conflict.

    Abbas needs to gets this Jew-hatred out of his system very quickly and understand that the UN voted for a Jewish State 64 years ago and its predecessor – the League of Nations – recognized the histiorical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home there 90 years ago.

    If he doesn’t – he will find an even larger number of the UN non-islamic member states giving him the thumbs down at the UN than did so at UNESCO.

  5. Peter Hersh says:

    I refer you to http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/PLO_Covenant.html where you will find a copy of the Covent. Please refer to article 6 in respect of Jews who can remain and 1 2 3 and 9 in respect of the size of the state they want and how it is to be obtained.

  6. ben says:

    Quite a few Zionists have come out with ad hominem attacks and misrepresentations here. Please read Ruth Pollard in The Age. Israel is withholding tax money to the PA and is speding up expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Two facts that show Israel’s colonial motives.

  7. ben says:

    Hello Peter Hearsch

    Thank you for your information. i would be interested if you could quote verbatim the clauses and claims you mention. And please don’t forget to mention dates if possible.

  8. Otto Waldmann says:

    For approx. $11.00, covering Bondi Junction – Paddington a taxi driver of ME appearance will throw in at no extra cost Ben type theories of how Jews are controling the world. Inclusive is the TRUTH that Ahmadinejab is in fact Jewish, that the zionists have murdered millions of innocent palestinians and that the Arabs have been living in Israel , sorry Palestine, for at least 10,000 years ( read that one hundred thousand ).
    The ever so polite Ben Syndromme, the sole owner of “Hello !!!” is taking us on a free trip from Bondi all the way to St. Marys with a free debit of such innordinate incongruities garnished with a relentless obsession with engaging his hatred of Jews with the… Jews themselves, that any normal Yid should sreiously contemplate catching the bus !!!

  9. ben says:

    The UNESCO classified the tomb as a Palestinian heritage site not as Christian or Muslim heritage site. There were Palestinin Jews before the Zionist colonised the country, now a indigenous minority discriminated by the Askhenazi. Danby is smearing the UN. T

  10. Rod says:

    I am an Australian with no Jewish heritage whatsoever and I applaud Australia,the US and the 12 other nations that voted against. I also agree with the Republican right in the US ,the quicker we can get out of this anti Jewish organisation the better.It’s dumbfounding, the UN expects the US to contribute by far the largest financial payments to sustain it and then thumb their noses at everything the US puts forward.I suggest that this is a case of Israel knowing who their friends are.Israel will stand tall and reject all obsticles the UN,UNESCO and especially the ICC put before them (they have been doing this since Israel’s formation) Israel with their few righteous friends will prevail.

  11. Peter Hersh says:

    Ben,

    There is a lot more to a State than to have a constitution. By the way when you have a chance read the PA constitution you will see it demands all of Israel “from the river to the sea” and says teh only way to get it by force of arms. It also says all Jews who came or were born in Israel after a date (I think 1940 but could be earlier) must leave.

    Also most countries in teh world do not have constitutions.

    Is that what you want ?

  12. ben says:

    Hello Peter hersch

    We have eminent lZionist lawyers arguing here that the Palestinian authority has a constitution and are forever placing demands on abbas to fulfill the role of “security”. If it has a constitution, doesn’t that make it a state ? You should ask the lwayers here.

  13. ben says:

    Hello Dannykid

    Please read my statement again and carefully pleae! I did not anywhere say the words you so kindaly attribute to me and in quotes. I did not even mention the quartret. Not at all surprising though, I am quite familiar with the old hasbara trick of setting up strawpersons.

  14. Otto Waldmann says:

    Indeed Australia should have agreed with the inclusion of “Palestine”in the UNESCO.
    Consider:

    UNESCO is a CULTURAL organisation. The Palestinian State, as we all KNOW it abounds in cultural life:
    – culture of war aganst Israel
    – culture of hatred of Jews
    – culture of prommoting terrorism
    – culture of disseminating anti Semitism
    – culture of disturbing established civilisations
    – culture of distorting reality and replace with crass rhetoric of false values

    etc.

    There is not ONE iota of what conventional , UNESCO type , intellectual, cultural activity coming out of the palestinian mindset.
    The term palestinian derives from that of “philistinian”.

    Oxford English Dictionary defines “Philistine” as : 1. Member of a people in ancient Palestine. 2 ( usu philistine) a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture. adj. ( usu philistine) hostile or indifferent to culture. From Hebrew p’listi.
    UNESCO as such must have its own definitory entry radically modified all in honour of its new member. Yet another palestinian achievement on the international… scene. Speaking of which, right now in Palestine, all those hundreds of theatre, concert, ballet, scenes are celebrating in their traditional palestinian cultural fashion their new victory,with Kalashnikovs, Kassam, Israel, US and Australian flag burning etc. A veritable Ellyseum of culture !!!
    Otherwise, and consistent with Oxford, all those present “pissed off” with Australia’s CORRECT stance, (and that was NOT on ethymological reasons,), are free to secret their inherent philistine bile. And aren’t they doing it with palestinian gusto !! ( see Oxford Dictionary again )

  15. tim says:

    Sometimes i just wish we (Australia) would do what’s best, think for ourselves, and not just follow US down the rabbit hole again and again

  16. michael Burd says:

    No doubt we will see a violent response mostly directed at the US from the Arab and Muslim world when they dont get what they want.

    mIchael Burd

  17. Lynne Newington says:

    In a recent book by Geoffrey Robinson QC, in chapter six, The Holy See and the United Nations, he states that the Vatican come on board by stealth, is not a valid state, or capable of fulfilling all of the responsabilities, yet a role in the United Nations as a Permanent Observer.
    Not taking into account the blatant breaches of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and crimes against humanity.
    That elevation and the wearing of many hats, has given them the clout to flaunt it’s position, politically and spiritually, also seeking concessions and property in Israel, some as endearing as those mentioned by dannykid.

  18. ed says:

    Wow!

    An awful day for the world. By accepting this to happen, sacred and cultural sites in Palestine will have world heritage listing, no less no more. Let all cut our left index fingers, oh wow we all have the same blood, some respect, and hopefully some empathy. I believe that this comment isn’t anti semitic but please correct me if I’m wrong.

    Why is the Australian government voting with America, i would love to hear the rational for this apart from political donations.

  19. Lisa says:

    Thank you Australia for standing with Israel and also to the US for cutting unesco funding!!!
    How can you accept a state that does not technically exist??! The Palestinians themselves are still divided and unstable with Hamas firing rockets into Southern Israel, yet this is how a UN body congratulates them?! By making them a member while they blatantly refuse to directly negotiate with Israel on critical issues such as security and borders??! How utterly pathetic and stupid!! The incompetence of Abbas is astounding!!

    Well SHAME on unesco!! After laughing at Israel when they voted, are you laughing now you won’t be getting your filthy, bias and anti-semitic hands on $60million???!! Prime examples of “useful idiots”!!

    • Steven says:

      People like you stand in the way of peace. Enfranchising a group of people and giving them limited recognition on the world stage, after 60 years of useless negotiation is “anti-semtic”.

  20. Jonathon says:

    Sometimes, I’m ashamed to be Australian. “We’ll cut off your funding…” democracy in action.

  21. Danny Ginges says:

    Ben, the US, Israel and Australia are committed to the creation of an independent Palestine that is willing to live in peace with Israel. The PLO charter, which has never been rescinded, calls for the destruction of Israel. Hamas, the other member of the PA, goes further in calling for the death of all Jews in their charter. By recognising Palestine, without any commitment by the PA to peace, or even recognition of Israel as a Jewish state (as per UN resolution 181), UNESCO is trying to construct a house with no foundations. Considering its role, it should know better.

  22. Bruce says:

    So why did Australia vote against this issue?? How we turn a blind eye to what has gone on in this area.
    Have we not forgotten Sabra and Shatila and what took place between September 16 and September 18, 1982. For that matter what is America afraid off by voting for this important milestone to protect history.

  23. MC Hesus says:

    In another blow to Peace the US says “I am taking my bat and ball and going Home”

    The US will stop financial payments to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, ) after it welcomed the Palestinians as full members.

    Seriously the Lobby groups in Washington have WAY TOO MUCH POWER over politicians.

    But all us Aussie better not get too smug about this, because THIS BIT REALLY PISSED ME OFF Australia joined Israel and the United States in voting against the motion. WTF ???

    Looks like the Aussie Pro Israel Lobby group (read Anti Palestinian Lobby Group) also has control of our nuts too.

    Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard will be getting a letter from CC.

    Final Vote tally was 107-14 in favour of Admitting Palestinians to UNESCO

  24. Akram Malik says:

    At this time I am so ashamed to be an Australian , in spite of all the rhetorics the Australian government does not believe in justice but is more concerned with the votes and the US pressure. No by admitting the Palestinians to UNESCO will not hinder peace, but it will give a voice which had been denied to the people of Palestine for so long. Shame on you Australian government.

  25. Peter Hersh says:

    Ben,

    Just a couple of problems with UNESCO admitting Palestine:

    1) Under its own rules membership of UNESCO can only be granted to States. However you see the future currently Palestine is not a state.
    2) Expect that UNESCO will now be used by the PA to change history. I have already heard they will be trying to get sites on the world heritage list. All the important Moslem sites like the Temple Mount, Hebron with the cave of the Patriarchs.
    3) And this is the most important to give recognition to a Palestinian State without that entity having to negotiate with Israel means that the PA does not give anything away for their statehood not even the “End of conflict” so all that is achieved is another rouge state in the world, whose aim will continue to be the destruction of Israel.

  26. dannykid says:

    Ben, you rightly state “The Quarter continues to strive to get Israel and Palestine to the peace table to attempt to create the two state solution through negotiation”. But that has nothing to do with membership to UNESCO.

    There never was a Palestine; there may, in the future, be a Palestine (G-d forbid); but right now, there is no Palestine, so how can “Palestine” be a member of anything?

    Some months ago UNESCO, in its impartial wisdom, decided that the tombs of Abraham, the first “Jew”, who rejected idolatry and realised the one God, and the tomb of Rachel, one of Judaism’s “mothers”, in other words the tombs of Judaism’s most significant ancestors, have nothing at all to do with Judaism and are, in fact, mosques. Of course it welcomed “Palestine”. So much for UNESCO, a worthy organisation bankrupted by the touch of the usual dysfunctional, Israel hating states. Yet you think it is somehow inappropriate to not support it?

  27. ben says:

    The US has already cut funds to UNESCO for the vote. And Australia has shamefully joined in the vote to deny membership to a nation because it Gillard crawls before the US. In all the protests, none of them can explain how admitting a member to the UNESCO can undemine peace or stop the creation of an independent Palestine which Israel and the US are presumed to be committed to. This merely exposes the deciet behind the “peace process” and the ” two state solution” touted by US and Israel while expanding settlememnts all the while.

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