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Monday, October 31, 2011

UNESCO's Vote-Yes to "Palestinians"

Nadene Goldfoot
UNESCO granted full membership to the "terrorists of Hamas and Fatah who call themselves Palestinians" in their vote today.  The United States voted against it.  This comes at a time when southern Israel has been bombarded by missiles and rockets from Gaza.  The city of Ashkelon has even decided to close school for another day on account of the bombardment. 

“It is most unfortunate that UNESCO, along with the millions of people around the world benefitting from its programs, now will become victims of the Palestinians’ counterproductive effort to isolate Israel internationally,” said JCPA Chair Dr. Conrad Giles. “The Palestinians knew full well that pushing the UNESCO vote would result in an automatic cutoff of significant US funding for the institution (22% of the budget) under a law passed in the 1990s. They persisted anyway, as though joining the UN’s cultural body were a landmark step towards statehood.  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu consistently has expressed his readiness to enter unconditional talks leading toward two states for two peoples. President Abbas should immediately take him up on this invitation.”


"Dr. Giles continued, "President Abbas has continually failed to acknowledge the Jewish people's deep historical and religious connection to its historic homeland, Israel. This occurred again in his September 23 speech to the UN General Assembly, which only referred to Muslim and Christian attachment to the land. We are concerned that Palestinian membership in UNESCO will be used to advance this hurtful denial of reality.”
 
Resource: Jewish Council for Public Affairs; JCPA

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