Palestine Unesco Seat Extemp Article Summary Unesco- An agency of the United Nations established in 1945 to promote the

exchange of information, ideas, and culture. In 1984 the US withdrew from the organization, but in 2003, after satisfied with certain reforms, it rejoined. 173 countries voted on Palestinian membership y 107 were in favor y 14 were opposed y 52 abstained (didn t vote for or against it) Two-thirds majority is enough to pass a decision, and this one was passed. The U.S. and Israel were opposed to Palestine s obtainment of a Unesco seat. The U.S. announced that they would cut funding to Unesco. The U.S. provides 1/5th of the organization s budget. The UN Security Council will vote next month on whether to give Palestine full UN membership. Palestinians hope to become a recognized state, and pulled this move to put pressure on Israel. y Palestine submitted it s first bid for recognition to the Security Council in September. China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa were in favor. US, Canada and Germany were opposed, and the UK abstained. There is a US law passed in the 90 s that allows the government to cut funding to any UN body that admits Palestine. y We were going to make a 60M payment, but we won t now Israel is considering further steps regarding cooperation with Unesco This may be a symbolic breakthrough, correspondents say, but it s going to take much more than this to make Palestine a state. As expected, the US is throwing a hissy fit because they don t like this. y In 84, the US boycotted Unesco for two decades because there was a growing disparity between US foreign policy and Unesco goals