The approval of membership of Palestine by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on October 31 is a great moral and political victory not only of the Palestinian people but also of all those 107 nations who voted in favor of the resolution. There were 52 abstentions while 14 members opposed the Palestinians membership. They included United States, Canada, Germany and Holland. Significantly, Britain and Italy did not vote with the US and Israel but abstained, while France, it must be acknowledged, voted in favor of the resolution.

Predictably, the US and Israel reacted sharply to their defeat in the international body. The US declared that it would stop its contribution to the UNESCO. That would mean that the UN agency would be denied 22 percent of its budget. Together with the contributions of Canada and some other states opposing the resolution which may also be stopped, the UNESCO stands to lose 25 percent of its funds. For the UNESCO, however, it will not be a new experience because the US had similarly boycotted it from 1984 to 2003 during the cold war. So hopefully, the UNESCO will survive this denial of funds by the US. Nevertheless, its gain in international prestige will more than compensate it for the financial loss. One may also hope that the oil rich Arab nations would come to the aid of the UNESCO in a show of support for its vote in the favor of the Arab demand for recognition of the Palestinians right to freedom and liberation of their land.

Israel, the usurper of Palestinian land responded to the resolution by ordering a freeze of the transfer to the Palestinian Authority its share of customs duties on goods destined for the Palestinian markets. The next, in its typically roguish manner, it announced that it would build 2000 more settler homes on the Palestinian land.

The UNESCO vote for the Palestinian statehood marks an important milestone in the Palestinian peoples struggle for freedom. The US objection that it was a premature step and would undermine the international peace efforts and hopes of direct talks on a Palestinian state is not quite tenable. Firstly, the vote would help expedite the stalled talks for the solution of the Palestinian issue, and secondly, it would serve as a precursor to the realization of the two state idea which the United States has been advocating all these years. Far from undermining the talks, the UNESCO vote would mobilize international support for the two state solution of the long standing dispute.

It is now for the Arab and Muslim states to exert their pressure on the remaining members for the recognition of the Palestinian state by the UN and to expedite international efforts for the demarcation of the borders of the state by compelling Israel to vacate the occupied land and withdraw to the pre-1967 borders.

---