As
Palestine
Delayed in NY
Under Weak SSR
Pretext,
UNESCO Vote in
Wrong Venue
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 5 --
As Palestine's
bid for full
membership in
UNESCO moved
forward on
Wednesday, in
the UN
Security
Council
Palestine's
application is
being delayed.
On
October 4,
this
month's
Security
Council
president Joy
Ogwu of
Nigeria said
that the
Council's
Committee on
Admission of
New Members
was meeting
"at
the expert
level" as
quickly as
possible -- on
October 7.
She
explained
that October 6
has a meeting
about Abyei,
Sudan, and
October 5 had
a meeting to
negotiate the
Presidential
Statement on
SSR, or
Security
Sector Reform.
But
Inner City
Press went to
cover the
October 5
session on
SSR, held in a
windowless
conference
room in the
UN's North
Lawn building.
The
Council
representatives
who went in,
many of them
genially
greeting
Inner City
Press, did not
appear to be
the experts
who are
considering
Palestine's
application.
This was
multiply
confirmed to
Inner City
Press.
So
why didn't the
Security
Council's
committee meet
about
Palestine's
application
some
time before
the final day
of this week?
The excuse
given, it
seems,
doesn't wash.
Meanwhile
in Paris
at UNESCO,
"forty of the
58 countries
on the
executive
board
voted in favor
of the
recommendation,
while four --
the United
States,
Germany,
Romania and
Latvia --
voted against
and 14,
including
Spain and
France,
abstained,
sources said."
Abbas
& Sarkozy,
support for
Palestine
membership in
Paris-based
UNESCO not
shown
In
New York,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
if Ban had any
comment on the
UNESCO vote,
as he'd
just had
comment on the
Security
Council's vote
on Syria (Ban
"regretted"
the vote.)
Nesirky said
Ban had no
comment.
In
Paris, French
foreign
ministry
spokesman
Bernard Valero
explained
France's
non-support of
Palestine's
membership:
"We don't
think UNESCO
is
the
appropriate
arena," he
said. Maybe
Paris is not
the
appropriate
arena for
UNESCO. Watch
this site.
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