UNESCO suspended the Voting Rights of US and Israel over Palestine row

UNESCO on 8 November 2013 suspended the voting rights of the United States (US) and Israel. The suspension happened as the two countries stopped paying the dues to the United Nations (UN’s) cultural arm from two years in the protest over the grant of full membership to the Palestinians.

The funding to UNESCO started in October 2011 because of the laws of US, which prohibits it to pay the dues to any UN agencies giving recognition of the Palestinians demand for their own state. The fund from Israel was pulled out because it objected the one-sided attempts of Palestinians to be recognized of its statehood.

The voting rights of the two nations were suspended as they both failed to provide a justification for non-payments of the dues within deadline.

UNESCO

In 1945, UNESCO was created in order to respond to the firm belief of nations, forged by two world wars in less than a generation that political and economic agreements are not enough to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity.

UNESCO strives to build networks among nations that enable this kind of solidarity, by:

• Mobilizing for education: so that every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development.
• Building intercultural understanding: through protection of heritage and support for cultural diversity. UNESCO created the idea of World Heritage to protect sites of outstanding universal value.
• Pursuing scientific cooperation: such as early warning systems for tsunamis or trans-boundary water management agreements, to strengthen ties between nations and societies.
• Protecting freedom of expression: an essential condition for democracy, development and human dignity