Cash carrot or status stick: Palestinians flirt with UNESCO

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Oct 6, 2011

Washington is threatening to leave UNESCO without American cash, as the world's education and heritage group moves a step closer to allowing Palestine to join. The US is currently giving tens of millions of dollars to UNESCO, but can't legally fund any UN body that admits a non-UN member state. The culture group has agreed to put the Palestinian bid to its members for approval by the end of the month. It's a key diplomatic victory for the Palestinians at the UN ahead of the vote on its statehood. However, there's still fierce opposition from Washington, which says a legitimate state can only be achieved through direct talks with Israel. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas applied to the Security Council for full UN membership in September.
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