Ban Ki-Moon: Palestinian Bid Could Hurt Millions
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has come out to suggest that Palestine’s bid to join the United Nations and U.N. member agencies could have negative implications for the global community.
Ban warned in an interview with the Associated Press in Cannes that although the U.N. supports a viable solution to an independent Palestine, that the efforts to join the world body by Palestinian leadership would not be “beneficial for anybody.”
The statements from the Secretary General come just days after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to allow Palestine admission as a full member into its agency.
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The monumental UNESCO vote took place in Paris Monday and passed with 107 votes in approval of the bid. Only 14 votes went against allowing Palestinian membership into the agency, while 52 members abstained from the vote.
Funding concerns are laced into the warnings from the Secretary General.
Following the UNESCO vote, the United States and Canada announced that they would be cutting funding to the agency.
U.S. funding to UNESCO comprised of 22 percent of the agency’s budget and without U.S. and Canada’s support, the UNESCO chief Irina Bokova has said that it would be “impossible” for the agency to maintain its current level of activity.
The U.S. has been staunchly opposed to the efforts on behalf of the Palestinian leadership to join the U.N. prior to a peace settlement with Israel.
U.S. President Barack Obama has urged for a diplomatically negotiated two-state solution where Israel and Palestine can live "side by side in peace” prior to U.N. membership.
Ban told the Associated Press, “When an organization is not properly functioning because of a lack of resources, you have to think about the millions and millions of people who are being impacted and affected.”
Following the UNESCO vote, the Palestinian representative was pleased, and echoed a sentiment common among Palestinians, “For over six decades, Palestinians have proven to be superb human beings but have regrettably remained without their rights,” she added, “Today this wrong has been righted.”
Palestinian leadership has plans to apply to 16 other U.N. specialized agencies and a vote to grant Palestinians full membership into the United Nations is scheduled to go through the Security Council on Nov. 11, however, the U.S. has vowed that it will veto the request.
