The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, recently wrote a "Dear Colleague" letter to fellow members of Congress in which he stated:
"(S)ince rejoining UNESCO in 2005, the U.S. has exerted much effort to reform the organization and to ensure that it does not become another venue that unfairly singles out Israel for criticism. In that regard, I was pleased to see the attached letter from Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for recent U.S. efforts at UNESCO that prevented the adoption of a number of anti-Israel resolutions. Had the U.S. chosen not to engage with UNESCO, we would have been unable to rally the votes to block these anti-Israel resolutions."
Leslie Limage wrote me citing the Decisions Adopted by the Executive Board at its 184th Session. She notes:
ReplyDelete"The 184 UNESCO Executive Board decided to re-consider all the draft decisions attached to these five agenda items at the 185th session of the Board. Thus, there was neither the usual negotiated consensus decision on amended decisions nor a vote on the original texts.
5, IV Implementation of 35 C/Resolution 49 and 182 EX/Decision 5 (II) relating to the Ascent to the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem
12, Jerusalem and the implementation of 35 C/Resolution 49 and 182 EX/Decision 15
30, Implementation of 35 C/Resolution 75 and 182 EX/Decision 54 concerning educational and cultural institutions in the occupied Arab territories
31, Report by the Director-General on the reconstruction and development of Gaza: Implementation of 182 EX/Decision 55
37, The two Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron and the Bilāl bin Rābāh Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem?