Palestine becomes member of
UN cultural body

PARIS (AP) — Palestine became a full member
of the U.N. cultural and educational agency Monday, in a highly divisive move
that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace
efforts.

U.S. lawmakers had threatened to withhold
roughly $80 million in annual funding to UNESCO if it approved Palestinian
membership. The United States provides about 22 percent of UNESCO's funding.

Huge cheers went up in the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after delegates
approved the membership in a vote of 107-14 with 52 abstentions. Eighty-one
votes were needed for approval in a hall with 173 UNESCO member delegations
present.

"Long Live Palestine!" shouted one delegate, in French, at the unusually
tense and dramatic meeting of UNESCO's General Conference.

While the vote has large symbolic meaning, the issue of borders of an
eventual Palestinian state, security troubles and other disputes that have
thwarted Middle East peace for decades remain unresolved.

Palestinian officials are seeking full membership in the United Nations, but
that effort is still under examination and the U.S. has said it will veto it
unless there is a peace deal with Israel. Given that, the Palestinians
separately sought membership at Paris-based UNESCO and other U.N. bodies.

Monday's vote is definitive. The membership formally takes effect when
Palestine signs UNESCO's founding charter.

The U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, David Killion, said Monday's vote will
"complicate" U.S. efforts to support the agency. The United States voted against
the measure.

Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan, called
the vote a tragedy.

"UNESCO deals in science, not science fiction," he said. "They forced on
UNESCO a political subject out of its competence."

"They've forced a drastic cut in contributions to the organization," he
said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton last week called UNESCO's deliberation "inexplicable," saying discussion
of Palestinian membership in international organizations couldn't replace
negotiations with Israel as a fast-track toward Palestinian independence.

____

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton
contributed.