Also the same agency (UNESCO) the Obama administration is fighting tooth and nail to restore funding to.
(CNS News) — The U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is hosting three days of meetings relating to the “question of Palestine,” drawing fresh attention to its stance on an issue that has cost it the financial support of the United States, its biggest funder.
At the meetings, which began Wednesday, speakers accused Israel of “systematic terrorism,” “throttling the people” of Gaza, pursuing “criminal” policies and a “policy of racist violence,” operating a “torture machine,” and spreading propaganda in order to prevent many people around the world from grasping the Palestinians’ plight.
The meeting opened with a video message by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said that “the United Nations works day in and day out to promote economic and political empowerment throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.”
U.S. taxpayers accounted for 22 percent of UNESCO’s funding until the government was mandated by law to cut the funds last fall, after it became the first U.N. agency to admit “Palestine” as a member.
The Obama administration wants to restore that funding and is looking for support in Congress for a waiver that would make it possible to do so. UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova has also been lobbying towards that end.