Filibuster successfully delays anti-Israel vote at UNESCO

"Israel succeeded in at least temporarily foiling yet another anti-Israeli resolution in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the help of the US and a series of delaying tactics.

The resolution would have condemned the Jewish state's handling of education in the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. Similar resolutions have been passed by the UN's education agency since 2009.

According to a report in the Hebrew-language website Ynet, a discussion scheduled for 3 p.m. on Thursday on the resolution was not expected to last more than a few minutes and the Palestinians had the needed majority for it to pass.

But Israel, with the help of the US, used every possible means to create a filibuster, including demanding a vote by name from each of the 196 countries which are members of UNESCO.

By the time the vote eventually took place, several of the delegates had left and the Palestinians no longer had their majority. No final decision was taken, and further debate was scheduled for Friday.

When discussion of the resolution began, the Kenyan envoy, who was chairing the session, said the resolution could be approved without a vote or a discussion. But Israel and the US demanded to postpone discussion of the resolution to the next session, scheduled for 2019.

Neither Israel nor the United States has a right to vote, since they stopped paying their membership fees, but the two countries still have the right to request a postponement of the vote.

When delegates from Arab countries refused, Israel asked for a vote on each one of the 11 clauses in the resolution. Israel also demanded a vote by name from each country, which took several hours...

Among what may be the first results of the filibuster, China, usually an automatic supporter of the Palestinians at the UN, abstained while Mexico, a usually pro-Palestinian country, voted in Israel's favor. According to Ynet, Mexico voted against its usual inclination in gratitude of the assistance it was given by Israel following a recent earthquake."