Palestinians Attempt to Re-Open Vote on Anti-Israel UNESCO Resolution, Claim More States Want to Support Resolution

"The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday made a last-ditch effort to change the results of the vote on the anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The resolution, adopted earlier this week, says that Israel has no sovereign authority over its capital, Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the resolution was adopted, it was a relatively favorable outcome for Israel, as only 22 member countries voted in favor, while 10 opposed, 23 abstained, and three were absent from voting.

On Friday, however, the PA representative at UNESCO claimed that there were at least two countries that changed their minds about voting against the resolution and tried to reopen the discussion on the resolution as the executive board met to ratify it.

Upon realizing that he will be unsuccessful in his attempts, the PA envoy asked for the right to speak at the UNESCO gathering and claimed that he did not understand why there were even any objections to the resolution...

Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, told Arutz Sheva that the Palestinians understood that they were likely to fail.

'We are pleased that the Arab states gave up on the idea of reopening the vote on Jerusalem and hope that they will abandon the issue altogether, in preparation for the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee in two months in Krakow, Poland,' he said..."