UNESCO membership for Palestine

• UNESCO on Monday granted full membership to Palestine which, until now, enjoyed only observer status at the U.N. agency for education, science and culture.
• The demand for full membership was made by the Palestinian Authority and won the approval of 107 member states with 14 votes against and 52 abstentions at the organisation's General Conference. A 185 of UNESCO's 194 member states were eligible to vote.
• Full membership of UNESCO is a small but significant step forward for the Palestinians in their attempts to gain international recognition and statehood. The vote took place with the backdrop of increased Israeli-Palestinian violence.
• The U.S., which attempted to put pressure on its allies and several smaller states, voted against, as did Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia and the Czech Republic. At 52, the number of abstentions was surprisingly high and included many island nations in the Pacific and the Caribbean as well as major players like Britain and Italy.
• India, as Chair of the "Group of 77 and China" within UNESCO, played a "crucial, contributory yet constructive role in response to a legitimate demand on the part of the Palestinian people", Vinay Sheel Oberoi, India's Permanent Representative to UNESO, told The Hindu just minutes after the vote at the organisation's headquarters in Paris.Keeping Mahatma Gandhi's maxim in mind, that in true victory you do not revel in someone else's defeat, the Palestinian delegation did not gloat over its victory which was greeted with tremendous applause.
• European nations such as France, Ireland, Austria and Norway which broke with tradition to vote for the Palestinians were also strongly applauded. France had abstained in an earlier vote in UNESCO's Executive Board.
• Palestinian officials say they will call on UNESCO to recognise key monuments in the occupied Palestinian territories as world heritage sites. These include the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the place where Jesus is believed to have been born.