Hard to believe..

If you are outside of the U.S., send a message to President Obama here.

Dear Supporter,

It's hard to believe. I mean, I've known, we've all known, that the United States'Israel-Palestine policy has always been bad for the world and bad for its own citizens. But it's never been so ridiculously obvious.

Not until yesterday.

You see, decades-old U.S. legislation meant to punish the Palestinians could very well mean that the United States is about to end its funding for many of the world's most important international bodies including the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization-- which manages copyrights and patents, UNICEF,
and even the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as a range of lesser known but critical agencies.

The legislation doesn't even let the president override the bill to protect the national interest.
If you're a U.S. citizen, I want you to write your representatives now to tell them to waive the provision that bars the president from making a decision based on the national interest—and to work towards repeal of the legislation.

If you live outside of the United States, tell the president how foolish it is to withdraw funding from UN bodies that accept the Palestinians as members.

This is how it happened. Yesterday, 107 member nations in UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, voted to admit Palestine as a member. UNESCO protects world heritage sites and leads global efforts to bring clean water to
the poor. They even manage a tsunami early-warning system in the Pacific.

The U.S. was one of just 14 countries that voted “no” to Palestinian admission.
 
But within hours of the vote, the Obama Administration announced it would stop paying its $80 million in total yearly dues to UNESCO, which amounts to over 20 percent of UNESCO's total budget. Why? Because the vote triggered decades-old U.S. legislation that that the U.S. stop paying any UN body that accepts Palestine as a member—even though official U.S. policy is to support a Palestinian state.  

That has to change.

You see, the Israeli government and its right-wing supporters in the United States don't even want a symbolic recognition of the Palestinian's right to self-determination or participation on the world stage. That's what the law is really about. The Israelis have already announced that they are expediting the construction of even more settlements and withholding life-sustaining tax monies that belong to
the Palestinian Authority as punishment for the vote.

But to the rest of the world, this is more than a symbol.

The threat that this will start a cascade as other UN bodies vote to accept Palestine is real. In fact, the Obama Administration already called a meeting with top U.S. companies like Apple and Google who are none too happy with the idea of the U.S. weakening and ceding power in the World Intellectual Property Organization. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Remarkably, 107 UNESCO member countries voted in favor of the resolution, despite knowing that the agency could lose over one fifth of the agency’s budget. What UN body will be next?  

Now, the U.S.’s policies on this issue are clearly isolating us further on the world stage. The U.S. is endangering its status at the UN and impoverishing critical global program needs simply because Palestinian admission to UNESCO angered Israel.  

Please write your U.S. representatives now. Tell them to waive the portion of
the law that bars the president from making funding decisions based on the national interest, and to work towards repeal of the law.

If you live outside of the United States, send a message to the Obama administration that this policy is harmful for the whole world.

Don't let this go unanswered,

Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director
Jewish Voice for Peace