UNESCO's general assembly will vote Monday or Tuesday on whether to grant Palestine full member status, a move that would cut millions of dollars in US funding to the UN cultural agency, UNESCO sources said.
The vote is to take place as Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki will address the assembly, the sources told AFP.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation on Tuesday started holding its general assembly, which, like the UN General Assembly in New York, is to vote on Palestinian membership.
But while as a permanent UN Security Council member the US has a veto that it says it will exercise at the General Assembly, no one has a veto at UNESCO, where a two-thirds majority of its 193 voting members suffices.
Arab states braved intense US and French diplomatic pressure to bring the motion before the UNESCO executive committee earlier this month, which passed it by 40 votes in favour to four against, with 14 abstentions.
Palestine currently has observer status at UNESCO and diplomats told AFP that it would have no problem garnering the required votes to become a full member.
Such a move would automatically spark a crisis between Washington and UNESCO, as two laws passed by Israel's staunchest ally in the 1990s ban the financing of any United Nations organisation that accepts Palestine as a full member.
UNESCO stands to lose $70 million, or 22 percent of its annual budget.
According to Palestinian sources quoted by Haaretz newspaper Palestinians will not put off or abandon their request for full membership of UNESCO, despite heavy pressure on them to do so from the European Union and the United States.
, Palestinian sources told Haaretz yesterday.
Earlier this month, UNESCO's executive board expressed support for giving full membership to Palestine.
The Palestinians' representatives to the UN organization, as well as senior PLO and Palestinian Authority officials who are preparing for the vote, are openly voicing their anger against the EU for its negative reaction to their request.
At a meeting of the Quartet, composed of the United States, United Nations, the European Union and Russia, last Wednesday, the EU representative called both the Palestinian request for UNESCO membership and the issue of construction in the settlements as "provocative acts."
The Palestinians have reportedly rejected a compromise EU proposal which would offer the Palestinians an upgraded status within UNESCO rather than full membership.
According to a senior PLO official quoted by Haaretz "there are four countries leading this campaign against a full recognition: Canada, the United States, Germany and Colombia.
“We believe that the issue of Palestinian UN membership should be properly dealt with in New York before turning to specialized agencies and other UN bodies,” an EU spokesperson said.