Israel has assumed membership of the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board, according to a statement released by the Israel foreign ministry. Its one-year term in 2013 represents the third such mandate in Israel’s history, but the first in 40 years, as the official comment expressed the Jewish State’s intention “to take an active role in discussions and in the management of the organisation”.
The appointment comes at a key crisis point in Israel’s relationship with the UN, following November’s overwhelming vote in favour of non-member observer status for the Palestinian Authority (PA) at the General Assembly, which Israel subsequently condemned for equating “Zionism with racism”, with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu categorically rejecting the decision.
Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu had repeatedly referred to Jerusalem in a series of speeches as Israel’s “eternal capital”, as he insisted Israel would not negotiate over its ownership as part of peace talks. Israel’s subsequent series of settlement expansion announcements for disputed East Jerusalem territory in the immediate aftermath of the UNGA vote, which the four European members (Portugal, France, Britain and Germany) of the UN Security Council later denounced for sending “a negative message and undermining faith in (Israel’s) willingness to negotiate”.
Another UN body finding itself increasingly at odds with the Israeli administration has been its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) after its members granted PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ emergency application for world heritage status for Jesus’ birthplace in the PA-led West Bank territory of Bethlehem in June.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement at the time declaring the vote as “proof that UNESCO is motivated by political and not cultural considerations,” invoking Abbas’ acknowledged plan to achieve world recognition of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem as the basis of a Palestinian State, starting with UNESCO recognition of the most commonly recognised landmark in the Christian world. UNESCO had previously voted to admit Palestine as a member state, to the vehement opposition of Israel and the US, but both motions were accepted after France publicly advocated an affirmative vote. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor had spoken out ahead of the vote in criticism of the decision to fast-track the application, which would normally take 18 months to come to a vote, which he claimed was a cynical attempt to “politicise the debate”, implying “Israel is to blame” for the deterioration of the Church of Nativity, which is now considered as a heritage site in danger.
Keen however to stress UNICEF’s humanitarian work in its statement Tuesday, the Israeli foreign ministry described the foundations of the Jewish State’s somewhat more dependent relationship with the aid organisation to its subsequent fundraising efforts for the organisation following its second mandate on the Executive Board which ended in 1965, which saw its reputation “transformed from a country initially assisted by UNICEF into a ‘supporter country’, joining the long list of Western UNICEF members”.
Heralding Israel’s “excellent network of connections” within the UN body, the foreign ministry concluded that its officials and UNICEF board representatives “intend to take an active role in discussions and in the management of the organisation”.