Israel Inner Cabinet Meets over UNESCO Vote

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a meeting of his inner cabinet on Tuesday to consider a response to UNESCO's decision to admit Palestine, officials and local media said.

Israeli media said the so-called Forum of Eight would meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a response to UNESCO's decision a day earlier to admit Palestine as a full member despite U.S. and Israeli objections.

"We will look at how we will respond to this vote," a senior Israeli official told Agence France Presse.

The Palestinian bid for UNESCO membership, which comes as the Palestinians are also seeking to become a United Nations member state, was approved by a vote of 107 in favor, with 14 voting against, and 52 abstaining.

The vote will cost the organization its U.S. funding, which makes up 22 percent of its budget, because U.S. law requires Washington to cut funds to any U.N. organization that admits Palestine as a full member.

Washington had lobbied the organization to delay the vote, and Israel had also pushed the group to reject the membership bid.

On Monday, Israel's foreign ministry condemned what it said was a "unilateral Palestinian maneuver which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement."

Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said on Tuesday the Jewish state would "weigh its reactions to this vote at the diplomatic and political level, taking its interests into account."

Ayalon criticized UNESCO, saying it had become a "political organization by granting membership a state that doesn't exist."

And he said that the Palestinian decision to seek UNESCO membership "proves that they don't want peace or negotiations, but rather to prolong the conflict."