Palestinians join two UN agencies, chemical weapons treaty

United Nations/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Palestinians have joined two UN agencies and the global convention to halt the spread of chemical weapons, a UN envoy said Wednesday, despite a threat of US funding cuts.

At the United Nations, the Palestinians have the status of a non-member observer state that allows them to seek membership of agencies and become a party to international treaties.

The move will raise the Palestinian profile in international diplomacy and comes amid a rift with the administration of President Donald Trump over its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN coordinator for the Middle East, told the Security Council that the Palestinians had joined the Geneva-based UN trade organisation UNCTAD, Vienna-based industrial development agency UNIDO and the chemical weapons convention.

"On May 15, Palestine acceded to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the Convention on the Prohibition, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons," Mladenov said.

The envoy did not address whether the decision will have an impact on funding from the United States for these agencies and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). 

The OPCW, UNCTAD and UNIDO rely on voluntary contributions from UN member-states to fund its activities as well as its regular budget.

The United States withdrew some funding for UNESCO when the Palestinians joined the cultural and education agency in 2011 and last year pulled out of the agency altogether.

The Trump administration has also cut funds to the UN Palestinian refugee agency that have left UNRWA struggling to fill a major gap in its education and health programmes. 

The OPCW announced in The Hague earlier that the state of Palestine will become the 193rd state to join the chemical weapons convention. 

Only four countries — Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan — have yet to ratify the chemical weapons convention, which aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.

The Palestinians angered Israel when they became a state-party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015. 

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki this week met with the ICC chief prosecutor to push for an investigation of Israeli war crimes after more than 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, the worst violence since the 2014 war.

Tensions between Israel and Gaza have spiralled since March 30, when Palestinians began protesting for the right to return to the homes their families fled or were expelled from in 1948, during the war surrounding the creation of Israel.

A total of at least 118 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces’ fire since then, according to authorities in Gaza, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas.

No Israelis have been killed during that time.