**Members of the group of rich nations, the OECD, have voted unanimously to invite Israel to join, despite Palestinian objections.**Joining the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is thought likely to boost Israel’s economic standing and help attract investment.
But Palestinians say Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank contradict OECD values on human rights and free trade.
The 31-member OECD said Slovenia and Estonia would also be invited to join.
The Organisation’s Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, hailed the move as a “new chapter” in the body’s history.
It “confirms our global vocation as the group of countries that search for answers to the global challenges, and establish standards in many policy fields such as environment, trade, innovation or social issues,” he said.
Palestinian objections
On Sunday, Israel’s trade minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, accused the Palestinian Authority, including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, of trying to derail Israel’s application to join the 31-member group.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry had written to OECD member states, urging them to vote to delay inviting Israel.
It said checkpoints and other restrictions in the West Bank, which Israel says are for security, were harming Palestinian economic development and contrary to OECD principles of free trade.
Palestinian campaign groups have also said the OECD did not pay enough attention to Israel’s human rights record during the application process.
Pro-Palestinian activists protested outside the organisation’s headquarters in Paris last week.
A unanimous vote was required for Israel to join.
Switzerland, Ireland and Norway had expressed reservations in connection with Israel’s inclusion of figures from settlements in the West Bank - illegal under international law - in the data supporting its membership application, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Israel is set to become one of the organisation’s poorest members.
Previous OECD reports have said it lags behind other developed countries in education standards and levels of poverty and inequality - particularly among its ultra-orthodox Jewish communities and the Israeli-Arab minority.
The OECD said its member countries hoped membership would bring all three new countries “closer to OECD standards in all fields”.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bbcnewsworldfullfeed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bbcnewsworldfullfeed?d=dnMXMwOfBR0 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bbcnewsworldfullfeed?i=QVa86_cOcL0:dlVOorinIxk:V_sGLiPBpWU
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bbcnewsworldfullfeed/~4/QVa86_cOcL0