By Brian Napoletano – Paris

The governments of the 31 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) all agreed on May 10 that Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, its institutionalized discrimination against non-Jewish citizens, and its multiple alleged war crimes will not disqualify the state from joining the ranks of the world’s strongest economic powers.

The only reservations these issues raised among the member countries were those expressed by Switzerland, Ireland and Norway–who pointed out that some of Israel´s economic data was misleading because it aggregated statistics in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with its internal statistics.

Once Israel agreed to provide disaggregated statistics, to allow the OECD to add a footnote to its reports "stating that the data are supplied by and under the responsibility of the Israeli authorities and that their use by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law," and agreed to cooperate in a post-accession study on "the impact of including these areas in key economic and social aggregates," these three states dropped their objections and the group voted unanimously to invite Israel into its midst.

Citing Israel’s scientific and technological policies as its primary strength, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurr