U.S. to quit UNESCO over ‘anti-Israel bias’
Irked by Palestinians’ inclusion in 2011, Washington calls for agency’s ‘fundamental reform’
PARIS— The United States announced Thursday it is pulling out of the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for “fundamental reform” in the agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to follow suit, calling U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision “brave and moral.”
While the Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for months, the timing of the State Department’s statement Thursday was unexpected.
The Paris-based agency is in the midst of a heated election to choose a new chief — with Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the lead as the executive board vote heads into a final ballot on Friday.
The outgoing UNESCO directorgeneral, Irina Bokova, expressed her “profound regret” at the U.S. decision and tried to defend the reputation of the organization, best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions. She called the U.S. departure a loss for “the United Nations family” and for multilateralism, saying the U.S. and UNESCO matter to each other more than ever now to better fight “the rise of violent extremism and terrorism.”
The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include the Palestinian territories as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. The U.S. now owes about $550 million (U.S.) in back payments.
In a statement, the State Department said the decision will take effect Dec. 31, 2018, and that the U.S. will seek a “permanent observer” status instead. It cited U.S. belief in “the need for fundamental reform in the organization.”
Netanyahu said Thursday that Isra- el also plans to withdraw from the agency, saying it had become a “theatre of the absurd because instead of preserving history, it distorts it.”
Israel has been angered by resolutions that diminish its historical connection to the Holy Land and have instead named ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites.
U.S. officials said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision and it was not discussed with other countries. The officials, who were not authorized to be publicly named discussing the issue, said the U.S. was notably angry over UNESCO resolutions denying Jewish connections to holy sites and references to Israel as an occupying power.
It’s not the first time the U.S. has pulled out of UNESCO: Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The U.S. rejoined it in 2003.
Chris Hegadorn, the U.S. Charge d’affaires and ranking U.S. representative to UNESCO, said the U.S. would remain a force at the cultural agency in the same way as it was from 1984, when the country withdrew under then-president Ronald Reagan.
The U.S. told Bokova it intends to stay engaged as a non-member “observer state” on “non-politicized” issues, including the protection of World Heritage sites, advocating for press freedoms and promoting scientific collaboration and education.
“We will be carefully watching how the organization and the new director general steers the agency,” Hegadorn said. “Ideally, it steers it in a way that U.S. interests and UNESCO’s mandate will converge.”