Netanyahu says will follow US

Jerusalem: Israel will withdraw from the UN's cultural and education body after a United States decision to do the same on accusations of bias against the Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

"The prime minister instructed the foreign ministry to prepare Israel's withdrawal from the organisation alongside the United States," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Mr Netanyahu "welcomes the decision by President (Donald) Trump to withdraw from Unesco. This is a courageous and moral decision because Unesco has become the theatre of the absurd and because instead of preserving history it distorts it." Mr Netanyahu's decision came hours after the US State Department said the United States would pull out from the UN body, in part due to "continuing anti-Israel bias".