In the News
In a news article, the Algemeiner cited B’nai B’rith International’s concern over the U.S. announcing its intention to rejoin UNESCO because of the U.N. agency’s anti-Israel bias.
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday announced that the United States intends to rejoin the UN cultural body in July, ending a five-year absence over accusations that UNESCO was biased against Israel.
UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay called the US’s plan, delivered in a State Department letter, a “strong act of confidence, in UNESCO and in multilateralism.”
While the move was welcomed by the World Jewish Congress, who cited UNESCO’s efforts in Holocaust remembrance and interfaith initiatives, B’nai B’rith International, a pro-Israel Jewish advocacy and service organization, urged caution over the US plan to rejoin.
“Taking note of reports that the U.S. aims to rejoin UNESCO, we urge assurances that UNESCO will focus on its mission without politicization and that Israel be treated equally within it,” they wrote on Twitter Sunday afternoon. “Vigilance by all stakeholders will be key.”
The most recent round of trouble between UNESCO and the United States began in 2011, when Palestine was admitted to UNESCO as a full member. Under the provisions of a pair of laws passed in the early 1990s, that admission prevented the Obama administration from funding UNESCO, and the US has since accrued a debt to the organization of more than $600 million in unpaid membership dues.
In 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention of fully withdrawing from the organization over its anti-Israel bias. The year before, UNESCO adopted a pair of resolutions that omitted any mention of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, which the documents referred to exclusively as “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif” and as a “Muslim holy site of worship.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter to condemn the resolutions for denying a connection between Jews and the Temple Mount.
“What’s next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin? Rock and roll?” he asked at the time.
Both the US and Israel formally exited the organization in 2019, the second time the US had departed after the Reagan administration withdrew in 1984 over UNESCO’s financial mismanagement and alleged Soviet influence over the organization. President George W. Bush then rejoined UNESCO in 2003.
Monday’s rejoining announcement was made possible by a provision in December’s omnibus spending bill authorizing the President to waive the funding restrictions on organizations that have admitted Palestine as a member so long as the President certifies that doing so would counter Chinese influence. The bill also says that waiver would cease if Palestine were to be admitted as a member of the United Nations outside of a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Palestine.