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Posted by
Olog-hai
on Thu Oct 12 13:38:04 2017, in response to US pulls out of UNESCO due to the UN body's bias against Israel, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Oct 12 13:29:27 2017.
BBC News
Israel to join US in quitting UNESCOBy Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent
12 October 2017Israel has said it will join the US in pulling out of the UN's cultural organization UNESCO, after US officials cited "anti-Israel bias".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US decision as "brave and moral", a statement said.
The agency is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria's Palmyra and the US Grand Canyon.
UNESCO head Irina Bokova earlier called the US withdrawal a matter of "profound regret".
She admitted, however, that "politicization" had "taken its toll" on the organization in recent years.
The withdrawal represented a loss to the "UN family" and to multilateralism, Ms. Bokova added.
The US withdrawal will become effective at the end of December 2018 — until then, the US will remain a full member. The US will establish an observer mission at the Paris-based organization to replace its representation, the state department said.'An easy target'UNESCO is an easy target for Mr. Trump — it is a multilateral body with educational and developmental goals like promoting sex education, literacy, and equality for women.
The US withdrawal will be seen by many as a manifestation of Mr. Trump's "America First" approach and his across-the-board hostility to multilateral organizations; the irony being that UNESCO is part of the international architecture that the US helped to establish in the wake of World War Two.
But it is the organization's perceived anti-Israel bias that is the fundamental issue here. It has condemned Israel in the past for its activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and earlier this year it designated the old city of Hebron a Palestinian World Heritage Site — a step Israel insisted denied centuries of Jewish history there, not least the Tomb of the Patriarchs that dates back to biblical times.
As well as accusing UNESCO of bias, the US state department said it was also concerned about mounting financial arrears at the agency and said it should be reformed.
The decision follows a string of UNESCO decisions that have drawn criticism from the US and Israel.
In 2011, the US cut much of its funding to the agency in protest at its decision to grant full membership to the Palestinians.
And last year, Israel suspended cooperation with UNESCO after the agency adopted a controversial resolution which made no reference to Jewish ties to a key holy site in Jerusalem. The resolution also criticized Israel's activities at holy places in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Then earlier this year, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned UNESCO for declaring the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank a Palestinian World Heritage site. He accused UNESCO of ignoring Judaism's ancient connection to the city, which includes the crypt where its matriarchs and patriarchs are buried.
The US withdrawal is also motivated by a desire to stop accruing arrears to the agency, Foreign Policy magazine reported. The US cut more than $80 million (£60 million) of funding to the agency amid the furor over Palestinian membership six years ago, but continues to be charged, and now owes more than $500 million, the magazine said.
US President Donald Trump has criticized what he sees as a disproportionate contribution by the US to UN institutions. The US funds 22% of the UN's regular budget and 28% of UN peacekeeping.
The decision to pull out of UNESCO was applauded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which said that for years, the agency had "betrayed its original laudatory mission... and chosen instead to unfairly target the Middle East's lone democracy, Israel".
The US was a founding member of UNESCO. The Reagan administration withdrew from the organization in 1984 — accusing the agency of corruption and an ideological bias towards the then Soviet Union — but the US rejoined in 2002.
UNESCO is in the process of choosing a new leader, with Qatari and French former ministers Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari and Audrey Azoulay neck-and-neck in the contest to replace Ms. Bokova.
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