American withdrawal from UNESCO to support Israel - LNBN 18

OCTOBER 12, 2017.

News and polities.

American withdrawal from UNESCO to support Israel.

UNESCO was notified Thursday morning of the U.S. intention to withdraw at the end of 2018. According to many State Department officials said the country will withdraw from UNESCO on December 31 this year to protest the anti-Israel psychology here.

Perhaps this reflects US concerns about the ongoing work at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform and anti-Israeli mentality. The United States will remain in contact as an observer, contributing to the perspective and expertise of UNESCO.

The withdrawal meant that the United States would suspend its debt obligations since it stopped funding the organization in 2011 to protest the Palestinian Authority's accession to official membership.

Director General of UNESCO, I regret the decision to withdraw from UNESCO of the United States.UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova affirmed this is a great loss to multilateralism in particular and to the United Nations family in general.

The decision was probably related to events such as UNESCO's failure to expel Syria from its human rights commission after the civil war in that country, and repeated resolutions referring to Israel as a occupying power.

The United States cut a large share of the donations, which accounted for 22% of the UNESCO budget in 2011, to protest the decision to recognize full Palestinian membership.

American law since the 1990s required the US government to withdraw funding from any UN agency when it recognized Palestinian membership, before it entered into a peace treaty with Israel.