On This Day: US, Israel announce plans to quit UNESCO 4 years ago

• Author: AARON REICH
• Published date: 12 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

At the time, then US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley cited "outrageous and politically based decisions" made by the UN body to consider Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as Palestinian territory and not Jewish sites. That decision had been met with widespread outrage in Israel, with then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it "delirious" and Israel's then-ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama Hacohen taking out his phone in response to the vote and saying "Mr. Chairman. It's my plumber in my apartment in Paris. There is a huge problem in my toilet and it is much more important than the decision you just adopted."

Haley similarly outraged.

"The purpose of UNESCO is a good one. Unfortunately, its extreme politicization has become a chronic embarrassment," she said in a statement at the time.

"The Tomb of the Patriarchs decision was just the latest in a long line of foolish actions, which includes keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad on a UNESCO human rights committee even after his murderous crackdown on peaceful protestors. Just as we said in 1984 when president [Ronald] Reagan withdrew from UNESCO, US taxpayers should no longer be on the hook to pay for policies that are hostile to our values and make a mockery of justice and common sense."

On October 12, 2017, the State Department officially notified UNESCO of their plans to withdraw. In a statement, then-spokesperson Heather Nauert noted that "This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO."

Netanyahu praised the move, calling it a "brave and moral decision, because UNESCO has become the theater of the absurd and because instead of preserving history, it distorts it."

Just hours later, the then-prime minister told the Foreign Ministry to follow suit. Both nations officially left the organization on December 31, 2018.

UNESCO's then-director-general Irina Bokova, however, was not similarly enthusiastic, expressing "profound regret" at the move.

"At the time when the fight against violent extremism calls for renewed investment in education, in dialogue among cultures to prevent hatred, it is deeply regrettable that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations agency leading these issues," she said in a statement.

"At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to...