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Israel, US to leave UNESCO; body elects Jewish leader

Audrey Azoulay

Audrey Azoulay

NEW YORK (JTA) — Israel will prepare to leave UNESCO alongside the US, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement praising President Donald Trump for the pullout announced by the State Dept.

The US announced Oct. 12 that the US will leave by 2019 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization over its anti-Israel bias and need for reform.

Netanyahu, in a statement, called it “a courageous and ethical decision because UNESCO has become a theater of the absurd and instead of preserving history, distorts it.”

The Israeli leader instructed his foreign ministry to “prepare Israel’s withdrawal from UNESCO in parallel with the Unites States,” read the statement.

The Paris-based body delighted Palestinians in July when it declared the Old City of Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs a Palestinian World Heritage Site.

In Hebron, the founders of Judaism were buried some 1,500 years before Islam and some 1,000 years before the word Palestine was devised. Hebron was King David’s capital in ancient Israel some 3,000 years before the emergence of a Palestinian national identity.

Prior to this resolution, UNESCO also passed several resolutions denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem, drawing Israeli officials’ fury and criticism by Western countries — including France, which supported the resolutions during votes.

Six years ago, the US cut off more than $80 million a year, about 22% of its entire budget for UNESCO, in reprisal for its acceptance of Palestine as a member, Foreign Policy reported.

The Obama administration said it had to cut funds because a 1990s-era law prohibits US funding for any UN agencies recognizing Palestine as a state. Israel also suspended its funding for UNESCO.

As a result of US funding cuts, it owes more than $500 million to UNESCO, according to Foreign Policy. The decision to withdraw from UNESCO owes partly to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s desire to stop the growing debt.

The US statement about the pullout, which would make it an observer state at the forum instead of a member, cited “the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO.”

UNESCO’s outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova — who has acknowledged the anti-Israel bias in her organization and vowed to block it — called the American announcement “a loss” for UNESCO, adding she “deeply regrets” the move.

“This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism,” Bokova said in an impassioned 10-minute address that UNESCO filmed and posted online.

In her speech, Bokova offered an overview of the US’ decades-long partnership with UNESCO, which she said was critical to the UN organization’s mission, serving the US’ interests, “because it has drawn on shared values.” She did not fault the US directly for leaving, or address the anti-Israel bias and other problems that Tillerson said prompted the decision.

She described UNESCO as the UN agency leading on issues impacting the fight against violent extremism, including renewed investment in education and dialogue among cultures to prevent hatred.

France’s former culture minister, Audrey Azoulay, was elected to head UNESCO after a cliffhanger vote on Friday evening, Oct. 13, becoming the first Jew at the helm of the UN agency.

By a margin of 30-28 votes, Azoulay, who is Jewish, narrowly defeated Qatari candidate for the director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Hamad bin Abdoulaziz Al-Kawari, who had been the frontrunner throughout the week’s voting, the Agence-Presse France news agency reported.

Azoulay, 45, came from behind after six rounds of voting to defeat Al-Kawari, also a former culture minister, after he failed to pick up support from other Gulf states that are part of a Saudi-led coalition blockading Qatar.

Azoulay, who is UNESCO’s 11th director, was named last year minister during a cabinet reshuffle. She is the daughter of Andre Azoulay, an adviser to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, and writer Katia Brami. She is a native of Morocco.



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