You read that right. In a LONG overdue move, the United States has announced that it will officially withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
In a surprising move, mostly because it was right before his re-election, in 2011, President Obama cut funding for UNESCO, because they admitted the Palestinians. In 2013, as a result of the decrease in funds, in 2013, the United States lost its vote in the organization. So to clarify an organization claiming to care about culture and education only lets countries who give it lots of money, vote. The corruption at all levels of the United Nations really is amazing. But now the State Department has announced that the US will withdraw from UNESCO.
The Times of Israel, The New York Times, and many other media outlets reported today that the US said Adios, Arrivederci, Dosvedanya, to UNESCO due to financial constraints, a need for reform and more specifically because of its bias against Israel. NPR seems to have bee the first to break the story.
The US isn’t ditching UNESCO completely though, it will remain as a non-member observer and contribute accordingly to provide expertise. Such expertise has clearly been ignored by UNESCO in recent years, so I doubt this move will lead to any changes. 2018 can’t come soon enough.
The head of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, showed more regret for the US leaving, instead of the circumstances and actions that led to this. “Universality is critical to UNESCO’s mission to strengthen international peace and security in the face of hatred and violence, to defend human rights and dignity.” She continues that it isn’t the fact that UNESCO is biased against Israel, or corrupt, or ignorant of history, oh no, it’s that the US just doesn’t care about the work that they do, given the funding cut in 2011. She then adds, “This is all the more true today, when the rise of violent extremism and terrorism calls for new long-term responses for peace and security, to counter racism and antisemitism, to fight ignorance and discrimination.” Can she name a single terrorist-preventing measure that her organization has taken? The only thing I can think of is helping the Palestinians to justify their terrorism against Israel and continue it. You can read the full nauseating statement here.Of course, Bokova made no mention of Israel or the claims lobbied against it, but why, waste time since UNESCO doesn’t think Jews have ties to the land. She probably doesn’t even know Jews exist in the first place.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon pretty much said you reap what you sow. Furthermore “According to a Foreign Policy magazine report on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision to withdraw several weeks ago at the UN General Assembly, but the State Department urged Washington to remain in the organization until a new director-general is voted in the coming weeks,” as reported by the Times of Israel. The New York Times also added from a State Department spokesperson that this was not a decision made lightly and was carefully considered.
Al Jazeera, not to be ignored either in this and just had to remind us of the Palestinians, because they’re not happy unless we get their opinion on everything. The Palestinian National Initiative representative Mustafa Barghouti stated the decision shows US’s clear bias towards Israel. Facts don’t care about your feelings Barghouti. But I guess to the Palestinians if it’s in their favor, it isn’t bias, even if it completely goes against logic, history, and facts.
THe US is leaving UNESCO, who doesn’t care about the fact that their own bias and stupidity led to this, and the Palestinians think the US is a big meanie who loves Israel more. We can only hope that UNESCO learns their lesson, but so far, the chances of that are slim to none.
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