US all set to rejoin UNESCO six years after Trump withdrew from it
UNESCO
The US is all set to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) after a decade-old dispute stemming from the inclusion of Palestine as a member. The US, along with Israel, boycotted UNESCO in 2011 after it voted to make Palestine a member. Then, in 2017, the former administration of Donald Trump withdrew from the agency altogether citing its alleged anti-Israel bias.
193 members of UNESCO will gather on Thursday in Paris to vote on USA’s return. The process largely seems a formality as no member has raised an objection, given the US has been the largest donor of the organisation for years. Until 2017, funds from Washington DC accounted for 22 per cent of the agency’s total annual budget.
The Biden administration has already requested Congress to earmark $150 million for the 2024 annual budget of the UN agency. The plan foresees similar requests for the ensuing years until the full debt of $619 million is paid off.
The threat of China
The US over the past few years has grown concerned over the rising role of China at the agency, which might put it at the driving seat in policymaking over important global issues such as artificial intelligence and education. “When we’re not at the table shaping that conversation and so actually helping to shape those norms and standards, well, someone else is. And that someone else is probably China,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last April.
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The US also aims to run for a seat on the body’s executive board in the upcoming November elections.
UNESCO’s anti-Israel ‘bias’
Israel has made consistent allegations against the United Nations, claiming that the organisation harbours a bias against Israel. One significant point of contention arose in 2012 when the UN General Assembly recognised the state of Palestine as a non-member observer state, despite objections from Israel.
This decision was met with particular anger from Israel, as it included the recognition of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, located in the West Bank, as a Palestinian world heritage site in need of protection. The Tomb of the Patriarchs holds great significance as the reputed burial place of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.
The Palestinians assert their claim to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip—territories that Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war—as the basis for establishing an independent state. Israel, however, stresses that the Palestinians' pursuit of recognition at the UN serves as a means to bypass negotiations and exert pressure on Israel to make concessions.
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