Daily Alert Archives

Get the U.S. Out of UNESCO

(Wall Street Journal) Eugene Kontorovich - President Trump's Feb. 4 executive order mandated a review of U.S. membership in the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A decision is due by May 5. UNESCO's executive board meeting in Paris in April demonstrates that the organization is beyond reform. This year, three of the 11 "program issues" on the agenda related to criticism of Israel. Two of the three "general matters" items revolved around "occupied Palestine" and "the occupied Arab territories." Ukraine and Syria merited only one item each at the entire two-week conference. In 1984 Ronald Reagan withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO over the organization's politicization. George W. Bush rejoined in 2003, but in the years that followed, UNESCO admitted the "State of Palestine" as a full member, passed resolutions denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and designated Jewish holy places as "Palestinian World Heritage sites." This led Mr. Trump to pull the U.S. out of UNESCO in 2018, only for President Biden to reverse the move five years later. The writer is a professor at George Mason University Law School and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
2025-04-29 00:00:00
Full Article