President Trump has withdrawn the US from the United Nations Instructional, Scientific, and Cultural Group (UNESCO) for the second time within the authorities’s newest blow to world cultural heritage preservation.
In a short assertion posted to the Division of State web site on Tuesday, July 22, spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated UNESCO’s recognition of Palestine as a member state was contradictory to US overseas coverage pursuits and propagated anti-Israel bias, claims that Director-Common of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay rejected in a press release shared with Hyperallergic.
“UNESCO has supported 85 countries in implementing tools and training teachers to educate students about the Holocaust and genocides, and to combat Holocaust denial and hate speech,” Azoulay stated. “UNESCO will continue to carry out these missions, despite inevitably reduced resources.”
Azoulay added that UNESCO is the one UN arm immediately concerned in Holocaust schooling and combating antisemitism, efforts celebrated by teams just like the pro-Israel World Jewish Congress. The US’s withdrawal comes days after the Division of State imposed sanctions on UN Particular Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Machu Picchu, certainly one of over 1,200 websites overseen by UNESCO (photograph Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)
UNESCO oversees over 1,200 World Heritage websites, together with the Taj Mahal in India, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Milanese church housing “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, in addition to Yosemite Nationwide Park, Yellowstone Nationwide Park, and others within the US. 5 UNESCO World Heritage websites are situated in Palestine, together with the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem. The group additionally works to safeguard heritage property caught in numerous crises, resembling supporting regional response after the obvious looting on the Nationwide Museum of Sudan in Khartoum through the nation’s ongoing civil battle.
The Division of State claimed in its departure announcement that UNESCO centered on “divisive” goals, together with selling the broader UN’s adopted Sustainable Growth Targets, which embody eradicating starvation and poverty and selling “sustainable industrialization.”
Per UNESCO’s structure, the US will stay a member by way of 2026, although the Division of State knowledgeable the group on Tuesday of its intentions. US membership dues account for 8% of UNESCO’s whole finances, however since Trump’s first withdrawal in 2017, Azoulay stated that personal contributions have doubled.
The US stopped funding UNESCO when the group included the “State of Palestine” as a member state in 2011, as required by a regulation prohibiting funds from flowing to businesses that grant full membership to Palestine. The US remained a member, nonetheless, till Trump’s first presidency, when he additionally cited supposed anti-Israel bias. It rejoined in 2023 beneath President Joe Biden, who promised to pay again over $600 million in arrears.
Israel withdrew from UNESCO in 2019. The broader UN has not acknowledged Palestine as a full member.
“We will continue to work hand in hand with all of our American partners in the private sector, academia and non-profit organizations, and will pursue political dialogue with the US administration and Congress,” Azoulay stated in at the moment’s assertion.
