The US government plans to rejoin UNESCO next month and pay back the $619 million it owes to the organization after a five-year absence over what Washington called “anti-Israel” bias.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay revealed on 12 June that the US notified her of its desire to rejoin the agency on the condition that a “concrete financing plan” is approved by a majority of member states.
The US move comes as China has taken a significant role in the international agency, becoming one of UNESCO’s most prominent donors and is home to the second-largest number of World Heritage sites.
The Trump White House withdrew from the agency in 2017, accusing it of bias against Israel for labeling Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a Palestinian site and passing resolutions regarding religious sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
At the time, the administration also cited mounting arrears of $550 million at the agency as a reason for the withdrawal.
“We were in arrears to the tune of $550 million or so, and so the question is, do we want to pay that money?” Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said at a news briefing in October 2017.
She added, “With this anti-Israel bias that’s long documented on the part of UNESCO, that needs to come to an end.”
Following the withdrawal, Washington drafted a highly controversial plan for the Palestinian territories in cooperation with the Israeli government in 2018.
The most prominent event within this plan was moving the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, effectively recognizing it as the capital of Israel.
The plan also laid out the possibility that Israel’s current borders be redrawn.
Palestinians took to the streets in protest before and during the ceremony announcing Jerusalem as the capital; at least 55 Palestinian protesters were killed and more than 2,400 wounded as Israeli forces opened live fire on them in Gaza.
Since the announcement of Trump’s plan, the Israeli government has continued illegally rebuilding new settlements across the West Bank, ignoring accusations of breaking international law.
In October 2011, the US halted funding of UNESCO due to its acceptance of Palestine as a state and a full member.
“The United States … remains strongly committed to robust, multilateral engagement across the U.N. system. However, Palestinian membership as a state in UNESCO triggers long-standing legislative restrictions which will compel the United States to refrain from making contributions to UNESCO,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said to reporters at the time.
She added that the vote by member states of UNESCO to admit the Palestinians as a member was “regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in [West Asia].”
UNESCO is the first UN agency the Palestinians have joined as a full member.
Among UNESCO’s tasks are designating World Heritage sites, promoting education around the world, and managing a tsunami early-warning system in the Pacific.