Because, after all, why should the US have any interest in international organizations, given that we’re the bestest nation with the smartest president and the biggest military. And, in the case of UNESCO, why would the US have any interest in any of the many things the organization does, including global literacy programs (they should be for-profit!), press freedom programs (fake news!), water programs (we can sell that to them!), or protecting world heritage sites (sovereignty!).
Actually, it’s that last one that apparently led Trump’s State Dept. to yank us out in a huff, after UNESCO had the nerve to declare the old city of Hebron a Palestinian World Heritage Site “in Danger”.Though Hebron is in the West Bank, State declared this yet another example of “anti-Israel” bias, defined by the US government, it seems, as anything Israel doesn’t like:.
Netanyahu told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly last month that UNESCO was promoting “fake history” after it designated Hebron and the two adjoined shrines at its heart – the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque – as a “Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger.” An Arab-backed UNESCO resolution last year condemned Israeli’s policies at religious sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The US stopped its funding of UNESCO in 2011, when Palestine was admitted as a full member, ostensibly because it wants a Palestinian state to come from negotiations with Israel, not recognition from other countries. Because Israel, which distorts pretty much everything we do in the Middle East.
Israel has quit the UN group as well.
See, in a grown-up world, we are willing to disagree with others, yet still talk with them, and in fact take those disagreements as the basis for further discussion and drive toward consensus. In the US in general, especially around Israel, double-especially now that Trump is at the reigns, we take disagreement as attack, and other folk as people to kick to the curb if they get in our way.
Because we can. Or at least think we can.
The US Has Withdrawn from a UN Agency that Teaches Kids to Read and Protects Ruins
UNESCO runs programs for education, preservation, and conservation.
To be fair, it should be noted that the cessation of funding occurred during Obama's first term, so Trump's action in this case is not necessarily a reversal of previous State Department sentiments.
I double checked to see if the funding was cut by then-current Republican Congress. It wasn't – it was a State Department move to comply with legislation passed long before.
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Within hours, the US announced it would withhold its huge contribution to Unesco's budget as a result of the vote. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US had no choice due to a 21-year-old law prohibiting the payment of funds to any UN body accepting the Palestinians as full members.
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So the law would have been passed in 1990 (can't remember who controlled the House and Senate at that time) and signed by Bush 41.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/31/unesco-backs-palestinian-membership
+John E. Bredehoft Oh, there is lengthy US policy myopia over Israel and Palestine that can be blamed on both parties, no question about that. But thanks for the research and clarification.