Why does the US wish to rejoin UNESCO? The reason why it left UNESCO, and more

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) made an announcement recently on Monday stating that the United States is all set to rejoin UNESCO in the month of July. Four years ago, the United States, along with Israel left the organization. During this time, the United States alleged that UNESCO was acting biased against Israel. In order to rejoin the organization, a vote by the member states of UNESCO is required, which, however, is going to pass quite easily.

A bit about UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a United Nations agency that is responsible for enhancing international cooperation and peace by means of promoting educational, cultural, and scientific causes. 

As per UNESCO, the US Department of State has currently  “welcomed the way in which UNESCO had addressed in recent years emerging challenges, modernized its management, and reduced political tensions.”

Why did the US leave UNESCO in the first place?

The story starts in the year 2011. It was in the year 2011 when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization admitted Palestine as its member. Under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the incident led the US to halt the funding of the agency, which was actually worth millions of dollars.

The United Nations does not recognize Palestine as a sovereign state. Palestine was inducted by UNESCO as a non-member observer State over objections by Israel in the year 2012. This meant that it was entitled to participate in the General Assembly proceedings, however, it wasn't entitled to voting rights.

In the year 2013, Nimrod Barkan, Israel's ambassador to UNESCO said to the Associated Press that the country backed the decision of the United States to halt its funding. He said that it was clearly “objecting to the politicization of UNESCO, or any international organization, with the accession of a non-existing country like Palestine”.

The United States and Israel called the induction of Palestine, along with the criticism of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem by UNESCO, some examples of anti-Israel bias. This led the United States to leave UNESCO.

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