The Biden administration is placing pressure on Israel to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Yisrael Hayom reported on Sunday.
The issue was raised by US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield during her meetings with senior officials in Israel last week and was raised many times in previous meetings between senior US and Israeli government officials, the report said.
The Trump administration withdrew its membership from the UNESCO in 2017 following numerous anti-Israel decisions by the organization questioning Israeli presence in Jerusalem and naming ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites. Israel followed suit just days later, withdrawing its membership as well.
In 2011, the UNESCO granted full membership to the Palestinian Authority, which prompted the Obama administration to suspend payments to the organization in accordance with US law. Now that the Biden administration wants to rejoin the UNESCO, the Senate Appropriations Committee is exploring ways for the US, which owes UNESCO over $500 million, to transfer the money through a special waiver so it can resume membership.
However, the waiver would have to be approved by the Senate and the House in order to become law, an unlikely prospect. The US is hoping that if Israel rejoins the organization, it will pave the way for the move’s approval in Congress.
According to the report, Israel has yet to respond to the US on the issue.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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Yes, the same UNESCO that named the Har Habayis “Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount” and refused to include its Hebrew name, thus erasing thousands of years of Jewish history on the holiest spot in the world. As Netanyahu famously said, “To say that [the Jewish people have] no link to the Har Habayis is like saying that China has no link to the Great Wall or that Egypt has no connection to the pyramids.” This besides for UNESCO admitting the PA, a non-existent country in the eyes of the US. Even Obama, no friend of the Israelis, stopped payments over that action.