Trump exits UNESCO again, citing anti-Israel bias
Jewish groups have mixed reactions, with some saying the U.N. group has responded to criticism
The UNESCO headquarters in Paris. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has once again withdrawn the United States from UNESCO, accusing the U.N.’s science and cultural and organization of an anti-Israel bias and a “globalist” agenda.
In a statement Tuesday that drew mixed reactions from Jewish groups, the State Department accused the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which preserves cultural heritage sites around the world, of advancing “divisive social and cultural causes” and maintaining an “outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” which it referred to as having a “globalist, ideological agenda.”
It also criticized UNESCO for admitting the “State of Palestine” as a member state, and pointed to that decision as contributing to the “proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”
During Trump’s first term in 2017, the United States also withdrew from UNESCO over the organization’s alleged anti-Israel bias, but that decision was reversed by the Biden administration in 2023.
Trump’s latest move has received some push-back from major Jewish organizations in the United States, including the American Jewish Committee, which in March sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging him to keep the United States in UNESCO.
In the letter, the organization stated that UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has “taken an active role in combating antisemitism, hate speech and anti-Israel bias,” according to Axios.
UNESCO is an active international permanent partner of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and also supports the protection and development of the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“As UNESCO is the only UN body with an explicit mandate to combat antisemitism and promote Holocaust education, AJC believes that continued engagement with the organization is crucial,” the AJC wrote in a statement about the withdrawal announcement.
Hadar Susskind, the president and CEO of New Jewish Narrative, a progressive Zionist organization, also decried the announcement, saying in a statement that “recognition of Palestine should not be an obstacle to American participation in UNESCO.”
“President Trump is pursuing an isolationist policy. He’s using UNESCO’s ‘pro-Palestine’ actions as his fig leaf. The irony that he’s using the antisemitic trope that UNESCO serves a ‘globalist’ agenda is not lost on American Jews,” the statement continued.
Other Jewish groups and Israeli leaders have applauded the move.
On Tuesday, the World Jewish Congress wrote that it “welcomes the ongoing efforts of the U.S. administration to address and rectify the unfortunate, long-standing bias against Israel within the United Nations system.”
But it also added that the WJC would continue working with UNESCO, writing it would continue to collaborate with the organization on “advancing vital initiatives, particularly those focused on combating antisemitism and promoting Holocaust education.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hailed the United State’s exit in a post on X, writing, “this is a necessary step, designed to promote justice and Israel’s right for fair treatment in the UN system, a right which has often been trampled due to politicization in this arena.”
