UNESCO’s 193 members states gathered on Thursday for a two-day meeting in Paris aimed at voting on the United States’ plans to rejoin the UN cultural and scientific agency, The Associated Press reported.
The US earlier this month notified UNESCO that it has decided to rejoin the agency, after the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing US membership.
Israel withdrew from UNESCO in 2019, after the US made a similar announcement, over the agency’s anti-Israel bias.
US officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by the US in UNESCO policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world, according to AP.
Approval by member states seems a formality since not a single country has raised an objection to the return of a country that was once the agency’s single biggest funder.
In late 2021 it was reported that the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to renew its membership in UNESCO. Last year, it was that Israel has withdrawn its opposition to a US return to UNESCO.
Two months later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel has no objections to a US return to the UN cultural agency.
The Biden administration has already requested $150 million for the 2024 budget to go toward UNESCO dues and arrears. The plan foresees similar requests for the ensuing years until the full debt of $619 million is paid off, according to AP.
That makes up a big chunk of UNESCO’s $534 million annual operating budget. Before leaving, the US contributed 22% of the agency’s overall funding.
Israel had a contentious relationship with UNESCO, which has approved several anti-Israel resolutions in recent years.
In 2018, the UN agency approved a resolution declaring that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are "an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian territory."
Previous resolutions referred to the Jewish state as "the occupying power" in Jerusalem. Another declared the Old City of Hebron as a “Palestinian World Heritage site”.
In 2016, UNESCO passed resolutions declaring that Israel has no rights to Jerusalem, and describing the Temple Mount and Old City of Jerusalem as Muslim holy sites.
