The Self-Destruction of UNESCO

"On April 11, 2016 the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a decision, proposed by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman and Sudan, entitled 'Occupied Palestine'.

The very title of this decision perhaps betrays and undermines what one should expect from an international body ostensibly dedicated to education, science and culture.

The decision condemns all Israeli presence and activities in Jerusalem, Hebron and the tomb of Rachel. In so doing it pointedly and deliberately denies, ignores, and seeks to delete from history, any historic, cultural and religious link between the Jewish People, the Jewish religion and Jerusalem, including specifically its holy religious site of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the Machpela Cave in Hebron and Rachel's tomb near Bethlehem...

In retrospect, no-one should be surprised at the fact that UNESCO adopted this decision.

It follows similar decisions over the past years by UNESCO bodies at the urging chiefly of Arab and Muslim states, directed to advancing an extreme and politically partisan agenda having absolutely no bearing on the cultural and educational functions for which UNESCO was established. These decisions are intended to instill a narrative of denial of Jewish rights, and to have this denial disseminated throughout the educational framework of all UN organizations...

But this latest decision is singular in the fact that UNESCO, which has for long been considered and heralded to be the world's central body for the advancement of truth, culture, education and science, has been hijacked and turned into another Israel-bashing body.

It has been totally abused by Arab and Muslim states and those that support them, with a single agenda, to rewrite history, to pervert truth and to use UNESCO as an international platform for this purpose...

The US, Israel and other responsible states should suspend their continued membership in UNESCO, including payment of membership fees and cultural and scientific cooperation, until the organization takes the measures necessary to reverse its acute political radicalization, and returns to fulfill the functions for which it was established..."