On Thursday, October 12, the Trump administration shared the news that they would be completely removing all ties with UNESCO the United States Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization.
UNESCO’s primary role is to ensure and promote security and peace by developing ties between nations from education to communication.
What does this all mean? Well, it simply means that the United States will stop funding an organization who’s mission is to strengthen international peace and defend human rights.
But of course as everything always does, there is a reason behind the breakup.
According to Heather Nauert, the current spokeswomen for the State Department claimed that they have decided to abandon their relationship with UNESCO because of their “anti – Israel bias.” And with UNESCO naming the city of Hebron in the West Bank and its Tomb of the Patriarchs a Palestinian World Heritage site PLUS our accumulated debt of $550 million, it was time.
The strains apparently go way back to 2011 when the U.S decided to stop aiding UNESCO because of a violation to an old act that constituted in funding an agency that accepted a Palestine member. Previous POTUS Barack Obama desperately tried to repeal said condition but failed to do so and in return, we lost its vote after not paying for two consecutive years in 2013. Which basically means we were feeding UNESCO an estimated amount of about $70 million a year.
The Trump Administration isn’t the first to end their relationship with UNESCO.
As a matter of fact, The first president to back out from the organization was Ronald Reagan in 1984 due to beliefs that UNESCO was profligate and had pro-soviet inclinations.
But that soon ended when George W. Bush’s administration decided to reconvene with them in 2002 in hopes of revamping the United States international associations.
POTUS Donald Trump isn’t foreign to severing ties with international organizations so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise getting UNESCO out of the picture after withdrawing membership with The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Paris Climate Accord. Rumors also say that the administration is also contemplating on removing themselves from other agreements like the NATO, NAFTA and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Our membership with UNESCO will terminate effective immediately in December of 2018.