US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday claimed that Israel, which withdrew its membership from the UN cultural agency UNESCO in 2017 due to its anti-Israel bias, supports the US return to the organization, AFP reported. “We believe that having the waiver authority would be important and necessary and I can say with authority that our partners in Israel feel the same way. They would support our rejoining UNESCO,” Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee. 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 November 2021, Yisrael Hayom reported that the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to rejoin the UNESCO. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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