Heading to New York on Sept. 25, the calendar of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was packed with meetings with world leaders. Apart from meeting US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Rwanda President Paul Kagame, Netanyahu was also expected to participate at a conference organized by UNESCO on the sidelines of the 2018 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in a first-of-its-kind UNESCO conference titled ‘’Education to prevent racism and discrimination: the case of anti-Semitism.’’ But on Sept. 26, shortly before the conference was due to be launched, Netanyahu announced that he would not be attending.
“While I commend all efforts to combat anti-Semitism, I have decided not to participate in this week’s UNESCO conference on anti-Semitism due to the organization’s persistent and egregious bias against Israel. Since 2009, UNESCO has passed 71 resolutions condemning Israel and only two resolutions condemning all other countries combined. This is simply outrageous,” said Netanyahu’s statement.
UNESCO has passed in recent years several resolutions considered by Jerusalem to be anti-Israeli, including decisions highlighting Palestinian affinity to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, decisions condemning West Bank settlements and decisions condemning Israeli archaeological digging at the City of David Jerusalem site. Last October, the United States announced its exit out of the UN agency over the organization’s “continuing anti-Israel bias,” with Israeli following suit. The double exit should become official at the end of December 2018.
This clear-cut decision to quit was put to test shortly after its announcement, with the surprising election of France's Audrey Azoulay as the new head of UNESCO. On her first day at the job, Azoulay said that she wanted to restore UNESCO’s original mission of promoting education and culture, distancing the agency from political conflicts. Speaking at the time to Al-Monitor, Azoulay reiterated her hopes that Israel could be persuaded to change its mind and stay in UNESCO. In the weeks after, Azoulay passed on several messages to Jerusalem about her efforts to change UNESCO’s treatment of Israel.
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