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.
