The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) claims it
“works to create the conditions for dialogue
among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for
commonly shared values.” In fact, as Monday’s vote to make
the Palestinian Authority a UNESCO member
suggests, UNESCO views its primary mission as a cultural change
agent to be consistent with its half-century campaign to
marginalize Israel.
The Obama administration voted
against the Palestinian application because it was another effort
to create a Palestinian state using the land, borders, resources
and capital city of another country without asking for it. Instead
of proudly defending Israel against UNESCO’s power grab, however,
the administration was nearly apologetic. David Killon, the U.S.
representative to UNESCO, pledged to “find ways
to support and strengthen the important work of this vital
organization.” State Department Spokesperson
Victoria Nuland stated, “Not paying our dues into these
organizations could severely restrict and reduce our ability to
influence them, our ability to act within them, and we think this
affects U.S. interests.”
There is concern the Palestinians
will go through the UN Directory and apply for membership to every
other agency the UN operates, including the World Health
Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the
International Atomic Energy Agency and B’nai B’rith. (OK, I made
the last one up.) The law requiring that we not
fund the UN organization that grants the Palestinians membership
applies to all of the above agencies. So the goal is to pressure
and isolate America so that it will support or not oppose
Palestinian membership in the UN General Assembly.
But the claim that standing up to
such tactics undermines American interests has to be weighed
against two other considerations. First, the only thing that gets
UNESCO’s or the UN’s attention is cutting of its allowance. Second,
it’s the only tool short of resigning membership that seems to stop
UNESCO from pursuing anti-American and anti-Israel activities. The
only way to avoid a UNESCO fiasco is to stop underwriting such
activities no matter what the agency.
In 1974 UNESCO voted to exclude
Israel from its European regional group for engaging in
archeological exploration and construction. This anti-Jewish
ostracism was not abandoned until 1978, after the United States
withheld $40 million in payments from the organization in
protest.
In 1984, the Reagan administration (along with Britain and
France) stopped funding UNESCO because the agency was sponsoring
programs, proposals and materials that were hostile to the idea of
freedom (and enthusiastic about Soviet-style government) and was
particularly critical of Israel. It worked for a while. But as soon
as the U.S. resumed making contributions to UNESCO in 2002, efforts
to isolate Israel increased.
Since 1967, Arab states have tried to
portray Israel as the usurper of Arab lands. Denying historical
Jewish ties to Israel is part of that campaign, one that UNESCO has
financed and participated in. UNESCO has called
for financial sanctions against Israel and passed hundreds of
resolutions criticizing Israel’s efforts to restore historic and
holy sites in Jerusalem. When the UN celebrated its 50th
anniversary, UNESCO refused to mention the Holocaust in its World
War II resolution, intentionally ignoring Israel’s request to
include a specific reference to the destruction of European
Jewry.
In 1989 UNESCO stated, “Israel’s
occupation of Jerusalem” was destroying the holy city by “acts of
interference, destruction and transformation.” UNESCO claimed in
1974 that Israel’s control over a united Jerusalem was a “cultural
crime against humanity.” In 1996, UNESCO organized a symposium on
Jerusalem at the body’s Paris headquarters. But no Jewish or
Israeli groups were invited. Maybe the invitation got
lost.
Over the past decade UNESCO has worked with Arab
organizations to deny Jewish claims to religiously important
historical sites in Israel. In 2010 UNESCO declared that Rachel’s
Tomb in Bethlehem is a mosque and claimed the Tomb and the Cave of
the Patriarchs were Palestinian sites and “an integral part of the
occupied Palestinian Territories.”
In 2009, UNESCO designated Jerusalem as a “capital of Arab
culture,” working with Palestinian Authority officials and key Arab
figures to protest against what they described as “the Israeli
occupation of Holy Jerusalem.”
These actions helped UNESCO with its other major
responsibility: the development of curriculum and
textbooks in Palestinian and Arab communities. As
UNESCO eliminates Jewish historical ties to Jerusalem and holy
sites, Palestinian textbooks have been revised accordingly.
Textbooks have erased Jewish claims to the Western Wall and
Rachel’s Tomb. For example, National Education, a textbook
for seventh-graders published in 2010, refers to the Western Wall
as the “Al-Buraq Wall,” and to Rachel’s Tomb as “Al-Bilal
Mosque.”
The Obama administration voted against UNESCO’s latest
effort to isolate Israel and then nearly apologized for it. That’s
less than enough, since it must do what is necessary to stop the
madness from spreading. It has to take a stand, in other words.
Leading from behind won’t cut it.
