{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns-and-op-eds/column-support-israel-president-trump-right-withdraw-unesco", "COLUMN: To Support Israel, President Trump Right to Withdraw from UNESCO", "2017-10-16", "2017", "2017-10", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The U.S. and the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have had a long, contentious history over the organization\u2019s controversial stances. The aim of UNESCO\u2014to promote greater cross-cultural understanding\u2014is well-intentioned. In fact, the U.S. had a formative role in creating UNESCO as an organization meant to promote freedom and democratic values. But in practice, UNESCO has departed from that mission and acted as a platform for anti-Israel and anti-Western totalitarians. U.S. presidents on both sides of the aisle have curtailed American involvement in the organization.\nIn 1983, President Reagan ordered the U.S. to withdraw from UNESCO because the organization had become too corrupt and too supportive of the USSR. Reagan\u2019s administration pointed out that UNESCO \u201cexhibited a hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press,\u201d and \u201cdemonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion.'' Only after President George W. Bush assessed that anti-American sentiment had eroded in the aftermath of 9/11 did the U.S. rejoin the organization.\nUnder President Obama, the U.S. stopped paying dues in 2011 after UNESCO voted to allow \u201cPalestine\u201d to become a full member, in a direct affront to our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel.\nIn 2012, even after Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed his own people, UNESCO refused to expel Syria from its human rights committee.\nLast year, Israel recalled its UNESCO ambassador in protest of the organization\u2019s approval of a resolution ignoring Judaism\u2019s connection to the Temple Mount.\nIn June of this year, UNESCO approved a resolution calling Israel the \u201coccupying power\u201d in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.\nIn July, UNESCO designated the Old City of Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as part of Palestinian territory. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was absolutely right to say that the decisions \u201crepresents an affront to history\u201d and \u201cundermines the trust that is needed for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to be successful.\u201d\nThe pattern is obvious: UNESCO has strayed from its mission and constantly approves anti-Israel resolutions and tiptoes around tyrants. Why should the U.S. support or fund the work of such a tone-deaf and unserious organization?\nCiting the need for fundamental reform and obvious anti-Israel bias, President Trump\u2019s State Department announced last week that the U.S. would again withdraw from UNESCO, remaining a nonmember observer state. Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with praise for President Trump\u2019s \u201cbrave and moral decision, because UNESCO has become the theater of the absurd and because instead of preserving history, it distorts it.\u201d\nClearly, American participation that legitimizes UNESCO\u2019s current path does not serve our foreign policy interests. UNESCO is deeply flawed and needs fundamental reform before the U.S. should ever consider rejoining. I applaud President Trump\u2019s decision to take strong action, and I support his administration\u2019s commitment to reevaluate U.S. participation in additional UN agencies.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns-and-op-eds/column-support-israel-president-trump-right-withdraw-unesco"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7090251203626394, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}