Israel announced on Tuesday that it will officially no longer be a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“Israel will not be part of a body that continually rewrites history, including by erasing the Jewish connection to Jerusalem,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told JNS. “UNESCO is manipulated by Israel’s enemies and continually singles out the Jewish state for condemnation.”
The U.N. agency has been subject to criticism of anti-Israel bias and a distortion of historical sites such as Jewish ties to the Western Wall and Temple Mount.
In September, Israel declined to partake in UNESCO’s conference on anti-Semitism “due to the organization’s persistent and egregious bias against Israel,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States is also expected to leave UNESCO. The U.S. State Department did not return a request for comment.
