For the second time in a decade, the United States has withdrawn from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the move couldn’t come soon enough. While it was founded in the hopeful aftermath of World War II to promote peace, education, science and culture, it has long since strayed from those lofty goals.
These days, UNESCO is more recognizable for its politicization and repeated alignment with anti-Israel agendas than for any meaningful contributions to global progress. The United States was right to walk away—and it’s worth reminding the world why.
Created in 1945, UNESCO was envisioned as a cultural arm of the United Nations to help rebuild war-torn societies by promoting education, scientific cooperation and preservation of cultural heritage. The United States was a founding member, and its support helped the agency gain stature and funding in its early years.
But beginning in the 1970s and worsening in the decades since, UNESCO veered off-course. It became a platform for ideological battles, often dominated by regimes that care little for democracy, human rights or historical integrity. Instead of serving as a neutral body advancing cultural cooperation, it increasingly became a forum for politicized attacks—none more frequent than those aimed at Israel.
UNESCO’s track record on Israel is deeply troubling. In resolution after resolution, the agency has effectively erased Jewish history in the land of Israel, including in Jerusalem. In 2016, it passed a resolution referring to the Temple Mount—the holiest site in Judaism—solely by its Islamic name, “Al-Haram al-Sharif,” effectively denying Jewish historical and religious ties to the site.
In another instance, UNESCO declared the ancient city of Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs—a site sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike—a “Palestinian World Heritage site in danger,” ignoring millennia of Jewish presence there. These actions not only distort history but also inflame tensions rather than promote peace. Instead of facilitating dialogue, UNESCO has repeatedly lent credibility to the anti-Israel narrative pushed by countries with no commitment to tolerance or pluralism.
Israel is not the only issue where UNESCO has lost its way. The agency has repeatedly attempted to insert itself into national education policies in ways that have sparked backlash from sovereign governments. In Hungary and Poland, for instance, UNESCO has criticized national curricula reforms while turning a blind eye to the countries’ democratic choices and complex historical contexts. Meanwhile, it has pushed controversial gender and sexuality education frameworks in places like Nigeria and Indonesia, where such efforts were seen as culturally tone-deaf and sparked significant public opposition.
Even more troubling is UNESCO’s habit of cozying up to authoritarian regimes while ignoring their gross human-rights violations. It has lauded Cuba for its literacy programs, despite the regime’s suppression of free thought and imprisonment of dissidents. It has applauded Iran’s cultural contributions while remaining conspicuously silent on that country’s censorship, oppression of women and imprisonment of educators. In China, where millions of Uyghurs are subject to forced reeducation and indoctrination, UNESCO has participated in heritage projects without so much as a word about the ongoing cultural genocide. The agency has too often prioritized appearances and alliances over integrity and accountability.
Moreover, its bloated bureaucracy and mismanagement of funds have been persistent concerns. In 2011, after UNESCO granted full membership to the Palestinian Authority, despite it not being a recognized state under international law, Washington rightly cut off its funding in accordance with a 1990 federal law signed by President George H.W. Bush, which prohibits U.S. contributions to any United Nations agency that admits the Palestinians as a full member. Since then, the agency has continued its downward spiral, choosing symbolism over substance and politics over principle.
Critics of the withdrawal will say that engagement is better than absence and that reform must come from within. But America has tried that route—more than once. We left UNESCO under President Ronald Reagan in 1984 due to its anti-Western bias and poor management, rejoined under George W. Bush in 2003 in a spirit of cooperation, and again suspended funding in 2011. None of it led to meaningful change.
Walking away isn’t a retreat from global leadership. It’s a statement that the United States will not lend legitimacy or taxpayer money to agencies that betray their founding missions and become tools for propaganda and historical revisionism. We should certainly continue to support the preservation of culture and education around the world, but through institutions and partnerships that actually reflect those values.
UNESCO had a noble beginning, but it has lost its way. The U.S. exit should serve as a wake-up call not just to the United Nations, but to every international organization that lets politics override principle.
