OPINION:
It was like old home week at the White House on Oct. 17 as the Biden administration celebrated our country’s return to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, from which we had resigned for a second time in 2018 in protest of its anti-Israel bias. Israel resigned for the same reason.
The irony, of course, was that the celebration took place in the middle of Hamas’ latest attack on Israel.
I attended as our former ambassador to UNESCO even though I was quite comfortable when then-President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the organization five years ago, something President Biden had been working assiduously to reverse since moving into the Oval Office. Thanks to Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, Mr. Biden finally achieved this foreign policy goal despite current U.S. policy on the Palestinians.
The U.S. has two laws that prohibit its government funds from going to the U.N. or any of its affiliated organizations that admit the Palestinian Authority as a full member. UNESCO’s election of the Palestinians to full membership in 2011 meant that the U.S. could not pay its dues. The mounting U.S. arrears contributed to Mr. Trump’s decision to leave UNESCO.
The 2023 $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act presented the Biden administration with the perfect opportunity to make an end run around the prohibition. Mr. Coons slipped a temporary waiver of those laws into that omnibus spending bill, thereby enabling Mr. Biden to rejoin UNESCO.
On July 25, first lady Jill Biden raised the U.S. flag at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters, signifying the U.S. was back. For me, this was history repeating itself. On Sept. 29, 2003, then-first lady Laura Bush also raised the U.S. flag at UNESCO, which ended America’s almost 20-year absence from the organization.
In those days, the Palestinian Authority, like the Vatican, had a nonmember observer mission at UNESCO. Now, however, it is a full member of a U.N. organization made up of sovereign states, elected over the strong opposition of the U.S. and other countries that do not recognize the Palestinian territories as a sovereign state (“Palestine”). Mr. Coons alluded to this problem in his remarks at the White House ceremony by referring to UNESCO’s 194 members as nations, not states.
When State Department officials were asked how they planned to handle the Palestinian problem, they said they would deal with it case by case.
Does that mean that State Department officials will adhere to U.S. policy on the West Bank and Gaza only when they feel like it? Will the U.S. be willing to defend Israel at UNESCO?
Given the disgraceful remarks about Israel made by the U.N. secretary-general to the Security Council, it is easy to understand why Israel, unlike the U.S., is not eager to rejoin UNESCO.
China’s increasing influence at UNESCO was Mr. Coons’ strongest argument in persuading his colleagues in Congress to support rejoining the organization. Chinese nationals have been hired throughout UNESCO, and a Chinese diplomat, Qu Xing, serves as its deputy director-general. When an election is held in 2025 for UNESCO’s next director-general, it is possible that Mr. Qu will be elevated to that position.
Though confronting the Chinese is certainly part of the Biden administration’s UNESCO agenda, it is not why Mr. Biden is so excited about rejoining the organization. Just as he is using the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change to promote his climate initiatives, Mr. Biden will use UNESCO’s international voice to help support his domestic policy agenda.
Both Mr. Biden and UNESCO believe that cultural diversity, human rights and gender equality should play central roles in their policies and programs. Though Mr. Biden did not mention UNESCO when he announced his regulatory guidelines on artificial intelligence, they are similar to UNESCO’s new universal standard-setting instrument that promotes an ethical AI emphasizing human rights and dignity.
Likewise, despite UNESCO’s long-term advocacy of freedom of expression, its newly unveiled plan to crack down on “misinformation,” “hate speech” and “conspiracy theories” in online communication is similar to Mr. Biden’s attempts to censor speech he does not like. Clearly, Mr. Biden and UNESCO have a lot in common.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul calls UNESCO a “deeply flawed entity” that does not advance U.S. national security interests and does not deserve U.S. taxpayer money: $619 million for unpaid dues, 22% of UNESCO’s current $534 million annual operating budget, is likely to increase with America’s return, as well an unspecified amount of future extra-budgetary contributions.
On Nov. 15, UNESCO’s General Conference elected the U.S. to its executive board, which should enable the Biden administration to be more effective in significantly reducing Chinese influence in the organization. If the administration cannot achieve this goal, those skeptical of the decision to return to UNESCO will be proved correct.
• Louise Oliver served as U.S. permanent representative (with the rank of ambassador) to UNESCO from 2004 to 2009.
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