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Resources updated Thursday, October 12, 2017

October 12, 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"Israel will begin preparations to withdraw from the UN's cultural and education body now that the United States has made its decision to do the same, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

'The prime minister instructed the Foreign Ministry to prepare Israel's withdrawal from the organization alongside the United States,' Netanyahu's office said in a statement, hours after the US said it is quitting the organization, citing its 'anti-Israel bias' alongside financial considerations.

Netanyahu said he 'welcomes the decision by President [Donald] Trump to withdraw from UNESCO. This is a courageous and moral decision because UNESCO has become the theater of the absurd and because, instead of preserving history, it distorts it.'

The US withdrawal is to take effect on December 31, 2018...

[Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO] Shama-Hacohen said that in recent years UNESCO has become 'an absurd organization that has lost its way in favor of the political considerations of certain countries' and that his 'personal recommendation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to follow suit and immediately withdraw [from UNESCO].'

The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said in a statement Thursday following the US announcement to withdraw that 'the purpose of UNESCO is a good one,' but 'unfortunately, its extreme politicization has become a chronic embarrassment.'

Haley cited UNESCO's July decision to declare the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank, the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, an endangered world heritage site, as 'the latest in a long line of foolish actions, which includes keeping Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on a UNESCO human rights committee even after his murderous crackdown on peaceful protestors.'

'US taxpayers should no longer be on the hook to pay for policies that are hostile to our values and make a mockery of justice and common sense,' she said...

Israel lost its voting rights at UNESCO in 2013, following its move to suspend dues to the organization over its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in 2011.

The US too lost its voting rights at the same time and has not paid some $80 million a year in dues since 2011.

The US previously withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 because Washington viewed it as mismanaged and used for political reasons, then rejoined it in 2003.

Israel this past year cited a UNESCO decision disputing Israel's claim to Jerusalem as a reason to further reduce its the amount it pays annually to the United Nations. In May, Netanyahu said Israel would cut another $1 million from its payments to the UN, bringing the total cuts since December 2016 to $9 million..."

Israel to prepare to "withdraw" from UNESCO alongside U.S. Article

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

"As President Donald Trump prepares to announce whether he'll certify Iran's compliance with the deal to curb its nuclear program, U.S. and European negotiators at the United Nations are on another collision course - this time over the Islamic Republic's human rights record.

The U.S. is pushing for tougher language condemning Iran for human rights violations in the draft of a UN resolution that's typically taken up every year, but allies -- including some in Europe -- are pushing back, just as they are in defending the nuclear accord that Trump has called 'the worst deal ever.'

While both sides want to criticize Iran on human rights, they disagree over how far to go and whether to give President Hassan Rouhani some credit, according to notes on the draft shared with Bloomberg News...

The world 'must also continue to hold Iran responsible for its missile launches, support for terrorism, disregard for human rights, and violations of UN Security Council resolutions,' Haley said in August after Rouhani threatened to abandon the nuclear deal if Iran faced more sanctions.

European allies, including the U.K. and Germany, have stood behind the nuclear accord, saying inspections by the IAEA show Iran is abiding by it. Behind the scenes, some diplomats are trying to find a way to 'give Trump a win' by endorsing some of his criticism of Iran while containing any threat to scuttle the agreement, according to a diplomat from a Security Council nation who asked not to be identified describing internal discussions.

In the UN discussions over the human-rights resolution, U.S. allies don't want to undercut Rouhani, who they see as a relative moderate besieged by hard-liners in Tehran. But they don't want to be seen as defending Iran's human rights record...

Critics of Rouhani, including the U.S., say he hasn't delivered on promises of greater respect for civil and political rights since his May re-election. Last year, Iran conducted at least 567 executions, many for drug-related offenses, according to Amnesty International. An additional 247 people were executed in the first six months of 2017, according to a UN report.

The nuclear deal has had little positive impact on human rights in the country, said Shirin Ebadi, the exiled Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate...

The resolution faces a committee vote next month before going to the General Assembly in December. Last year, 85 countries voted to condemn Iran's human rights violations while 35 countries, including Russia and Syria, voted against doing so. An additional 63 countries abstained."

Europeans seeking at UN to water down criticism of Iran's rights record. For EU, business above all. Article