Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee tasked with oversight over the United Nations, commented on the Trump Administration’s announcement this week that the United States will withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “UNESCO is an entity which has lost its way, trafficking in anti-Semitism and anti-American radicalism,” said Smith. 

   Smith pointed to a hearing he co-chaired earlier this year where he specifically criticized UNESCO for passing a resolution that whitewashed historical Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as well as anti-Semitic actions by other UN entities. “The UNESCO resolution last year that ignored Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount, the U.N. General Assembly vote in December singling out Israeli settlements while minimizing egregious acts of terrorism and the stream of anti-Israel resolutions that regularly emanate from the so-called Human Rights Council are all evidence of a double-standard emblematic of systemic problems that must be addressed at the U.N.,” said Smith at the time.  Hearing co-chair Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee voiced similar concerns.

   Smith was recently appointed to a fourth term as a Congressional Representative of the United States to the United Nations General Assembly. Smith previously served in a similar capacity under President George H.W. Bush (1989), President George W. Bush (2009) and President Barack Obama (2015).

   After the United States withdrew from UNESCO, Israel announced that it would be doing the same.

   This is not the first time that the United States has withdrawn from UNESCO over the organization’s radical tendencies.  President Ronald Reagan did the same in 1984, when the organization had a decidedly pro-Soviet and anti-American tilt. 

   The withdrawal from UNESCO will take effect at the end of next year.

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