Israel withdraws from UNESCO

Israel has filed notice to withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) alongside the United States. Israel has blasted UNESCO in recent years over the organisation's criticism of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem and its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in 2011. [...] Both Israel and the US - which filed its own withdrawal notice in October, noting that it would instead seek to establish a permanent observer mission to UNESCO - will officially cease membership as of December 31, 2018.

Apart from its institutional anti-collector hatred, the organization is saturated with anti-Israel bias;  there is a clear need for for fundamental reform" within the organisation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the body had become "a theatre of the absurd". Israel has nine sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List, including the White City of Tel Aviv, the Incense Route along desert cities in the Negev, and the sites of human evolution at Mount Carmel.