The U.S. government fired a broadside today at the adoption of a resolution yesterday in Paris by the General Conference of UNESCO that deprives Israel of its assistance. “The resolution represents highly undesirable politicization of a United Nations technical agency,” the State Department declared in a prepared statement. “We regret the adoption of the resolution because it puts one of the United Nations’ principal bodies on a dangerous path.”
Noting that the action cuts off UNESCO funds for Israel, the Department’s statement added, “The introduction and debate on resolutions of this kind tend to transform a scientific, cultural and educational agency into a political forum of the most partisan kind. In our view, such resolutions lead not to cooperation but confrontation that seriously detracts from the work of UNESCO.”
Department spokesman Paul Hare, who read the statement to reporters, said that the UNESCO funds involved for Israel approximated $26,000, but he said “it is more the principle than the money.”
The move in UNESCO by the Arab nations, the Communist bloc and a number of Third World countries was seen here as their initial attempt to dismiss Israel from international organizations and isolate it from world conferences. The UNESCO resolution was adopted by a vote of 64-27 with 26 abstentions. The U.S. and the nine European Common Market countries voted against the resolution.
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