The State Department has confirmed that the U.S. has paid its 1975-76 dues to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, thereby ending a three-year impasse resulting from UNESCO’s politicalization of itself in discriminatory actions against Israel.
The payment of $43 million in back dues is about 20 percent of UNESCO’s two-year budget. UNESCO was borrowing from oil-rich Arab states to meet expenses. The U.S. refused to make payments in 1974 when UNESCO excluded Israel from any regional grouping. Last year, however, UNESCO allowed Israel to join the European regional body and early this year a permanent Israeli delegate was named to UNESCO’s head-quarters.
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