Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid are examining the US request that Israel return to the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, UNESCO, the Prime Minister's Office said.
The remarks came following the revelation of "Israel Today" that the issue was raised many times in talks held by senior government officials with their Israeli counterparts, including in meetings held in Israel last week by the US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield.
The Bennett bureau did not say when the decision would be made.
Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Ushpiz said yesterday in response to the publication that the United States had indeed presented Israel with requests to renew its membership in UNESCO: "I do not know US pressure. I know US thoughts of returning to the UNESCO organization. We One has to think about how UNESCO's interest in our overall relationship with the Palestinian Authority works (since the PA was accepted into the organization as a "state", etc.). This is not something that can be discussed separately from a long list of other issues. "The international community is looking at the Palestinian Authority, and our position is that the PA is not a state."
A backbone to terrorism
International law expert Prof. Eugene Kontorovich of the Ecclesiastical Forum said in response to the publication that it would be a mistake on the part of Israel to return to UNESCO. The ultimate in this activity. "The American push to establish a Palestinian consulate is working to weaken Israel's affiliation with Jerusalem, with UNESCO trying to blur Israel's connection to the Temple Mount and Hebron.
Meanwhile, an archival inspection reveals that the prime minister and senior ministers at the time strongly supported Israel's withdrawal from UNESCO. Against UNESCO and against the Prize for Terrorism.
"Just as we are working against Islamist terrorism in Tadmor and Aleppo, so we must oppose diplomatic terrorism in Jerusalem."
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote that "if the United States withdraws (rightly) from UNESCO, Israel must also withdraw on the same day. It cannot be that they will withdraw because of the treatment of Israel, and we will stay."