October 12, BNS–Israel will leave the United Nations’ Educational, Scientifiic and Cultural Organization or UNESCO along with the United States, which has accused UNESCO of anti-Israeli bias, Isareli PM Binyamin Netanyahu announced Thursday. A statement from the prime minister’s office said: “The prime minister instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare Israel’s exit from the organization together with the United States.” It also noted Netanyahu “welcomes president Trump’s decision to withdraw from UNESCO; this is a brave and moral decision because UNESCO has become a theater of the absurd. Instead of preserving history, it distorts it.”

Audrey Azoulay was selected director general of UNESCO last Friday, the day after Netanyahu’s announcement. She was formerly France’s minister of culture.