Israel to follow U.S., quit UNESCO

Israel on Thursday welcomed U.S. pulling out of the UN's cultural organization, announcing the Jewish state was considering a similar move due to the body's "anti-Israel" bias.

Earlier on Thursday, the United States formally notified the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that it would withdraw from the organization on Dec. 31, 2018.

Commenting on the move, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed it as "a brave and moral decision."

A statement released by the PM's office said that Netanyahu had instructed the Foreign Ministry to prepare Israel's withdrawal from UNESCO. Israel would pull out on the same date as the U.S.

Netanyahu accused UNESCO of "becoming a Theater of Absurd because instead of preserving history, it twists it."

Commenting on the withdrawal, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement that the decision reflected "U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO."

The U.S. would seek to "remain engaged with UNESCO as a non-member observer state," the statement added.

The Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said that she "deeply regrets" the U.S. decision.

"It's a loss to UNESCO, it's a loss to the family of the United Nations and it's a loss to multilateralism," Bokova said in a statement.

Earlier this year, UNESCO triggered Israel's anger after it listed Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank, as a world heritage site in the "State of Palestine."

In October 2016, Israel suspended its ties with UNESCO after the organization voted in favor of a resolution that warns over the escalating violence around the holy site in East Jerusalem, a territory that Israel seized in 1967 and annexed shortly later.

Israel accused UNESCO of denying the Jewish link to the Temple Mount, a historic site destroyed in 70 A.D. and is nowadays a Muslim holy site called the Noble Sanctuary.