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Israel’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was severing ties with three international organisations, including two UN agencies, following the United States’ withdrawal from 66 global bodies last week.
The ministry added that its chief, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, had also instructed it to review Israel’s continued cooperation with an unspecified number of other organisations.
In a statement on X, it said that “Sa’ar has decided that Israel will immediately sever all contact with the following UN agencies and international organisations.”
It goes on to list UN Energy, the UN Alliance of Civilisations and the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which is not part of the United Nations system.
On 8 January, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum ordering the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organisations as they “no longer serve American interests,” the White House said.
The order involved 31 United Nations organisations and 35 other entities and included the three bodies Israel withdrew from on Tuesday.
The extent of Israel’s relationship with the three bodies before the announcement was unclear.
For one, the UN Alliance of Civilisations, the foreign ministry accused it of not having invited Israel to participate, saying it had “instead for years been used as a platform for attacks against Israel.”
It also called UN Energy “wasteful” and said the Global Forum on Migration and Development “erodes the ability of sovereign nations to enforce their own immigration laws.”
The ministry listed four other UN bodies from which the US withdrew last week, highlighting that Israel had already cut ties with them years ago.
Israel has long been at loggerheads with the UN, accusing its agencies of bias against it, particularly after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of its employees took part in that assault.
A series of investigations found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but the agency has stressed that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its allegations.
In 2024, two laws were passed barring the agency from operating in Israeli territory and from having contact with Israeli authorities.
Last week, UNRWA announced it would fire 571 of its employees outside the Gaza Strip, citing “financial difficulties.”
Additional sources • AFP