What UNESCO Means to U.S. Cities

What do San Antonio, Timbuktu, and Paducah, Kentucky have in common? They’ve all been recognized in some way by UNESCO, the United Nations agency for education, science, and culture. The Paris-based agency operates one of the U.N.’s most recognizable brands with the World Heritage Sites program, whose designations are solid gold for tourism and create globally-recognized civic pride. It also supports cities’ cultural sectors with its Creative Cities Network, which on Tuesday announced 64 new members as part of the U.N.’s observance of World Cities Day.

But for U.S. cities, those benefits could be on the chopping block. In mid-October, the Trump administration declared that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, claiming its member nations have an anti-Israel bias. Palestine became a UNESCO member in 2011, which prompted the Obama administration to stop paying annual dues of $80 million. But when the agency’s voting members recognized the Old City of Hebron in the Occupied West Bank as a Palestinian, rather than Israeli, cultural heritage site earlier this year, the current administration reacted by withdrawing the U.S. entirely (the Reagan administration pulled a similar move in the 1980s over a perceived pro-Soviet bias).