Israel on Tuesday announced the severance of ties with several international organizations, including some UN agencies, days after the US withdrew from 66 global bodies.
In a post on X, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that it had decided to withdraw after “examination and discussion conducted following the US withdrawal from dozens of international organizations.”
The Foreign Ministry said the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu had already cut ties with the Office of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, the UN’s gender equality and empowerment of women entity. (UNWOMEN), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) – organizations from which the US has recently withdrawn.
Israel also announced that it is withdrawing from the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the UN Energy Forum, and the Global Forum on Migration and Development with immediate effect.
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What reasons did Israel give for the withdrawal?
In its June 2024 withdrawal of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Israel said the organization had “brazenly blacklisted the IDF in 2024”, placing it alongside ISIS and Boko Haram.
In cutting ties with UNWOMEN, Israel said the organization “deliberately ignored all cases of sexual violence against Israeli women”, adding that Tel Aviv cut ties in July 2024.
At UNCTAD and ESCWA, Israel said it had been “disconnected for years” and cited anti-Israel reports for its withdrawal.
As for the three organizations from which Israel withdrew after the US, Tel Aviv said the UN Alliance of Civilizations “did not invite Israel to participate”, claiming the platform had been used for years for “attacks against Israel”.
Tel Aviv was also called by UN Energy as a “wasteful organization” that reflected the “excessive and inefficient UN bureaucracy”.
After withdrawing from the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Tel Aviv said the body was “eroding the ability of sovereign states to enforce their own immigration laws”.
Israel’s withdrawal from international bodies may not stop there, with the country’s foreign ministry actively vetting other organizations.
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US withdrawal from international organizations
Israel’s announcement comes less than a week after US President Donald Trump ordered America to withdraw from 66 international organizations, including several UN bodies and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in a January 8 memorandum.
Trump justified the US withdrawal, its most extensive withdrawal from global cooperation in modern history, by claiming that the international organizations he was withdrawing from were “organizations, conventions and treaties” that were “contrary to the interests of the United States”.
Explaining Trump’s declaration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to send the blood, sweat and treasure of the American people to these institutions without showing it. The days of billions of dollars of taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”
