Israel Plans to Follow US in Exiting UNESCO

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel plans to pull out of the United Nations' cultural agency following the "brave and moral" decision by the United States to withdraw from UNESCO.

Netanyahu said Thursday that UNESCO has become a "theater of the absurd because instead of preserving history, it distorts it."

He says he has ordered Israeli diplomats to prepare Israel's withdrawal from the organization in concert with the Americans.

The United States announced on Thursday that it is pulling out of UNESCO because of what the Trump administration sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform." It says the withdrawal will take effect Dec. 31, 2018.

The United Nation's education, cultural and scientific agency has passed several resolutions against Israel. It extended membership to Palestine in 2011.