Last week the United States withdrew from UNESCO, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, citing politicisation, after UNESCO designated Hebron in the West Bank, where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is sited, a Palestinian World Heritage Site.

The US previously paid 22 per cent of UNESCO’s annual budget – some $US80 million – but the admission of Palestine, long a sore point for the US means that withdrawal will halt the arrears the US has run up since it stopped funding UNESCO in 2011 to protest Palestine’s admission as a full member.