President-elect Joe Biden has indicated that his administration will reembrace multilateralism. Many Biden supporters suspect he will reengage with international organizations with which President Trump severed ties. Biden has already said he will rejoin the World Health Organization. Many liberals demand he also return to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, United Nations Human Rights Council, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (commonly known as UNESCO).

To reembrace UNESCO might be the most difficult: U.S. law dictates that the United States cannot fund any international organization that recognizes Palestine as a full member or gives the Palestine Liberation Organization equivalent status. While UNESCO says it has depoliticized its operations, its partisanship in the Arab-Israel conflict was not the only area that cast doubt on the organization’s commitment to place technocratic merit above politics in the protection of cultural and religious sites.