World Jewish News

Will UNESCO stop being biased towards Israel under new leadership?

Last week, as UNESCO was electing its new head, the United States and Israel announced their decision to quit the United Nations agency for education, culture and science as a result of continued bias against Israel.

Will the defeat of the candidate of Qatar – accused of anti-Semitism - and the subsequent election of French Jewish candidate Audrey Azoulay as Director-General bring a wind of change into the Paris-based UNESCO ? And will Washington and Jerusalem reverse their decision to leave the organization ?

Best known for its world heritage listings of cultural and natural sites, UNESCO has drawn international attention – and outrage from the U.S. and Israel – for accepting Palestine as a full member in 2011, and a series of contested decisions challenging Jewish links to holy sites in Israel, including in Jerusalem.

45-year-old Audrey Azoulay, a former Culture Minister under French Socialist President Francois Hollande, defeated Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari, Qatar's former Culture Minister and former Egyptian government Minister Moushira Khattab.

Azoulay won the vote 30-28 over al-Kawari. She succeeds Bulgarian Irina Bokova.She was promoted by France as a candidate who could "overcome political divisions for the sake solely of UNESCO's essential missions."

Upon her election, she said the appropriate response to UNESCO's problems was to carry out reform, not to leave, in a reference to the the US and Israel decisions.

She will try to persuade both countries – who make up 25% of UNESCO funding - to remain inside the agency. “At this time of crisis, I think we need more than ever to work on the UNESCO organization, to support, strengthen the organization and to make changes – not to leave it,” she stressed in her press conference.

But US Jewish groups explained that a reversal of the decisions were dependent upon a fundamental shift in focus at UNESCO.

“In recent years, despite the best efforts of outgoing Director General Irina Bokova, UNESCO has strayed from its mission to preserve history and has allowed itself to become politicized, demonstrating a continuing and disturbing bias against Israel,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said.

He added: “I urge UNESCO to focus on its core mandate rather than addressing political matters that fall outside the organization’s purview. Decisions that rewrite history and call into question deep rooted Jewish ties to our holy sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere have no place at UNESCO, and it is our hope that the organization will carry out much-needed reforms.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO David Harris warned that “UNESCO without the United States will be a diminished organization, and the US outside UNESCO runs the risk of reducing our nation’s global role.”

“We can only hope that member states will address the US concerns seriously and swiftly,” he said. ‘’All will be better off with the US in, not out.”

He deplored that a “minority of UNESCO members, led by the Palestinian Authority PA) (and Arab countries, has long sought to exploit this body to castigate Israel.”

“They have shamelessly politicized the organization by blatantly — and repeatedly — denying the millennia-old and indisputable links between the Jewish people and Judaism’s holiest sites, including the Old City of Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and Hebron. In doing so, they have also challenged Christian history and belief. And their actions, we should remember, also led to an earlier US withdrawal during the Reagan administration, which continued r nearly two decades,” Harris stated.

“It is important in the current discussion to distinguish between a determined, troublemaking bloc of member states and the outgoing Director-General, Irina Bokova, who has valiantly tried to keep UNESCO away from an obsession with Israel, while appropriately addressing rising antisemitism, Holocaust education, genocide prevention, and counter-radicalism, but, alas, her powers in this regard are limited,” Harris added.

According to Ronald Lauder, “UNESCO should be run by professionals, without regard to political considerations. It should focus on education, culture, and heritage, instead of providing a platform to repeatedly attack Israel. This is simply not a place for politics.”

In his congratulation message to Audrey Azoulay, Shimon Samuels, Director for International Rerlations of the the Simon Wiesenthal Center, considered the 30 votes for Azoulay her as ‘’a hopeful turning point from UNESCO appeasement."

"Nevertheless", he continued, "28 states were still ready to cover-up a candidate personally indifferent and even endorsing antisemitism."

"Now is not a time for democracies to abandon UNESCO. Their departure will leave a vacuum rapidly filled by the enemies of freedom."

"For the moment, UNESCO is saved from a Qatarstrophe that success must now be defended", addded Samuels.

In remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: ‘’Last week I instructed the Foreign Ministry to prepare for Israel's withdrawal from UNESCO, which has become a platform for delusional, anti-Israeli and – in effect – anti-Semitic decisions. We hope that the organization will change its ways but we are not pinning hopes on this; therefore, my directive to leave the organization stands and we will move forward to carry it out.’’

As Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz said: ‘’Don’t expect UNESCO to suddenly now become a Zionist organization…’’ He added however that if it changes its policy, Israel ‘’might’’ reconsider its decision…

EJP