New Unesco Head Sparks Protests: "i Would Burn Israeli Books"

More than a year after I first wrote in a dispatch about concerns that Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni might become head of the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the international media are finally reporting on this topic. For example, there was a front page reference in the International Herald Tribune last week.

Three leading Jewish figures have also now urged the international community to prevent Hosni from being appointed. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel, and French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann pleaded in an open letter to Le Monde last week that the position should not be awarded to Hosni, who has been Egypt's culture minister for the past 22 years.

In addition to calling for the burning of library books by Israeli authors, Hosni, 71, has accused Jews of "infiltrating" the international media. As culture minister, he has banned many Israeli films (including "peace films" made by left-wing Israelis) from international film festivals in Cairo and forbidden an Israeli bookstand at the international book fair there. He has also stated that Israeli Jews have never contributed to any field of humanity, and instead claim the achievements of others as their own.

However, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a deal with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to block Farouk Hosni's appointment as UNESCO chief. The paper says that Netanyahu regards Egypt's support on security issues as too important to challenge Mubarak on the UNESCO issue.

Israeli human rights organization Shurat ha Din (Israel Law Center) has said it will sue Netanyahu in Israel's Supreme Court if he fails to challenge what they termed "this outrageous appointment".

It remains to be seen why the UN's education and cultural organization (which was founded in 1945 with the stated goal of promoting peace and security through international cooperation in the fields of education, science, and culture) would want to appoint Farouk Hosni as its head - unless of course the leading UN movers and shakers share his anti-Semitic views.

Courtesy of tomgrossmedia.com