HYPOCRITES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT OR WHAT?....
State Dep’t had refused to sponsor UNESCO’s canceled Israel exhibit...NOW US is protesting that show on the Jewish people’s historic tie to land of Israel was dropped... last week... the Stat...
e Dept...declined an invitation to support it... what is going on?
By Times of Israel staff, JTA and Lazar Berman January 18, 2014
The State Department had refused to co-sponsor a UNESCO exhibit, detailing the Jewish people’s 3,000-year relationship to the land of Israel, which UNESCO cancelled this week under pressure from Arab countries.
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The exhibit – created by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, co-organized with UNESCO, and co-sponsored by Israel, Canada, and Montenegro – was to have opened next Tuesday in Paris.
But UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova decided to cancel the exhibit, entitled “The People, the Book, the Land — 3,500 years of ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel,” after Arab states in UNESCO protested, arguing it would harm the peace process. “We have a responsibility in ensuring that current efforts in this regard are not endangered,” Bokova wrote in a letter to the Wiesenthal Center.
The peace process is “at a delicate stage,” UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General Eric Fait also wrote to the Wiesenthal Center on Tuesday, in a letter made available to The Times of Israel, “and UNESCO is keen to maintain an atmosphere conducive to the negotiations.” Therefore, wrote Fait, “we will have to postpone the exhibition to a later date.”
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s dean and founder, responded to Bokova in a letter expressing shock and dismay that the exhibition was being pulled. “We insist that you live up to your responsibilities and commitments as the co-organizer of this exhibition by overturning this naked political move that has no place in an institution whose mandate is defined by education, science, and culture — not politics,” Hier wrote in his letter, which was also made available to The Times of Israel. “Failure to do so would confirm to the world that UNESCO is the official address of the Arab narrative of the Middle East.”
Hier added, “Madame Director General, we have now reached a crucial moment in which you must decide what UNESCO is all about. If you allow the bullying of the Arab Group to derail the presentation of our historical, cultural, and non-political exhibition, then UNESCO will be sending an unmistakable signal to the American people and its elected representatives and to the Canadian people and its elected representatives that it has defaulted on its historic mandate and is now allowing itself to be hijacked by those with a vindictive political motivation.”
“Let’s be clear,” wrote Hier, “the Arab Group’s protest is not over any particular content in the exhibition, but rather the very idea of it – that the Jewish people did not come to the Holy Land only after the Nazi Holocaust, but trace their historical and cultural roots in that land for three and a half millennia. If anything will derail hopes for peace and reconciliation among the people of the Middle East, it will be by surrendering to the forces of extremism and torpedoing the opening of this exhibition — jointly vetted and co-organized by UNESCO and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Madame Director General we hope you have the courage to do the right thing and we are still looking forward to cutting the ribbon on the exhibition with you next Monday night, January 20, at UNESCO headquarters.”
Hier sent copies of his letter to US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others.
The State Department said Friday it was outraged at the cancellation of the exhibit. “The United States is deeply disappointed and has engaged with senior levels at UNESCO to confirm that the action to postpone does not represent a cancellation and to underscore our interest in seeing the exhibit proceed as soon as possible,” it said in a statement reported by JTA. “UNESCO was designed to foster just this kind of discussion and interaction between civil society and member states and the United States firmly supports the right of civil society in member states such as the Wiesenthal Center to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO’s mission. We trust that UNESCO will approach this issue fairly and in a manner consistent with the organization’s guidelines and past precedent.”
Notwithstanding this professed outrage, however, the State Department had just last week itself declined to co-sponsor the exhibit — in part because of the very reason that Bokova cited for its cancellation: the peace process. Kelly Siekman, the State Department’s director of UNESCO affairs, wrote to the Wiesenthal Center to this effect on January 9: “At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters. As a rule, the United States does not co-sponsor exhibits at UNESCO without oversight of content development from conception to final production.”
UNESCO prior to the opening of 2013 General Conference in Paris, France. (Photo credit: AP/Benjamin Girette)
UNESCO prior to the opening of 2013 General Conference in Paris, France. (Photo credit: AP/Benjamin Girette)
Hier told JTA Friday that while was pleased at the more recent State Department statement slamming UNESCO, he was baffled by the State Department’s refusal to sponsor the exhibit in the first place. The decision by the US not to co-sponsor was a “major mistake,” he told JTA, and gave cover to the pretext that the exhibition would unsettle the peace process.
“What the State Department needs to say is something along the lines of ‘We have vetted the exhibit, and the State Department finds that that the exhibit in no way interferes with [Secretary of State John] Kerry’s mission to carry out talks with leaders of Israel and the Palestinians,’” Hier said.
Bizarrely, Siekman’s January 9 letter to the Wiesenthal Center declining to sponsor the exhibit, also included the following sentence: “We would like to offer to co-sponsor any exhibit opening ceremony or event that you may have planned.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center had been working closely with UNESCO on the exhibit since 2011, when UNESCO accepted Palestine as a member state, the first UN body to do so.
The exhibit was scheduled to run from January 21 through January 30 at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters. It had been repeatedly delayed for the past two years, with organizers repeatedly bowing to UNESCO demands to make changes in the displays and literature at the event.
The Wiesenthal Center is slated to hold a press conference on Monday to discuss the cancellation.
Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, said that the excuse to shelve the event was “mean and stupid,” according to Israel Radio.
The invitation to the cancelled UNESCO event on 3,500 years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
The invitation to the cancelled UNESCO event on 3,500 years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
Abdulla al Neaimi, president of UNESCO’s Arab group, wrote in a letter to Bokova that the ”subject of this exhibition is highly political though the appearance of the title seems to be trivial. Most serious is the defense of this theme which is one of the reasons used by the opponents of peace within Israel. The publicity that will accompany… the exhibit can only cause damage to the peace negotiations presently occurring, and the constant effort of Secretary of State John Kerry, and the neutrality and objectivity of UNESCO.”
“For all these reasons, for the major worry not to damage UNESCO in its… mission of support for peace, the Arab group within UNESCO is asking you to make the decision to cancel this exhibition,” he concluded, according to Algemeiner.
Some UNESCO decisions have long rankled Israel’s supporters.
In 2012, UNESCO created a chair of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza, which is closely linked with Hamas.
Last October, UNESCO voted in favor of no fewer than six resolutions condemning Israel at its 192nd Session of the 56-member Executive Board in Paris.
The US and Israel both stopped paying dues to the organization after it allowed the Palestinians in, and both countries lost their voting rights in November 2013. The suspension of US contributions, which accounted for $80 million a year — 22 percent of UNESCO’s overall budget — brought the agency to the brink of a financial crisis and forced it to cut or scale back American-led initiatives such as Holocaust education and tsunami research over the past two years.
UNESCO’s core mission, as conceived by the US, a co-founder of the agency in 1946, was to be an anti-extremist organization. Now, it seeks to tackle foreign policy issues such as access to clean water, teaches girls to read, works to eradicate poverty, promotes freedom of expression and works to give people skills to resist violent extremism.
Read more: State Dep't had refused to sponsor UNESCO's canceled Israel exhibit | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/state-dept-had-refused-to-sponsor-unescos-cancelled-israel-exhibit/#ixzz2qsmiLFZP
By Times of Israel staff, JTA and Lazar Berman January 18, 2014
The State Department had refused to co-sponsor a UNESCO exhibit, detailing the Jewish people’s 3,000-year relationship to the land of Israel, which UNESCO cancelled this week under pressure from Arab countries.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email
and never miss our top stories Free Sign up!
The exhibit – created by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, co-organized with UNESCO, and co-sponsored by Israel, Canada, and Montenegro – was to have opened next Tuesday in Paris.
But UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova decided to cancel the exhibit, entitled “The People, the Book, the Land — 3,500 years of ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel,” after Arab states in UNESCO protested, arguing it would harm the peace process. “We have a responsibility in ensuring that current efforts in this regard are not endangered,” Bokova wrote in a letter to the Wiesenthal Center.
The peace process is “at a delicate stage,” UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General Eric Fait also wrote to the Wiesenthal Center on Tuesday, in a letter made available to The Times of Israel, “and UNESCO is keen to maintain an atmosphere conducive to the negotiations.” Therefore, wrote Fait, “we will have to postpone the exhibition to a later date.”
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s dean and founder, responded to Bokova in a letter expressing shock and dismay that the exhibition was being pulled. “We insist that you live up to your responsibilities and commitments as the co-organizer of this exhibition by overturning this naked political move that has no place in an institution whose mandate is defined by education, science, and culture — not politics,” Hier wrote in his letter, which was also made available to The Times of Israel. “Failure to do so would confirm to the world that UNESCO is the official address of the Arab narrative of the Middle East.”
Hier added, “Madame Director General, we have now reached a crucial moment in which you must decide what UNESCO is all about. If you allow the bullying of the Arab Group to derail the presentation of our historical, cultural, and non-political exhibition, then UNESCO will be sending an unmistakable signal to the American people and its elected representatives and to the Canadian people and its elected representatives that it has defaulted on its historic mandate and is now allowing itself to be hijacked by those with a vindictive political motivation.”
“Let’s be clear,” wrote Hier, “the Arab Group’s protest is not over any particular content in the exhibition, but rather the very idea of it – that the Jewish people did not come to the Holy Land only after the Nazi Holocaust, but trace their historical and cultural roots in that land for three and a half millennia. If anything will derail hopes for peace and reconciliation among the people of the Middle East, it will be by surrendering to the forces of extremism and torpedoing the opening of this exhibition — jointly vetted and co-organized by UNESCO and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Madame Director General we hope you have the courage to do the right thing and we are still looking forward to cutting the ribbon on the exhibition with you next Monday night, January 20, at UNESCO headquarters.”
Hier sent copies of his letter to US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others.
The State Department said Friday it was outraged at the cancellation of the exhibit. “The United States is deeply disappointed and has engaged with senior levels at UNESCO to confirm that the action to postpone does not represent a cancellation and to underscore our interest in seeing the exhibit proceed as soon as possible,” it said in a statement reported by JTA. “UNESCO was designed to foster just this kind of discussion and interaction between civil society and member states and the United States firmly supports the right of civil society in member states such as the Wiesenthal Center to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO’s mission. We trust that UNESCO will approach this issue fairly and in a manner consistent with the organization’s guidelines and past precedent.”
Notwithstanding this professed outrage, however, the State Department had just last week itself declined to co-sponsor the exhibit — in part because of the very reason that Bokova cited for its cancellation: the peace process. Kelly Siekman, the State Department’s director of UNESCO affairs, wrote to the Wiesenthal Center to this effect on January 9: “At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters. As a rule, the United States does not co-sponsor exhibits at UNESCO without oversight of content development from conception to final production.”
UNESCO prior to the opening of 2013 General Conference in Paris, France. (Photo credit: AP/Benjamin Girette)
UNESCO prior to the opening of 2013 General Conference in Paris, France. (Photo credit: AP/Benjamin Girette)
Hier told JTA Friday that while was pleased at the more recent State Department statement slamming UNESCO, he was baffled by the State Department’s refusal to sponsor the exhibit in the first place. The decision by the US not to co-sponsor was a “major mistake,” he told JTA, and gave cover to the pretext that the exhibition would unsettle the peace process.
“What the State Department needs to say is something along the lines of ‘We have vetted the exhibit, and the State Department finds that that the exhibit in no way interferes with [Secretary of State John] Kerry’s mission to carry out talks with leaders of Israel and the Palestinians,’” Hier said.
Bizarrely, Siekman’s January 9 letter to the Wiesenthal Center declining to sponsor the exhibit, also included the following sentence: “We would like to offer to co-sponsor any exhibit opening ceremony or event that you may have planned.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center had been working closely with UNESCO on the exhibit since 2011, when UNESCO accepted Palestine as a member state, the first UN body to do so.
The exhibit was scheduled to run from January 21 through January 30 at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters. It had been repeatedly delayed for the past two years, with organizers repeatedly bowing to UNESCO demands to make changes in the displays and literature at the event.
The Wiesenthal Center is slated to hold a press conference on Monday to discuss the cancellation.
Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, said that the excuse to shelve the event was “mean and stupid,” according to Israel Radio.
The invitation to the cancelled UNESCO event on 3,500 years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
The invitation to the cancelled UNESCO event on 3,500 years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
Abdulla al Neaimi, president of UNESCO’s Arab group, wrote in a letter to Bokova that the ”subject of this exhibition is highly political though the appearance of the title seems to be trivial. Most serious is the defense of this theme which is one of the reasons used by the opponents of peace within Israel. The publicity that will accompany… the exhibit can only cause damage to the peace negotiations presently occurring, and the constant effort of Secretary of State John Kerry, and the neutrality and objectivity of UNESCO.”
“For all these reasons, for the major worry not to damage UNESCO in its… mission of support for peace, the Arab group within UNESCO is asking you to make the decision to cancel this exhibition,” he concluded, according to Algemeiner.
Some UNESCO decisions have long rankled Israel’s supporters.
In 2012, UNESCO created a chair of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza, which is closely linked with Hamas.
Last October, UNESCO voted in favor of no fewer than six resolutions condemning Israel at its 192nd Session of the 56-member Executive Board in Paris.
The US and Israel both stopped paying dues to the organization after it allowed the Palestinians in, and both countries lost their voting rights in November 2013. The suspension of US contributions, which accounted for $80 million a year — 22 percent of UNESCO’s overall budget — brought the agency to the brink of a financial crisis and forced it to cut or scale back American-led initiatives such as Holocaust education and tsunami research over the past two years.
UNESCO’s core mission, as conceived by the US, a co-founder of the agency in 1946, was to be an anti-extremist organization. Now, it seeks to tackle foreign policy issues such as access to clean water, teaches girls to read, works to eradicate poverty, promotes freedom of expression and works to give people skills to resist violent extremism.
Read more: State Dep't had refused to sponsor UNESCO's canceled Israel exhibit | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/state-dept-had-refused-to-sponsor-unescos-cancelled-israel-exhibit/#ixzz2qsmiLFZP
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