UNESCO Chief Candidate, “I’d burn Israeli books”
Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under Israeli-Muslim Conflict, Middle East, News, Stupidity
Yesterday we posted an article about the “fruits of peace” Israel “enjoys” when it comes to its relations with neighboring Egypt, and here comes another evidence of how useless and empty the papers signed in the Middle East are, and what eventually prevails is a deep-rooted hatred, fear and stupidity, which is common for a simple folk, as well as top political leaders.
This time, the “voice of peace” belongs to none other but the Minister of Culture of Egypt who is the leading candidate for the job of UNESCO Chief:
CAIRO - Egypt’s Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, a candidate to head UNESCO, has drawn fire from Israel and the Wiesenthal Centre for saying he was prepared to burn Israeli books.
“I’d burn Israeli books myself if I found any in libraries in Egypt,” Hosni said in parliament on May 10 in reply to questioning from an opposition MP.
The comment, which Hosni admits making but which he says must be put into perspective, sparked an official protest from Israel’s ambassador in Cairo Shalom Cohen to the foreign ministry.
And this week the international Simon Wiesenthal Centre wrote to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation director general Koichiro Matsuura, saying that Hosni had now ruled himself out as a possible successor to head the Paris-based body.
The letter to UNESCO from the Wiesenthal Centre’s director for international relations Shimon Samuels charged that Hosni’s comment was “couched in the language and actions of Nazi “Minister of Culture’ Josef Goebbels.”
The letter said that “the sting in this tail is that literary pyromaniac Faruq Hosni is considered a serious candidate to replace (Koichiro Matsuura) as Director-General of UNESCO.”
After realizing that it might cost him his future job, he tried to retract in the most pathetic and non-creative way
In his defence, Hosni told AFP that he had only used “a popular expression to prove something does not exist” — to be specific, Israeli books in Egyptian libraries.
Fruits of peace, since 1979, ladies and gentlemen. And that’s coming from the candidate for Director General of UNESCO…And here is the flip-flop
“A minister of culture cannot demand that a book be burnt, and that includes an Israeli book,” he added, and pointed out he had spoken in favour of Israeli books being translated into Arabic during during a televised debate on the subject.
Here is more about the fruits of peace Israel rips from its “good neighbor” relations with Egypt
Embracing the position of Egyptian intellectuals, who oppose any “cultural normalisation” with Israel, Hosni said such links could only take place after a “just and global peace” in the Middle East.
“We cannot dance with them, sing together or watch a piece of theatre when there are bloody attacks every day against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” he said.
Thirty years ago in 1978 Egypt broke ranks with the rest of the Arab world and concluded the Camp David accord with Israel, leading to a historic peace treaty being signed the following year.
President Hosni Mubarak’s regime has political, security and economic links with Israel, but does nothing to promote cultural cooperation between the two former foes.
Israeli works are rarely translated, and no Israeli-made film — even pacifist — is shown in Egypt where a total boycott is imposed on all artists and intellectuals from the Jewish state.
Apparently his candidacy is supported by Arab and European states, including France. Well, France, what else can be said? With friends like this…you know the rest.
So, how low UN with all its organizations is prepared to go? First there is council on “human rights”, which is basically an “I hate Israel” club, now UNESCO Chief Candidate who’s prepared to burn Israeli books…What’s next - Iranian Revolutionary Guard for the UN Secretary General?
