NEW YORK – After protests from the US Ambassador to UNESCO, the Simon Wiesenthal
Center and the American Jewish Committee to UNESCO’s director-general over a
UNESCO-assisted Palestinian children’s magazine that published an essay
extolling Adolf Hitler, UNESCO agreed to withdraw its support from the
publication Thursday.
UNESCO had provided funds to an NGO, Zayzafouna,
which published a magazine of the same name. The magazine Zayzafouna, as
reported by Palestinian Media Watch, published an article in February 2011 by a
10- year-old Palestinian girl who recounted a dream in which Hitler told her:
“Yes. I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who
spreads destruction all over the world.”
“While UNESCO upholds freedom of
expression as an integral part of its mandate, the inclusion in this publication
of a statement that may be interpreted as an apology of the Holocaust is
contrary to UNESCO’s constitutional mandate and values,” a letter from UNESCO
Director-General Irina Bokova read. “It is totally
unacceptable.”
UNESCO’s support for the magazine, the letter continued,
aimed to fight against perpetuating stereotypes that lent themselves to
violence. Saying that UNESCO was “shocked and dismayed” by the content of the
February issue, the letter stated that UNESCO has sought more detailed
information from the magazine’s editors and the Palestinian
Authority. “[We] strongly deplore and condemn the reproduction of such
inflammatory statements in a magazine associated with [UNESCO’s] name and
mission and will not provide any further support to the publication in
question.
“The Organization, which is deeply committed to the development
and promotion of education about the Holocaust, disassociates itself from any
statement that is counter to its founding principles and goals of building
tolerance in the full respect for human rights and human dignity,” the letter
stated.
Many, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the AJC, welcomed
the decision.
“The ongoing failure of the Palestinian Authority to reform
its textbooks and other educational materials regarding Israel and Jews is a
huge obstacle to achieving a culture of peace,” said AJC Executive Director
David Harris. “Children taught to hate at an early age too often live lives
filled with hate.”
Others demanded more reform in UNESCO’s
infrastructure.
“UNESCO’s cancellation of funding for a Palestinian
children’s magazine that extols Hitler and the mass murder of Jews is a belated
step in the right direction, but it’s far from sufficient,” Hillel Neuer,
executive director of Geneva-based NGO UN Watch, said. “How and why did UNESCO
fund this hatred in the first place? Who was responsible?”
Neuer said UN Watch
endorses the call to investigate the circumstances of the funding to make sure
it doesn’t recur.
“UN officials cannot credibly demand accountability
from others when they refuse to examine their own actions – especially those
that incite to racial discrimination and genocide,” Neuer
said.
“Regrettably, this latest incident only underscores that UNESCO is,
too often, failing to live up its own values and mission. More than 60
MPs and human-rights groups, headed by UN Watch, are demanding that UNESCO also
cancel its recent election of Syria’s murderous regime to two global human
rights posts,” he said.