| UN Watch demanding full investigation
The U.N.’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization funded a Palestinian children’s magazine that published an article praising the Nazi genocide of six million Jews, reported Palestinian Media Watch last week. After a global outcry, UNESCO has now agreed to withdraw its support. UN Watch is demanding a full investigation.
UNESCO to stop support for Palestinian magazine
By Jordana Horn, Dec. 25, 2011
“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. Click here to join Facebook peitition urging UNESCO to expel Syria.
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Statement by U.S. Mission: Ambassador David Killion Condemns Anti-Semitic Publication and calls on UNESCO to Block Funding
On December 22, the U.S. Mission to UNESCO contacted the Organization’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, to express its grave concern over press reports regarding the Palestinian youth educational magazine, Zayzafuna, and its publishing of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content in particular a student essay that praised Hitler’s murder of Jews. UNESCO took quick action to disassociate itself from the magazine, and has assured the U.S. Mission to UNESCO that all funding of the publication has stopped. U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion asked Director-General Bokova to investigate the circumstances of this event, to ensure it does not happen again in the future.
Ambassador Killion said, “Director-General Bokova was very clear in her message to the Palestinian Authority when they joined UNESCO. She told them that ‘…membership in UNESCO goes beyond raising the flag. It comes with rights and responsibilities. It means sharing values – the values of tolerance, respect for others.’
The decision that UNESCO took today to condemn this magazine’s hateful content will, I hope, be a strong signal to the Palestinian leadership that its messages to the international community and the messages it teaches to its young must be the same, and must move towards peace.” |
