Controversy Surrounds UNESCO’s Would-Be Chief 

By Joseph Mayton 
February 2, 2009
The Media Line
Original Source: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=24117

[Cairo, Egypt] Controversy continues to follow Egypt’s minister of culture Farouk Hosny as he attempts to build a global consensus for his candidacy as the next chief of the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, with Israel and the United States the most outspoken critics of his election.
 
“All my life I have been involved in culture, in social development and a number of things related to this position,” he told The Media Line at his office in an upscale Cairo villa.
 
Hosny has been Egypt’s culture minister for over two decades after stints in Paris and Rome as Egypt’s cultural attaché to the European nations. 
 
The United States and Israel have been lobbying against Hosny’s candidacy, arguing that he is not equipped to deal with the international community. The Bush administration allegedly asked Egypt to reconsider the minister’s nomination. 
 
An American Embassy official in Cairo confirmed the Bush administration was opposed to Hosny’s election, saying that his past comments and actions had threatened to undermine international cultural institutions.
 
“Certainly, the former administration had its own agenda, but now we must wait and see what the new president wants and this will determine how we approach different situations, including UNESCO,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
 
The question of whether the world is ready for an Arab, and a Muslim, to take the helm of the United Nations education, scientific and cultural organization has been on Egyptian and Arab minds since Hosny’s candidacy was announced last year.
 
Much of the criticism from Washington and Israel stems from comments made by Hosny in May last year, when he said in front of Egypt’s parliament that he “would burn Israeli books himself if found in Egyptian libraries.”
 
As a result of these comments, Israeli officials, including the ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, demanded that Hosny’s candidacy be revoked, and threatened to take the case against Hosny to its global allies.
 
“Israel is weighing the option of bringing the case to the attention of the international community and thus harming his chances of receiving the position,” a statement from the embassy said last summer. 
 
“What I meant is that there are no Jewish books in the ministry of culture libraries,” Hosny begins when asked about his statement. “However, one year before that I gave directions to the National Translation Institute to begin translating Jewish and Israeli texts and they are doing it now.
 
“About the stance of Israel against me, I think it is presumptuous and unjust, because I think that democracy means that it should not affect how nations and people vote,” the minister says.
 
The Zionist Organization of America is not convinced and has repeatedly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to dismiss his culture minister. 
 
Farouk Hosny's inflammatory rhetoric helps to nurture and entrench the anti-Israel hatred that suffuses Egyptian society, thanks to the incendiary government-controlled media that the Mubarak government does nothing to moderate. Israel should do more than protest Hosny's conduct – it should demand his dismissal. If the Mubarak government means to preserve peace and abide by the 1979 peace treaty, it is obligated to do no less, ZOA national president Morton A. Klein said in a statement.
 
But Hosny defends his actions, saying that he has done much to buttress the country’s Jewish heritage, including the restoration of all 10 synagogues in the country.
 
“I have promoted and helped restore much of Egypt’s Jewish history to the country and the comments I made were taken out of context,” he says.
 
Egypt’s culture minister is the only remaining Arab nominee for the job and is seen as a likely winner of UNESCO’s top job.
 
Hosny says the United States and Israel are upset that he does not push for normalization with the Jewish state despite three decades of so-called peace. To this, the minister maintains normalization is impossible until there is peace.
 
“We can only have normalization after a durable peace is established that will make this possible. This is a natural process that will occur on its own once peace is established throughout the region,” he says.
 
Official sources also assert that in the corridors of UNESCO's Paris headquarters Israeli representatives have been approaching UNESCO members trying to canvas them to vote against Hosny. The sources say the anti-Hosny campaign has increased in intensity after a number of Mediterranean, European, African and Asian countries announced their support for Egypt's minister of culture. 
 
Israeli and American officials are not the only ones against Hosny’s appointment. In Egypt, where Israel is a touchy subject despite a 30-year peace treaty between the two nations, activists are opposed to the minister taking an international position that would force him to deal with Israel and Israeli culture.
 
An article published in early January by Egyptian weekly Al Balagh Al Gedeed argued that the minister was attempting to convince Israeli officials to support his candidacy through a series of meetings in Egypt and Israel. The article, titled “Hosny Calls Israel for UNESCO Seat,” was in the January 12 issue of the new weekly.
 
According to reports, the minister has threatened to take legal action against the newspaper for publishing false claims about him traveling to the Jewish state. 
 
Hosny says, “I would never travel to Israel as minister of culture because we do not deal with it culturally.” 
 
The possibility of legal action being taken by the ministry against the journalist has raised eyebrows as to whether Hosny is a proponent of freedom of speech and, as a candidate for the world’s top culture position, critics have questioned his ability to fulfill the duties.
 
“I do not plan on taking legal action. Newspapers like this are out there trying to sell papers, so it is not surprising that they wrote lies about me,” Hosny says. “If I win the position, I would, and always have, been a supporter of democracy and freedom. That is what culture needs and societies need.”
 
His comments have done little to calm Egyptian activists and intellectuals’ opposition to his candidacy.
 
“We don’t want someone from Egypt who deals with Israel in a normal manner while they [Israel] continue to do what they do against the Palestinians,” says leading activist and Coptic Christian George Ishaq.
 
He says that until there was peace in the region, an Egyptian cultural official should maintain his distance from the Jewish state.
 
“The minister has dealt with the Israelis on a number of occasions and this is not part of Egyptian culture, and we are against his appointment to a position that would require a direct relationship with Israel,” he adds, pointing to a number of other intellectuals in the country who agree, including famed novelist Sonallah Ibrahim.
 
A Facebook network has been established calling for Hosny to drop out of the running for the job. The group, titled “Egyptians Against Nominating Farouk Hosny for UNESCO,” says that the minister is a “man who ruined Egyptian culture over 20 years as minister of culture.”
 
The minister argues that the position of secretary general of UNESCO is different from that of minister of culture. He says that he fulfilled the responsibilities of minister in accordance with Egyptian society and government demands. However, if he takes over as UNESCO’s chief, that position would require a different mandate that he would maintain.
 
“Just like Boutros Ghali (former U.N. secretary general) and Mohamed El-Baradei (current IAEA chief), I would have different responsibilities that I would be required to do, so it is different from my current position,” the minister claims.
 
So, would he travel to Israel as UNESCO’s top man? 
 
“Yes, there would be no question I would do as the job demands,” he says.
 
In September, the UN votes for the next UNESCO chief, and Hosny looks forward to a possible move back to Europe.
 
“The president wanted me to do this, I am not concerned with winning the job; but if I do, I will certainly enjoy it and follow through with what I am supposed to do.”

By Joseph Mayton on Monday, February 02, 2009