We are a hopeless case. We don’t understand the world around us, nor do we try to understand it. Is it reasonable to nominate people to international positions without knowing the basic requirements of such a nomination? Egypt has nominated Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni to the office of Director General of the UNESCO. The rest of the Arab countries, African ministers of culture, and a number of European, Asian and Latin American countries agreed on this nomination.
Hosni’s nomination was made for no good reason except that he is a successful minister who has made an invaluable contribution in the area of cultural heritage conservation, including Jewish monuments, setting up museums, libraries, allocating funds for creativity awards as well as doubling their value over the last years. Moreover, he wiped out political classifications which were prevalent before. Now the cultural arena is open to everybody regardless of their political affiliations. At present, a number of people, who were previously considered persona non grata are holding top posts at the ministry.
In addition, Egypt’s cultural and intellectual position, which gives better chances to any nominee in international cultural forums, is good enough. It is worth mentioning that Egypt is one of the founders of the UNESCO more than half a century ago. That is why many countries in UNESCO believe that it is time for an Arab figure to occupy the position, which has previously been held by people from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
But the truth which both Egypt and the other countries have ignored and should which aught to be cited here for the benefit of all those concerned is that our nominee fails to meet a very important requirement, namely Israel’s agreement. It is true that this requirement is unwritten in any of UNESCO’s literature but it is common knowledge. I don’t know how we and nearly half of the members of the executive council of the UNESCO, who have supported Hosni, overlooked this fact.
During his term in office Hosni committed himself as culture minister to the stand of the Egyptian intelligentsia, which is against normalization with Israel, before a comprehensive settlement that gives the Palestinians their legitimate right is reached.
This condition is the true guarantee for the continuity of normalization avoiding the repetition of incidents where visitors to the Cairo International Book Fair assaulted the Israeli pavilion or set ablaze the Israeli flag as an expression of Egyptians’ refusal to deal with an occupying country that is both racist and expansionist and which imprisons more than 11,000 Palestinians under terrible conditions as reported by international organizations. All this happens amid an inhuman siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, described by ex-US President Jimmy Carter as the biggest human rights crime of our time.
When it comes to fielding candidates to international posts, we should not pick out the qualified person who represents the conscience of his nation, but rather the one favored by Israel. When Hosni’s nomination was announced, the Israeli ambassador to Cairo said that he will not get the post unless Israel gave him its blessings. Although these statements were published in newspapers then, no one heeded them. We should have moved to obey the orders given by the ambassador of the occupying country that is both racist and expansionist. We should have immediately withdrawn our nomination. But we did not.
As a result Israel is using the Bush administration to fight the Egyptian candidate, and that administration in its final day is complying fully with Israel’s will to the extent that it has threatened to walk out of the UNESCO and not pay its 22 percent share of the organization’s core budget if the Egyptian candidate is elected. Moreover, it is also putting tremendous pressure on the countries which backed Egypt’s nomination to the post to change their stance. We can say what we like about this disgraceful US blackmail, which clearly indicates that Egyptian-US relations are indeed strategic. Let us also say what we like about Israel’s antagonism to Egypt, which truly stresses its commitment to the peace accords. But we Arabs must realize our mistake and atone for it by seeking the forgiveness of this occupying state that is both racist and expansionist before fielding our candidates for international positions.
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Arab Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
