CAIRO: Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni is defending his controversial bid to head UNESCO, fighting off accusations of anti-Semitism abroad while ducking attacks at home for his soft tone with Israel.
The candidacy for director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is based on a basic philosophy which is reconciliation between peoples, Hosni told AFP in an interview.
As culture minister for the last 22 years, Hosni rejects a full normalization of ties between Egypt and Israel until there is a signed peace deal with the Palestinians.
However, as head of UNESCO he would encourage a rapprochement in the whole region, without exception, he said.
Hosni will head to Paris on Thursday to lobby for the post, whose winner will be picked from a dozen candidates by the 58 members of UNESCO s executive council during a meeting from September 7-23.
His candidacy has been mired in controversy amid charges of anti-Semitism after comments he made in May 2008 when he said he would burn Israeli books himself if he found any in Egyptian libraries.
He later retracted his words, which were in response to a question in parliament, and apologized.
In May, three prominent French intellectuals – Nobel Peace Price laureate Elie Wiesel, philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann called for his candidacy to be blocked, branding him a dangerous man.
A recent article in the prestigious American Foreign Policy magazine described Hosni s bid for the job as scandalous and accused him of echoing the rampant Judeophobia of Egyptian intellectual circles.
The minister, who wrote a column in the French daily Le Monde regretting his book-burning comments, is constantly attempting to keep a lid on the controversy.
It was in the context of a dispute with an Islamic fundamentalist in the corridors of parliament. I said it like one would say go to hell . It s a sentence that was taken out of context, he said.
If I were anti-Semitic, why would I have commissioned the restoration of synagogues in this country since 1998? he asked, saying that his promise to go to Israel as the head of the organization would cause him no problems.
But his words have cost him dearly in Egypt, where he critics have accused him of trying to accommodate Israel in order to preserve his chances for the job.
I am angry with him. The fact that he apologizes in this manner fills me with deep sadness, respected poet Abderahman Al-Abnudi wrote in the pro-government weekly Al-Mussawer magazine.
Last year, a group of 26 intellectuals condemned Hosni for saying in an Israeli newspaper interview that he was prepared to visit the Jewish state.
The interview amounted to a humiliating surrender to Israeli demands for the sake of personal gain, the signatories charged.
For his part, Hosni remains opposed to the idea of full cultural normalization with Israel, 30 years after a peace deal between both countries was signed.
Normalization will come in time, not now. When peace (with the Palestinians) is established, I will be the first to normalize, he said.
Despite the tense climate, Hosni believes he has the support of 32 of UNESCO s 58-member executive council, while most of the others are still undecided.
In all elections, one must remain wary till the end, Hosni said.
