PARIS: World envoys to the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO started voting on Thursday for a new chief, as the Egyptian frontrunner for the job battled to fight off charges of anti-Semitism.
Egypt s culture minister for 22 years, Farouk Hosni is seen as best placed among nine candidates to take over from Japan s Koichiro Matsuura as director general of the UN s culture and education agency.
Supporters say the Egyptian s election would send a positive signal from the West towards the Muslim world, but the race has been clouded by charges that anti-Israel comments made by Hosni make him unfit for the role.
His detractors include Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel – who says his appointment would shame the international community – as well as the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center and US and French intellectuals.
In his long career, Hosni has often been accused of promoting anti-Semitism, in particular after May 10, 2008 when he told the Egyptian parliament: I d burn Israeli books myself if I found any in libraries in Egypt.
Fighting off the charges in an interview ahead of the first round of voting, Hosni insisted his comment was made during an angry exchange with hardliners from the Muslim Brotherhood and had been taken out of context.
He told France 24 television he had been referring only to Israeli books that insult Islam, which he was accused of tolerating in Egypt s libraries.
I restored all the synagogues (in Egypt). Why would I do that if I was an anti-Semite? he asked, holding up as proof of his good faith the fact he attended a Holocaust memorial ceremony earlier this year.
He also denied personally inviting a prominent Holocaust revisionist, the French philosopher Roger Garaudy, to Cairo, one of a string of acts held against him by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Just because Roger Garaudy was invited to Egypt doesn t mean the country is anti-Semitic or that its culture minister is anti-Semitic, Hosni argued.
A recent article in the prestigious American magazine Foreign Policy described Hosni s bid as scandalous and accused him of echoing the rampant Judeophobia of Egyptian intellectual circles.
But the choice of the Egyptian candidate has won considerable support in Europe as an attempt to reach out to the Muslim world.
France must remain officially neutral on the issue as it is the host country for UNESCO, but officials have said privately Paris favors Hosni for the job.
The Elysee has argued that Hosni has acknowledged that the comments were a mistake, while noting that neither Israel nor the United States have stood up to oppose his candidacy.
He also picked up unexpected support last week from France s most famous Nazi-hunter, 73-year-old Serge Klarsfeld, who argued that Hosni had apologized for his book-burning remarks and taken a strong stance against Holocaust denial.
Hosni s main rival for director general is European Commissioner for External Relations and ex-Austrian foreign minister, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Other contenders include Lithuania s UNESCO ambassador Ina Marciulionyte, Benin s ambassador Noureini Tidjani-Serpos, former Algerian foreign minister Mohammed Bedjaoui and former Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Yakovenko.
Representatives of the 58 nations in UNESCO s ruling council began what was expected to be five rounds of voting on Thursday.
The appointment is to be endorsed in October by the 193-member assembly of UNESCO, which has a mandate to promote global understanding through culture, science and education.
