Irina Bokova, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will not include a Palestinian poster collection in the organization’s Memory of the World Register, The Times of Israel reported yesterday. Though an advisory board has recommended inclusion of the collection, “[a]s director general, Bokova has the power to veto the board’s recommendation and will do so if necessary.”
Even if the collection were to be revised and some of the more questionable posters removed she would still make use of her veto — because the collection’s “approach is wrong,” Bokova added.
“I think that very many of the posters run counter to the values of UNESCO and that is why I oppose them,” she explained. The collection includes “indeed very, very alarming posters.”
The Times also explained the “alarming” elements included in many of the posters.
Besides universal themes of occupation and the motifs depicting the struggle for liberation and peace — such as barbed wire and white doves — many of the posters feature machine guns and hand grenades, extolling armed resistance and terrorism. Some of the posters glorify Palestinian suicide attacks and other murderous missions against Israeli civilians, including a 1978 massacre known in Israel as the bloodiest terror attack in the country’s history.
In a letter to World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer, Bokova wrote “It is my conviction that UNESCO should not associate itself with such documents whose inscription could fuel hatred and anti-Semitic perceptions.”
In taking her stand Bokova is pushing back against a Palestinian tactic of joining international organizations to push an anti-Israel agenda even at the cost of hurting the organizations financially.