NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Thursday welcomed the consensus reached by the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to adopt two texts agreed to by all stakeholders, including the draft decision entitled “Occupied Palestine”. WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer said: “The UNESCO Executive Board has taken an important step today in building upon the new cooperative spirit, as at their last session in October 2017, to fight the politicization of this body. We hope to see this trend continue both in UNESCO and other UN bodies.”
Singer added: “The World Jewish Congress commends UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay for her ongoing efforts to ensure that the politicization which has plagued UNESCO in recent years, led by the political agendas of some member states, stays off the UNESCO floor.”
“We urge the members of the Executive Board to continue to exhibit the same common language they reached today, and commend them for their efforts in achieving a consensus. We hope that the same constructive approach will also be used at the next meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Bahrain from June 24th to July 4th,” Singer concluded.
Prior to these decisions, the World Jewish Congress sent letters to Director-General Azoulay, as well as to nearly 40 UNESCO ambassadors, urging them to reach a consensus by adopting texts that all relevant parties could agree to.