A United Nations agency pulled an exhibit on the Jewish people’s “3,500-year relationship” to the land of Israel after the Arab League lodged a last minute protest. The exhibit which was entitled “People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel,” was created jointly by the Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. It was scheduled to open on January 20 at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.
Less than a week before it was to open, UNESCO informed the SWC it was canceling it because the Arab League had claimed the exhibit “could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East,” the U.S.-based Jewish newspaper ‘The Algemeiner’ reported. Invitations had already gone out and the fully prepared exhibition material was already in place, the paper reported.
The display was co-sponsored by Israel, Canada and Montenegro. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Wiesenthal Center called the move as an “absolute outrage.” “The Arabs don’t want the world to know that the Jews have a 3500-year relationship to the Land of Israel,” Hier said.
In a letter to Irina Bokova, president of UNESCO, Abdulla al Neaimi, from the United Arab Emirates, expressed “deep worry and great disapproval” over the program showing the age old connection between Israel and the Jewish people.