Will UNESCO Be Faithful to Its Values?

Co-authored by Claude Lanzmann

The election of the Director General of UNESCO has entered its last phase. And the designation of the Egyptian Farouk Hosni, thought to be a given just a few weeks ago, seems to be less assured than previously believed. Three rounds of voting haven't been enough to procure him the crushing majority that his supporters promised.

We will not rehash the unacceptable declarations that we have already rehearsed (May 22 in Le Monde) where this man who has been minister of culture for two decades promised to burn with his own hands any book written in Hebrew that could have possibly infiltrated the stacks of the Alexandria Library. Neither will we once again bring up the fact that this man who presents himself as a candidate of dialogue and peace is, in his country, a partisan of the most heated and constant hostility to any form of normalization between Israel and its neighbors.

What is new, on the other hand, are the warnings of non-governmental organizations that underscore the paradox of electing to this post -- the supposed guarantor of the values of liberty of expression in the world -- the minister of a country that ranked, during his reign, 146th out of 173 for freedom of the press on the Reporters without Borders (dis)honor roll. These are all the voices of the artists and intellectuals who, even from within Egypt, implore us to understand that this supposed "rampart" against radical Islamism has acted, for the past 22 years, as an indefatigable ally of the fanatics, ratifying their decisions, sometimes even furthering their causes -- acting, in any case, as an implacable censor of free thought and culture.

The new element is that, finally, these weeks of muffled debate, as well as the elimination rounds of the initial votes, have seen two other candidacies break free which, at the very least, are worthy of not being sullied by the same possibilities of suspicion: that of the Bulgarian Irina Bokova, her country's ambassador to France and, 20 years ago, a stakeholder in the democratic transition process in Sofia; and that of the Ecuadorean Ivonne Baki, whose election would mean, at least as much as that of Mr. Hosni, an homage paid to the South in its dialogue, more necessary than ever, with the North.

The 58 voters who today or tomorrow will decide the finalists will have a choice between two honorable candidates and a third. They will have to decide between two women with nothing to disqualify them and a man whose entire past speaks against the institution's ideals but whom we are asked to bet on in the hope that his vague and hasty regrets mark a miraculous change.

The choice, the real choice, will be between the dealings of a realpolitik that claims to be the friend of Egyptian culture even as it in reality only cares to please an autocrat and, on the contrary, faithfulness to those principles which are UNESCO's but to which UNESCO itself has too often been unfaithful and risked trampling those very principles.

Need it be added that the election of a woman to this position for the first time would in itself send a beautiful message? It's almost exactly 60 years since Simone de Beauvoir declared in The Second Sex, "The free woman is just in the process of being born."

Comments

[ShamelessdeParis]

Somehow mistakes crept in to my last comment
Here it is again corrected

Dear Mr Moderator,
I have sent two comments which were critical of BHL's critical objectivity. In general and questioning of it in this case.
Neither was posted. I don't understand why not. Neither used profanity. Neither went as far as his own criticism of the possibility of UNESCO appointing Farouk Hosni.
I quite like BHL, I find him both entertaining and stimulating.
His narcissism is a given here in France, and is respected by many.
His off-the-cuff analysis are laughed at in good spirit in America.
And he's tough enough to take criticism; he's being doing it for years. He doesn't actually need HP's kid glove protection.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/will-unesco-be-faithful-t_b_294165.html

[spaceknife]

I would add that, if mister Levy is against him, it is one more reason to elect him.

[ShamelessdeParis]

Elegantly put.

[ZenJu]

Farouk Hosni's attitude is despicable and barbaric. Whatever his political views, Hebrew culture is part of the world's heritage. Israel is a vital, living nation and member of the UN. If Hosni wins out, then the UN is confirmed, once more, as a biased entity whose primary obsession seems to be bashing Israel.

[ShamelessdeParis]

Can somebody please give the relevant Hosni quote in full and in context Was he speaking of ALL Hebrew texts or certain offensive ones ...I have heard conflicting versions.

[Freenation]

my comment was rejected but how many more articles are we going to see the same content again and again...

[GrahamInCanada]

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Think of it as a challenge to your writing skills. How can you both get your point across and get it posted?

But I agree, on this article, when they have that flag fully moderated above, they are being just about as strict about it as I've ever seen...

So screw your thinking hat on, and think of what you really mean to say and how to say it so that they will post it. "I must be getting old" in my post below was a double-entendre, meant both for the wry smile it might elicit from the moderator and working at face value in my comment.

[Ergon]

Now now, we really are blessed to hear the thoughts of French pm Sarkozy's vanity publisher. He truly is the successor to Voltaire, which is why we hear from him so often...

[Wozzeck]

Bon ami, truer words were never uttered. And let us be grateful that the words attributed to Voltaire are written in stone here: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. "

[GrahamInCanada]

Mr. Levy's memories of what he wrote in Le Monde on May 22, alas, do not match my memories of what I read in Le Monde.

I must be getting old...

[GrahamInCanada]

"Ecuadorean Ivonne Baki, whose election would mean, at least as much as that of Mr. Hosni, an homage paid to the South in its dialogue, more necessary than ever, with the North. Mr. Levy wrote above.

No insult to Ecuador, but of the cultural assets of our common past, Egypt is nearly unequaled, and Ecuador is not.

[GrahamInCanada]

"Neither will we once again bring up the fact that this man who presents himself as a candidate of dialogue and peace is, in his country, a partisan of the most heated and constant hostility to any form of normalization between Israel and its neighbors." Mr Levy wrote above.

Yes, let us forget that this man has been a minister for decades in the government of the only neighbor of Israel's that Israel has been able to make peace with.

[ZenJu]

Israel also has a peace treaty with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since 1994. Morocco has also had friendly non-official relations with Israel.