In absurd twist, Iranian envoy may be voted as UNESCO chief

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a body known for its strong anti-Israel track record, is likely to elect Iran's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Ahmad Jalali as its new chairman in the upcoming election. Jerusalem fears that the organization's anti-Israel agenda could become stronger if that comes to pass.

The Executive Board is one of UNESCO's three constitutional branches and is responsible for executing the resolutions adopted by the General Conference. The Executive Board consists of 58 members out of the total 195 current U.N. member states and is elected for a term of four years.

In the past two years, UNESCO has adopted mainly pro-Palestinian resolutions and demonstrated an anti-Israeli bias by questioning Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and denying any Jewish historic or religious ties to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, or the Western Wall.

The current UNESCO committee chairman is Michael Worbs of the German U.N. delegation and a representative of UNESCO's Western Europe and North America, a group in which Israel is also a member.

Jalali is currently the only candidate for chairman of the Executive Board in the election that is scheduled to take place in October 2017.

Israel and the U.S. have been working behind the scenes to encourage other delegates to submit their candidacy, thus far to no avail.

Iran wants the chairmanship so it can attempt to curb "Education 2030," a global educational plan proposed by UNESCO that promotes gender equality in education and tolerance toward the LGBTQ community -- values the Islamic Republic claims contradict Islamic teaching.

Meanwhile, UNESCO's General Conference will also hold an election in October to replace current Director General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria. For the first time in the history of the organization, the leading candidates for the position are all delegates from Arab states. The two front runners are the delegates from Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Theoretically, an anti-Israel triad could be formed in UNESCO with Iran heading the organization's Executive Board, Qatar as its director general and Morocco as chairman of the General Conference, a development that would result in the anti-Israel bias worsening and more anti-Israel resolutions being adopted.

Israel's Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama Hacohen said in response that "electing an Iranian envoy as the chairman of the U.N. cultural and educational organization is completely absurd," adding that unfortunately, "in UNESCO any absurdity could become a disturbing reality."

"Until now, UNESCO has been source of mediation and mitigation, suddenly a representative of the ayatollahs, who represents the complete opposite of everything this organization stands for, will stand at its helm.

"Earlier this year, I promoted, alongside [UNESCO's] chairman an initiative to abrogate the annual Holocaust Cartoon Contest held in Tehran -- what will become of it [the initiative] next year?

"The free world must internalize that Tehran is spitting in the face of UNESCO and the U.N. education guide, showing exactly which country shares its humane and universal values, and which country represents the exact opposite," Shama Hacohen said.

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