Author Of UNESCO's Nixed Israel Exhibit Decries 'Appalling Betrayal'

The State Department refused to co-sponsor a planned UNESCO exhibit entitled: "The People, the Book, the Land - 3,500 years of ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel." The excuse given earlier this month, by Kelly Siekman, the State Department's director of UNESCO affairs, to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in writing was this: "At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters. As a rule, the United States does not co-sponsor exhibits at UNESCO without oversight of content development from conception to final production." Either a shocking denial of the reality of Jewish history or an equally shocking capitulation to Arab blackmail. UNESCO pulled the exhibit down from the walls just before its public opening, after Arab states objected.