UNESCO-affiliated scholars slam agency's anti-Israel bias, plead for rethink

"A group of scholars affiliated with UNESCO criticized the agency for recent one-sided resolutions on Jerusalem, calling for a new approach to sensitive holy sites that takes into consideration everyone's religious sensitivities.

'The UNESCO decisions on the holy sites in Jerusalem have failed to draw on expert scholarship and knowledge,' the scholars said in a joint statement, issued Thursday at the close of a conference in Israel's capital.

'The reality in Jerusalem is complex. Complexity is the solution, not the problem. To understand the multi-layered situations and to avoid simplistic, inadequate and divisive responses that can, and do, have harmful consequences, scholarly expertise is required.'

The 15 scholars who issued the statement are members of UNESCO's UNITWIN network for interreligious and intercultural studies. They include experts in intercultural studies from the US, Israel, France, Tajikistan, New Zealand, Russia and India..."