"UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, has pulled a Jewish exhibit two years in the making, entitled 'People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel,' after a zero hour protest from the Arab League...
The exhibit, which was created by Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) together with UNESCO, was scheduled to open on January 20th, 2014, at UNESCO's Paris headquarters. The invitations had already gone out, and the fully prepared exhibition material was already in place. The display was co-sponsored by Israel, Canada and Montenegro...
UNESCO informed the SWC of the change on January 14th in a letter to the Center's Shimon Samuels, asserting the Arab League's claim that going ahead with the show 'could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East.' In a letter to Irina Bokova, president of UNESCO, President of the Arab group within 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...'[F]or the major worry not to damage UNESCO in its... mission of support for peace, the Arab group within UNESCO is asking you to make the decision to cancel this exhibition,' Al Neaimi concluded...
Interestingly, 10 days prior to the suspension of the exhibit, the United States declined co-sponsorship on remarkably similar grounds. '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,' wrote Kelly O. Siekman, Director at the Office of UNESCO Affairs of the State Department."