The UNESCO Executive Committee prepared to examine Israel’s educational and cultural record in the occupied territories today amid controversy over Arab plans to submit a resolution accusing Israel of “cultural aggression” against the Arab inhabitants.
The discussion was due to start today despite the fact that the report prepared by a five-man delegation to the territories has not yet been released by the organization’s Director General. UNESCO sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the report was generally highly “favorable to Israel. It was reportedly not released because of the opposition of one of the five experts.
The UNESCO Secretariat has released for distribution only certain extracts and partial reports, including some unfavorable to the Israeli administration in the territories. The Israeli delegation, which has observer status within the Executive, has asked Director General Mukhtar Amadou M’Bow to release the entire report and to call on the chairman of the expert group, Prof. Jean-Marc Henri, to report to the Executive plenary.
UNESCO condemned Israel in 1974, provoking the departure of the American delegation and a Senate decision to stop its contributions to the UNESCO budget. The Executive, in Paris and at the general conference in Nairobi in 1976, modified the former anti-Israel stands to a certain degree which enabled the U.S. to resume its participation in UNESCO work. A renewed anti-Israel stand, if confirmed at the general conference due to meet in Paris next fall, could precipitate a new crisis with far-reaching consequences and force the Carter Administration to take a stand on the issue.
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