UNESCO Chief Pledges to Correct Science Report's Omission of Israel

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Feb 03, 2012, 03:02 ET

PARIS, Feb. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova pledged to AJC today that her agency's latest five-year Science Report would belatedly be augmented with an online chapter on Israeli scientific achievements. The additional material on Israel will be posted by the end of this month, she said.

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"We welcome Director General Bokova's pledge to us that UNESCO will finally correct its glaring omission of Israel in its science report," said Jason Isaacson, AJC director of government and international affairs. "Israel is recognized globally as a leader in science and technology, and is home to six Nobel Prize winners in the sciences in the last decade alone."

The absence of a section on Israel in the UNESCO Science Report 2010, a compendium of global scientific accomplishments, had sparked Israeli and U.S. protests at the governmental and non-governmental levels, including from AJC, which has met with Bokova regularly in Paris, New York and Washington.

Meeting at UNESCO's Paris headquarters with Isaacson and AJC France director Simone Rodan, Bokova noted Israel's record of significant scientific and technological contributions, and said she has directed that the agency's global report be amended through the online publication of the omitted chapter.

Joining the AJC delegation in today's meeting was U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee