Egyptian Candidate for Unesco's Top Spot Stresses Agency's Role in Times of Crisis
The Japan News
Khaled El-Enany speaks during an interview with The Japan News at the Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo on May 26.
Khaled El-Enany, a former minister of tourism and antiquities for Egypt and now a candidate for director general of UNESCO, stressed the role the U.N. organization has played in times of crisis and the need to strengthen its funding in a recent interview with The Japan News in Tokyo. A written response was also provided after the interview.
Recent conflicts around the world, including in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, have damaged and destroyed numerous cultural properties, while also seriously impacting many children's ability to get an education. El-Enany argued that the destruction of cultural heritage is 'no longer a tragic by-product of war' but is now rather 'a deliberate strategy … to erase identity.'
As for the children who lose access to education, he said they 'miss the values needed to thrive in their societies,' which can put an entire generation at risk 'of marginalization, of vulnerability, sometimes of radicalization.' The affected children need 'pragmatic solutions,' such as distance-learning tools, as well as psychological support.
UNESCO, said El-Enany, has neither the power nor the mandate to stop wars. That means it should be focused on its roles at three levels — preventing conflicts by 'fostering a culture of peace and fighting against hate'; protecting institutions and cultural assets during conflicts; and prioritizing reconstruction of 'heritage sites and schools' after conflicts.
In February, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced it would reconsider U.S. membership in UNESCO because the agency has 'demonstrated anti-Israel sentiment over the past decade,' among other reasons. The United States withdrew from the organization in 2018 during the first Trump administration and was readmitted in 2023 during the Biden administration. Nicaragua recently announced it intends to withdraw over issues related to free speech.
El-Enany expressed regret over these developments, which he said present a serious problem for funding and mean the loss of U.S. expertise. That is why UNESCO must 'do everything to keep the United States,' he asserted. 'The idea behind UNESCO is inclusivity, and we have to have everyone, even countries who disagree politically.'
He added that UNESCO 'can offer [a] very important platform' for discussion of contentious issues.
In light of these problems, he called for strengthening UNESCO's funding to make it more diverse, flexible and sustainable, so that the organization can minimize the possible impact of withdrawals and 'focus on its strategic priorities rather than constantly adapting to fragmented project-based logic.' To this end, there needs to be stronger 'partnerships with the private sector and philanthropic foundations.'
UNESCO's next director general election will be appointed by the General Conference in October. Currently, two other candidates are also in the running.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NHK
15 hours ago
- NHK
Uncertainty looms despite Hamas readiness to resume ceasefire talks
Islamic group Hamas has announced its readiness to "immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations" with Israel for a ceasefire, amid stalled talks between the two sides. A statement by Hamas released on Monday also says that it welcomes ongoing Qatari and Egyptian efforts to end the war in the Gaza Strip. But as Israel and Hamas remain worlds apart, it remains to be seen whether the negotiations will take place. The United States has reportedly proposed a 60-day truce in exchange for Hamas releasing 10 hostages on two occasions, and said that Israel has accepted the plan. Hamas however is said to have proposed releasing 10 living hostages on three occasions, while demanding a wider withdrawal of Israeli forces. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing intensive attacks in Gaza. Footage taken at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, located in southern Gaza, on Sunday shows injured children being brought one after another to the facility. The death toll continues to rise with local health authorities announcing that 37 people had died in the past 24 hours.
Japan Times
20 hours ago
- Japan Times
Trump vowed to remake aid. Is Gaza the future?
U.S. President Donald Trump has slashed American aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to the Gaza Strip may offer clues on what's to come. Administered by contracted U.S. security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is distributing food through several hubs in the war-ravaged territory. An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for over two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. The organization said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday. The initiative excludes the United Nations, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the war-ravaged territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale. The U.N. and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles, and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives. "What we have seen is chaotic, it's tragic and it's resulted in hundreds of thousands of people scrambling in an incredibly undignified and unsafe way to access a tiny trickle of aid," said Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said his aid group stopped work in Gaza in 2015 when Hamas militants invaded its office and that it refused to cooperate in Syria when former strongman Bashar Assad was pressuring opposition-held areas by withholding food. "Why on earth would we be willing to let the Israeli military decide how, where and to whom we give our aid as part of their military strategy to herd people around Gaza?" said Egeland. "It's a violation of everything we stand for. It is the biggest and reddest line there is that we cannot cross." Sidelining the U.N. The U.N. said that 47 people were injured Tuesday when hungry and desperate crowds rushed a GHF site — most of them by Israeli gunfire — while a Palestinian medical source said at least one person had died. The Israeli military denied its soldiers fired on civilians and the GHF denied any injuries or deaths. Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza since Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has vowed to sideline the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, accusing it of bias and of harboring Hamas militants. UNRWA said that nine out of thousands of staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7 attack and dismissed them, but accuses Israel of trying to throw a distraction. John Hannah, a former senior U.S. policymaker who led a study last year that gave birth to the concepts behind the GHF, said the U.N. seemed to be "completely lacking in self-reflection" on the need for a new approach to aid after Hamas built a "terror kingdom." "I fear that people could be on the brink of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good instead of figuring out how do we take part in this effort, improve it, make it better, scale it up," said Hannah, who is not involved in implementing the GHF. Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, defended the use of private contractors, saying that many had extensive Middle East experience from the U.S.-led "war on terror." "We would have been happy if there were volunteers from (other) capable and trusted national forces ... but the fact is, nobody's volunteering," he said. He said he would rather that aid workers coordinate with Israel than Hamas. "Inevitably, any humanitarian effort in a war zone has to make some compromises with a ruling authority that carries the guns," he said. Legitimacy issue Hannah's study had discouraged a major Israeli role in humanitarian work in Gaza, urging instead involvement by Arab states to bring greater legitimacy. Arab states have balked at supporting U.S. efforts as Israel pounds Gaza and after Trump mused about forcibly displacing the whole Gaza population and constructing luxury hotels. Israel and Hamas are negotiating a new Gaza ceasefire that could see a resumption of U.N.-backed efforts. Aid groups say they have vast amounts of aid ready for Gaza that remain blocked. Donnelly said the IRC had 27 tons of supplies waiting to enter Gaza, faulting the GHF for distributing items such as pasta and tinned fish that require cooking supplies — not therapeutic food and treatment for malnourished children. He called for distributing relief in communities where people need it, instead of through militarized hubs. "If anyone really cares about distributing aid in a transparent, accountable, effective way, the way to do that is to use the expertise and infrastructure of aid organizations that have been doing this for decades," Donnelly said.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Egyptian Candidate for Unesco's Top Spot Stresses Agency's Role in Times of Crisis
The Japan News Khaled El-Enany speaks during an interview with The Japan News at the Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo on May 26. Khaled El-Enany, a former minister of tourism and antiquities for Egypt and now a candidate for director general of UNESCO, stressed the role the U.N. organization has played in times of crisis and the need to strengthen its funding in a recent interview with The Japan News in Tokyo. A written response was also provided after the interview. Recent conflicts around the world, including in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, have damaged and destroyed numerous cultural properties, while also seriously impacting many children's ability to get an education. El-Enany argued that the destruction of cultural heritage is 'no longer a tragic by-product of war' but is now rather 'a deliberate strategy … to erase identity.' As for the children who lose access to education, he said they 'miss the values needed to thrive in their societies,' which can put an entire generation at risk 'of marginalization, of vulnerability, sometimes of radicalization.' The affected children need 'pragmatic solutions,' such as distance-learning tools, as well as psychological support. UNESCO, said El-Enany, has neither the power nor the mandate to stop wars. That means it should be focused on its roles at three levels — preventing conflicts by 'fostering a culture of peace and fighting against hate'; protecting institutions and cultural assets during conflicts; and prioritizing reconstruction of 'heritage sites and schools' after conflicts. In February, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced it would reconsider U.S. membership in UNESCO because the agency has 'demonstrated anti-Israel sentiment over the past decade,' among other reasons. The United States withdrew from the organization in 2018 during the first Trump administration and was readmitted in 2023 during the Biden administration. Nicaragua recently announced it intends to withdraw over issues related to free speech. El-Enany expressed regret over these developments, which he said present a serious problem for funding and mean the loss of U.S. expertise. That is why UNESCO must 'do everything to keep the United States,' he asserted. 'The idea behind UNESCO is inclusivity, and we have to have everyone, even countries who disagree politically.' He added that UNESCO 'can offer [a] very important platform' for discussion of contentious issues. In light of these problems, he called for strengthening UNESCO's funding to make it more diverse, flexible and sustainable, so that the organization can minimize the possible impact of withdrawals and 'focus on its strategic priorities rather than constantly adapting to fragmented project-based logic.' To this end, there needs to be stronger 'partnerships with the private sector and philanthropic foundations.' UNESCO's next director general election will be appointed by the General Conference in October. Currently, two other candidates are also in the running.
