In a letter to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels expressed shock at the November 28 so-called “Model of UNESCO Simulation” held at the Conference Center of Cairo University,”where an announced member of your delegation to UNESCO, Dr. Ramy Ashour, stated, ‘Israel was behind the Paris terrorist attacks, to destroy the image of Islam and so that French Jews leave France for Israel.'”
Samuels pointed out, “The original UNESCO Simulation Model (USM) logo includes the organization’s mission statement preamble: ‘Building Peace in the Minds of both Men and Women.'”
Samuels stressed, “This aim has apparently been not only removed from the Cairo conference logo, but Ashour’s conspiracy theory presentation may harm both UNESCO and Egypt, while encouraging Jihadist terrorism — of which your country is sadly a notable victim.”
The letter added, “Ashour apparently wished to take advantage of an ostensible simulation scenario in order to echo a personal prejudice — (see his photos of the blue Star of David covering the entire Middle East and North Africa among “religious and political” pictures on his Facebook page) — that only serve to foment Islamist terror.”
Samuels urged the Foreign Minister to “condemn the absurdity of Ashour’s statement and immediately withdraw him from UNESCO and from foreign service as a liability undermining Egyptian foreign policy.”
There’s a happy ending to this tale: at the conclusion of the press release, Samuels noted that “UNESCO has just advised us that Dr. Ramy Ashour appears to be a university Professor at Cairo University and is not associated with UNESCO in any way, adding, ‘In light of the information provided by the Wiesenthal Center, we have brought this to the attention of the Permanent Delegation of Egypt…'”
