PM said to accept UNESCO chief’s invite to New York summit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation from new UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay to participate in a New York conference next month on combating anti-Semitism, according to a report Tuesday.

The conference, to be held as part of September’s General Assembly meeting, will be the first of its kind and is expected to host leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Its key speaker will be Prof. Dina Porat, Chief Historian of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum, Israel’s Ynet news site reported.

The conference will also see the launch of a new UN educational program to combat anti-Semitism.

The invite by Azoulay appears to represent an attempt on her part to improve ties between United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the Jewish state.

Israel and the US announced at the beginning of the year that they would be leaving the group by the end of 2018, citing among other reasons the body’s anti-Israel bias.

Israel’s envoy to the UN Danny Danon welcomed world leaders’ commitment to fighting anti-Semitism and called for “further steps” to eradicated hatred.

Netanyahu has praised Azoulay for the fact that no anti-Israel resolutions have been passed at UNESCO for nearly a year, a Channel 10 report earlier this month said.

Azoulay reportedly told the premier she was making large efforts to change UNESCO’s treatment of Israel, and added she would like to meet him at the sidelines of the UN session to discuss a possible postponement of Israel’s exit from the agency.

Earlier this month a senior Israeli diplomat said Jerusalem is considering whether it will go through with the exit or other options. One possibility is that Israel will not cancel the withdrawal, but delay it by several months to check on the changes in the organization.

UNESCO is best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions, but it also works to fight violent extremism, improve education for girls, promote Holocaust understanding, defend media freedoms, and encourage science on climate change.

In recent years, however, Israel has been infuriated by resolutions that ignore and diminish its historical connection to the Holy Land, and that have named ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites.

Raphael Ahren and Michael Bachner contributed to this report.