Bulgaria UNESCO Chief Bokova to Attend Rabin Memorial Ceremony

Irina Bokova, Bulgarian diplomat and new head of UNESCO, is to attend a memorial ceremony for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Paris on November 4, The Jerusalem Post reports Tuesday.

Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO's outgoing Director-General, who formally steps down in mid-November, will also attend the event, as will Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv, whose city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site six years ago for its thousands of "White City" Bauhaus-inspired Modernist buildings.

The Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has sent invitations to the ceremony to all its 193 member-states.

Sources close to UNESCO say the ceremony marks an opportunity to highlight constructive relations following the controversy surrounding the election for the Director-General.

When defeated, Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s Minister of Culture, had complained about "a group of the world's Jews who had a major influence in the elections."

Sofia-born Bokova, who moves to UNESCO from a post as Bulgaria's Ambassador to France, narrowly defeated Hosn for the UNESCO leadership on September 22 after five rounds of voting.

She has said her priorities in the job will be to focus on education, Africa and gender equality. Another priority, however, will be to heal UNESCO's ties with some Arab and African nations who had backed Hosni and were angered by his defeat.