Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who said last year he would burn Israeli books, failed in his bid on Tuesday to head the United Nations agency for culture and education, losing to a Bulgarian outsider.
A UNESCO official told reporters he was beaten to the post by Bulgaria’s former foreign minister, Irina Gueorguieva Bokova, following a fifth and final round of voting that exposed deep divisions within the Paris-based U.N. body.
Hosni and Bokova faced each other Tuesday in a final round of voting for UNESCO’s top job in a race clouded by an anti-Semitism row.
A fourth round of voting on Monday by the U.N. culture body’s executive council ended in a draw, a UNESCO spokeswoman said, with neither Hosni nor Bokova, picking up enough votes.
UNESCO’s executive council started voting last Thursday for a successor to Matsuura as director general.
On Monday, Ecuador withdrew its candidate after European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner pulled out on Sunday, narrowing the field from an original nine to two.
Egypt’s culture minister for 22 years, Hosni had long been front-runner in the race for the job but the charges of anti-Semitism clouded his candidacy.
The Egyptian minister was seeking to become the first representative from the Arab world to head the U.N. agency which is mandated to promote global understanding through culture, education and science.
The appointment is to be endorsed in October by the 193-member assembly of UNESCO.