Netanyahu slams UNESCO delay of exhibit on Jewish ties to Holy Land over Arab objections

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is criticizing the U.N.'s cultural agency for postponing an exhibit on Jewish connections to the Holy Land.

UNESCO said last week it delayed the exhibition after Arab member states said it could disrupt Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The U.N. agency said it also needed extra time to revise historical claims in the exhibit that member states could consider "contestable."

But Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S. Jewish group that co-organized the exhibit, said UNESCO had already approved the exhibit and mounted it at UNESCO's Paris headquarters.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power has called on UNESCO to open the exhibit.

Netanyahu said Sunday the exhibit wouldn't harm peace efforts. He has urged the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland.