"People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land'' were expected to start on Tuesday.
In response to requests for information regarding the postponement of the exhibition, UNESCO made a following statement: ''UNESCO has worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in planning this exhibition. A number of elements relating to it still remain to be agreed upon. This includes unresolved issues relating to potentially contestable textual and visual historical points, which might be perceived by Member States as endangering the peace process.
Moreover, the UNESCO Secretariat received a letter from 22 Member States, of the Arab Group, expressing their concern that the planned exhibition could impact negatively on the peace process and current negotiations underway in the Middle East. In this context, regrettably, UNESCO had to postpone the inauguration of the exhibition.''