(JNS.org) The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pulled a Simon Wiesenthal Center exhibit on the Jewish connection to the land of Israel after the Arab League objected to the display. “People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel” was a project initiated by the Wiesenthal Center after the Palestinian Authority was unilaterally accepted as a UNESCO member state in 2011. Invitations had already gone out for the Jan. 20 opening of the exhibit at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters, but “the Arabs protested and they kicked us out,” Wiesenthal Center Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier told The Algemeiner.

UNESCO broke the news to the Wiesenthal Center in a Jan. 14 letter that said the exhibit “could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East.” Abdulla al Neaimi, the president of the Arab group within UNESCO, in a letter to UNESCO had expressed “deep worry and great disapproval” about the exhibit.

“The Arabs don’t want the world to know that the Jews have a 3,500-year relationship to the Land of Israel,” Hier said.

“UNESCO’s decision is wrong and should be reversed,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said, adding, “UNESCO is supposed to be fostering discussion and interaction between civil society and member states, and organizations such as the Wiesenthal Center have a right to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO’s mission.”