NEWSRAEL: We bring items written in the Arab press for a good reason. It gives us an opportunity to see what and how Arabs think - for good and bad. This is an article from "The New Arab" - which usually write like the "old Arab" in bashing Israel at any chance it can. Here is a good example where a world-known figure trashed the BDS - and "The New Arab - expresses it's "outrage".

The President of the Arab World Institute in Paris appears to have compared Arab intellectuals who objected to the display of Israeli artworks as part of an exhibition to 'sheep', causing offense.

The institute is showing an exhibition called ‘Jews of the Orient’  until March this year and the exhibition contains some pieces borrowed from the Israel Museum, the Ben-Zvi Institute, and other Israeli institutions, prompting a campaign to boycott the event among supporters of BDS.

The exhibition was condemned by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign for its display of Israeli-owned works and over 250 intellectuals from the Arab world, including Lebanese writer Elias Khoury, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, and Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi signed an open letter against it in December.

However, in an interview with Radio J the Arab World Institute's president, Jack Lang, denounced the letter, saying it was "completely disproportionate and beside the point".

"It makes me sad to find that figures of quality, writers and philosophers, allow themselves to be dragged like sheep behind a text which truth they have not even checked," Lang, who is also a former French culture minister, said.

He added that the BDS campaign “aims at turning attention away from the deep meaning of this exposition, which has nothing to do with any political debate”.

The exhibition is part of a larger series of events organised by the institute, shedding light on the impact of Abrahamic religions in the Arab world.

Denis Charbit, an Israeli scholar involved in organising the 'Jews of the Orient' exhibition, described the exhibition as the "first fruit of the Abraham Accords", in reference to a deal signed by Israel and a number of Arab states to normalise ties.

In a January 2021 interview with a Moroccan news outlet, the Arab World Institute’s president, Jack Lang, praised Rabat's signing of the US-brokered agreement.

Image: Reuters