Baha'i News: UNESCO chief inaugurates square for tolerance and peace in Haifa

[Baha’i World News Service - Subscribe <bwns-subscribe@bwc.org>]

Baha'i World News Service
http://news.bahai.org
For more information, contact news@bahai.org


UNESCO chief inaugurates square for tolerance and peace in Haifa


HAIFA, Israel, 30 May 2011 (BWNS) – In the Middle East, Haifa is known as one 
of the region's most ethnically and religiously diverse cities, including Jews, 
Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha'is among its residents.

And so it was fitting that on her first visit to the Baha'i gardens here, the 
Director General of UNESCO spoke of the challenges facing multi-cultural 
societies.

"Managing diversity raises some of the most difficult questions of this 21st 
century – inside our societies and outside, with our neighbours and globally," 
said Irina Bokova, formerly the Foreign Affairs Minister for Bulgaria.
 
Ms. Bokova was speaking at a special ceremony held in the Baha'i gardens to 
inaugurate the UNESCO for Tolerance and Peace Square, situated at the point 
where Haifa's historic German Templer colony meets the terraced gardens of the 
Shrine of the Bab.

The newly-named square in Haifa will "stand for the tolerance and the peace 
that we seek to build and to deepen – in this region, and across the world," 
she remarked.

"I am more than convinced that the only ways to build a more peaceful and 
equitable world are through education and dialogue – to deepen understanding, 
to strengthen mutual respect and to prepare the ground for reconciliation..." 
said Ms. Bokova who, in October 2009, became the first woman to head the United 
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"If wars start in the minds of men; it is in the minds of men that the defences 
of peace must be constructed," she said, citing the UNESCO manifesto.

The ceremony also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the official opening 
in May 2001 of the garden terraces of the Shrine of the Bab. In 2008, a UNESCO 
committee meeting held in Quebec, Canada – at which Ms. Bokova was present – 
decided to inscribe the Shrine and terraces, along with the Shrine of 
Baha'u'llah near Acre, on the World Heritage list, as sites of "outstanding 
universal value." 

Future development plans for the UNESCO for Tolerance and Peace Square include 
upgraded stonework and decorative floral plantings in the centre of its traffic 
circle, establishing a symbolic bridge between the German Templer colony and 
the Baha'i gardens. 
 
Secretary General of the Baha'i International Community, Albert Lincoln, 
welcomed Ms. Bokova to the ceremony, along with other invited guests including 
the Mayor of Haifa, Advocate Yona Yahav, the Most Reverend Dr. Elias Chacour – 
Archbishop Metropolitan of the Melkite Catholic Church for Acre, Haifa, 
Nazareth and All Galilee – and other representatives of Haifa's Arab and Jewish 
communities. 

"Haifa really is a city of peace and a living example of how the Middle East 
could and should be," said Dr. Lincoln, describing as "normality" the wide 
variety of religious, ethnic and cultural groups who live and work side by side 
in the city. 

"Normality need not explain itself, but perhaps we do need to remind ourselves 
and others from time to time of its essential foundations," said Dr. Lincoln.

"The human race, with all its diversity, is one family..." he said. "But even 
in the city of peace, normality cannot be taken for granted. It needs nurturing 
and defence." 

Thanking Ms. Bokova and her staff for their work, Dr. Lincoln concluded, 
"UNESCO plays a leading role in the critical work of nurturing and defending 
this kind of normality all around the world by promoting peace, education and 
the recognition of the universal values in the infinite diversity of the 
world's cultures."




To read the article online and view photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/828


________________________________________________

Copyright 2011 by the Baha'i World News Service. Stories and photographs 
produced by the Baha'i World News Service may be freely reprinted, re-emailed, 
re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any individual or 
organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha'i World News Service. 
For more information, go to http://news.bahai.org/terms-of-use/