§ Mr. Geoffrey Finsbergasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will instruct the British representative at UNESCO to vote against the proposal to exclude Israel from the forthcoming UNESCO meeting of Mediterranean members.
§ Mrs. HartI have been asked to reply.
The proposed list of member States to be invited to next year's international conference of States on a convention on the 696W recognition of studies and degrees in the European and Arab countries bordering on the Mediterranean was established by the Director-General of UNESCO. The list was based on those member states which had received a copy of the report of the preliminary meeting of experts from Western Mediterranean countries which was circulated in 1973. It had not included Israel, and the question raised in discussions at the recent session of the executive board of UNESCO was whether Israel should now be added to the list. Israel does not currently have a member on the executive board, but a representative of the Government of Israel twice asked for, and was granted, permission to speak. In neither of her statements did she request the inclusion of Israel in the list and so the question of a vote on this point did not arise.