he Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Monday expressed concern that former Qatari Culture Minister Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, a leading candidate to become the next director-general of the United Nations cultural body UNESCO, has “overseen or endorsed projects that propagate base anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”

“These include a forward he wrote in a book that includes charges of Jewish domination of the media, as well as his endorsement of Culture Ministry-organized book fairs that included anti-Semitic speakers and texts, such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the ADL said.

In July, UNESCO approved a resolution denying Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem’s Old City as well as a measure declaring Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, where the biblical Jewish matriarchs and patriarchs are believed to be buried, as an endangered Palestinian heritage site. In October 2016, UNESCO passed two resolutions ignoring all Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem’s holy sites.

“Regrettably, there are too many among UNESCO’s members who have seen the body as a vehicle to further divisive and denigrating campaigns directed at Israel,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is important that UNESCO be led by a director-general who best exemplifies and champions the values and ideals of this institution and works for peace, respect and fundamental freedoms.”

Al-Kawari’s home country, Qatar, funds terror groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and cooperates with Iran, leading to an ongoing dispute between Qatar and other Arab states.