The Arlington Advocate: Arlington pulls out of No Place for Hate
By Shauna Staveley/Staff Writer
GateHouse News Service
Wed Aug 22, 2007, 01:38 PM EDT
Arlington, Mass. –
The Arlington No Place for Hate Program Steering Committee decided
Monday night in an emergency meeting that they would suspend their
involvement wit= h the committee.
This decision was in lieu of recent controversy involving the program
sponsor, the Anti-Defamation League, and their supposed inability on
the National level to acknowledge the 1915-1917 murder of 1.5 Million
Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a genocide, committee officials said.
"Everyone in the committee felt clearly as the Watertown (program
ending), and following stories (about the controversy) were happening
that we had to do something about this," said Cindy Friedman,
chairwoman of the Arlington No Place for Hate Committee. "We didn’t
want to wait and not respond."
Friedman said the committee analyzed and discussed a diverse array of
information, including a written letter from the Armenian community
and Arlington activists, as well as gathered information on the ADL.
Another influential occurrence was a reported divide in perspective
between the Regional and National ADL leaders. According to the Boston
Globe in an article on Aug. 19, two New England board members resigned
after New Englan= d Regional Director Andrew Tarsy was fired over his
push to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
"At the very least, the ADL can acknowledge the New England Regional
chapte= r and their stance – to call the genocide a genocide,"
Friedman said. "And = I think they should reinstate Andrew Tarsy. They
should reinstate whom they fired, call it a genocide and support the
position of the New England chapter. That’s what they could do."
One piece of information was an advertisement by the ADL titled "An
Open Letter to the New England Community." That advertisement is
scheduled to ru= n all week in various newspapers according to the ADL
website, and states the following:
"ADL has acknowledged and never denied the massacres of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians – and by some accounts more than one
million – at th= e hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918=85we
cannot let a disagreement on = how to proceed on one issue undermine
all our joint good work."
Many Arlington residents, both Armenian and non-Armenian, activist and
non-activist, have increased their criticism after this advertisement
was published. The issue has especially affected Armenians, however,
who have relatives that directly experienced the horrors of 1915-1918.
Lucine Zadoiam-Kouchakdjian is a four-year Armenian resident of
Arlington whose grandparent’s perished and parent’s escaped the
genocide. She said he= r grandparent’s took refuge in an Armenian
church in Bitlis (Turkey), and upo= n the church being filled with
refugees; it was burnt to the ground. "It is a known fact," she said.
Her parents both took refuge in Romania, where they first met.
"My father’s side, he was a young man and went to Syria, and from
there he tried to gather orphans to have orphanages. There was
reluctance to talk about the subject, as would many people who go
through tragedy, to their children. They would say bits and pieces,
but wouldn’t have (the) heart to pour out their grief," she said.
Zadoiam-Kouchakdjian’s story is far from unique, and that is precisely
why this controversy is so hurtful to the Armenian people.
"There are all these stories," she said. "Everyone outside of Armenia,
or Western Armenia (now Eastern Turkey): why are they outside of
lands? Becaus= e of the genocide. What business (do they have in being
outside of their homeland)? Because of Survivors that took refuge in
Middle Eastern countrie= s or in Europe or the United States. Every
Armenian would have story. That is why it’s ridiculous to support the
denial of Turkey (about the genocide)."
Berge Ayvazian, an Armenian resident for 28 years that has raised
three children in the area, is a member of the Armenian Assembly Board
of Trustees. He said the Assembly is the is the "largest U.S. based
advocacy organization regarding Armenian issues located in
Washington. We have been backing legislation and working with congress
to get it passed."
Ayvazian said "in practice he was normally supportive" of the No Place
for Hate Program in Arlington, but his view changed due to recent
articles he has read on the controversy.
"I just think it’s extremely hypocritical to promote a program against
hate bigotry and divisiveness and deny a genocide that was widely
recognized," Ayvazian said.
One piece of legislation the Assembly is working to pass in Congress
is House Resolution 106, introduced on Jan. 30, 2007, which in the
legislative documents states that the resolution is:
"Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the
United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity
concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and
genocide documented in the United States record relating to the
Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes."
The ADL responds
What is interesting about the resolution, in relation to the ADL, is
their most recent press release titled "ADL Statement on the Armenian
Genocide," released Tuesday afternoon.
In the release, National Director Abraham H. Foxman said "on
reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr.,
that the consequences of those actions (on 1915-1918) were indeed
tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they
would have called it genocide."
Bob Wolfson, the ADL Associate National Director for Regional
Operations, said in a phone interview that he hoped that this would
start the healing process of the Armenian Community.
"The Watertown action was based on the notion that we were denying the
genocide, which we never did," Wolfson said. "The use of that term was
problematic for very complicated political reasons, so we decided to
change our policy and use the term. And I believe and hope the
Armenian community will applaud it and I hope the good work with the
program in places like Arlington will continue."
The problem for residents, however, is the bottom paragraph of the
"ADL Statement on the Armenian Genocide," where Foxman stated the
following abou= t congressional resolutions such as 106:
"We continue to firmly believe that a congressional resolution on such
matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the
Turkish Jewish communit= y and the important multilateral relationship
between Turkey, Israel, and the United States."
Upon reading this statement, Ayvazian, member of the Armenian Board of
Assembly, said "Certainly they don’t support the resolution
(106). They think it’s counterproductive. It appears they value
reconciliation as a higher objective than recognition (of the
genocide). It’s hard for me to se= e how you’d achieve reconciliation
until you receive recognition."
"It’s unfortunate that a valuable program such as No Place For Hate
has bee= n put at risk by the ADL’s unwillingness to step forward and
recognize that it’s not tantamount to genocide, but it is genocide –
and it’s important that recognition come before reconciliation," he
said. "None of us want to put the Jewish/Turkish community at
risk. But if they’re at risk, that puts into perspective even more the
importance of recognition." Other complaints against the ADL
Elaine Hagopian, a retired professor from Arlington who studied the
Middle East for more than 45 years, earning two Fulbright grants for
research, sai= d the problem with Anti-Defamation League’s association
with a program like N= o Place For Hate runs much deeper than the
Armenian Genocide issue. She said the problem was merely a "trigger to
expose the ADL for its’ duplicity."
She discussed an incident in 1993, where a the District Attorney of
San Francisco had 700 pages of documents in which he claimed the ADL
was spying= , and had files compiled over 30 years on over 10,000
individuals and 950 groups of "all political stripes, including Arab
and Palestinian groups, an= d anti-apartheid activists before South
Africa became independent."
The DA dropped the accusations a few months later, but a class-action
lawsuit was filed, and according to published reports, the
Anti-Defamation League settled out of court in 1999.
Hagopian also said the Middle East Studies Association once condemned
the ADL because they "inhibited academic freedom."
Knowing of these incidents, and others in which Hagopian said the ADL
tried to "suppress dissent," Hagopian and other Arlington residents
tried to prevent the No Place For Hate Program from being created
months ago, but th= e attempt failed.
"The issue of having these programs (such as No Place For Hate) is it
gives the Anti-Defamation League credibility," she said. "It keeps in
the public mind that they are somehow a civil and human rights group,
when really they are doing other things in the background – one of
those being an advocate for Israel, which makes it impossible to be a
human rights group. It opens opportunity to see the other faces."
"No one would argue that the ADL has no right to advocate for Israel,"
she said. "On the other hand, they cannot say that they are promoting
diversity and respect for others and so forth when they target people
and groups that they see as critics of Israel – or people who, like
Arabs who represent a different point of view=85. So if you exclude
certain groups from being covered by the ADL because of an Israeli
agenda, then ADL really needs to choose whether it is really a human
rights group equal to all, or an advocate to Israel."
However, Heather Steckel, a Social Worker at Peabody High School, said
her experience with the ADL during a workshop was overwhelmingly
positive.
"Through grant money they came in to do teacher work shops and did
really well=85they’ve been fabulous," Steckel said. "I’ve had nothing
but good experiences with them and their workers."
Steckel said they asked her the following spring if she would like to
use a $20,000 donation they received from an anonymous
donor. According to Steckel, the ADL is going to use all of the money
on training kids, faculty= , and technical support for two years.
"So the fact that they came to me, because I did a workshop I think
was wonderful," she said. "I don’t agree with their policy, absolutely
not, but as an organization they’ve done very well by us. So much so
that I thought about going to work with them before this happened."
Arlington No Place For Hate Program Steering Committee Chairwoman
Friedman said that the program has brought great things to Arlington
that have nothing to do with the ADL or its’ sponsorship.
"The idea that a community stands up, from the board of selectmen down
says we are committed to making this a welcoming place to live, and we
are committed to activities that encourage that, its an incredibly
positive thing," Friedman said. "We had organized the start of
capturing oral histories of people in Arlington, how they got here,
why they stay, and wer= e starting to have dialogue between people how
we’re different and how we’re the same. All of that is incredibly
positive."
"We were just starting to do all of that stuff," she said. "We had our
proclamation and were organizing the Town Day. It was great and
brought together all the different groups, who all have some piece in
making Arlington a safe and welcoming place. So, we are saddened by
this. We think there are great things about the program, but we just
cannot continue under these circumstances."
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