UC SANTA BARBARA STUDENTS CONFRONT ADL’S GENOCIDE DENIAL
By Armine Amy Kaladzhyan
anta-barbara-students-confront-adls-genocide-denia l/
Jun 5, 2009
Almost two years ago, a group of outraged students at UC Santa Barbara
banded together. They united, just as citizens in the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts had done before them, to get campus and community
entities to disassociate themselves with the Anti-Defamation League
(ADL) and its No Place For Hate (NPFH) program.
The students came together in response to the immoral and callous
decision by the ADL to issue a statement that they were against the
passage of a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and were
actively lobbying against it in the halls of Congress. Armenian
Americans and humans rights advocates alike believed then and now
that the ADL forfeited any moral authority to sponsor NPFH once it
took a stance so inconsistent with such a profound human rights issue.
The road to get campus and community groups to disassociate themselves
from the ADL’s NPFH program has encountered many obstacles and
bureaucratic hurdles. Berj Parseghian, now a UCSB alumnae, and
Garo Manjikian, former community organizer in Santa Barbara and
current ANCA Legislative Affairs Director, began the campaign with
an intense letter writing campaign aimed at encouraging a handful
of campus organizations, which the ADL listed as participants of the
NPFH program, to disassociate. Their hard work resulted in two major
organizations, the University Religious Center and Empowerment Works,
immediately cutting ties with the ADL.
The leadership of the campaign grew to include Amy Kaladzhyan and
Shant Karnikian. These two students presented the issue at the
Sacramento Issues Awareness Caucus of 2008 and gained the support
of legislators such as Assemblymember Pedro Nava and Assemblymember
Anthony Portantino, Chair of the Higher Education Committee. Back
in Santa Barbara, Parseghian and Manjikian brought the issue to the
attention of Chancellor Henry Yang of UCSB, who in turn urged them
to continue the campaign and raise awareness of the issue among
students because he "expects every community member to adhere to a
set of values that include mutual respect, tolerance and civility."
Fueled by the thoughtful words of encouragement from the Chancellor,
a meeting was arranged between the leadership of the campaign and
the Dean of Students, Assistant Dean, and the Director of Judicial
Affairs, which lists ADL as a resource for students. The students
took the opportunity to educate the UCSB administration about various
issues surrounding the Armenian Genocide, as well as the importance
of disassociating the university from an organization which, because
of its opposition to the recognition of a crime against humanity,
has no place on a college campus. The Armenian Student Association
(ASA) organized a panel discussion to raise campus awareness about
this issue and allow the ADL to present its side of the story. The
panel was comprised of Shant Karnikian on behalf of the ASA, Antranig
Kzirian from the Armenian National Committee-Western Region, and
Chris Villavicencio on behalf of STAND: An Anti-Genocide Coalition.
The ADL turned down the invitation to be a part of the panel. Oddly
enough, the event was hosted at the Multi- Cultural Center, a campus
organization that was formerly associated with the NPFH program. The
deliberate and well-planned efforts of the students at UCSB have been
effective. Presently there are no campus entities that are seeking
certification from NPFH.
While the UCSB community has expressed grave concern with the ADL’s
hypocritical stance on the Armenian Genocide, with many departments no
longer seeking to renew their membership with the NPFH program, the
issue has become one that is no longer focused on just the Armenian
Genocide. In early March, Abraham Foxman, the national director of
the Anti-Defamation League, invited a number of school officials
and faculty members to a meeting to urge university officials
to investigate charges of anti-Semitism against Professor William
Robinson, a sociology professor who drew comparisons between Israeli
soldiers in Gaza and the Nazi siege of Warsaw, Poland. The ADL was
quick to respond to this incident in an attempt to limit academic
freedom and yet they were nowhere in sight when the Muslim Student
Association was victim to a print attack in the school newspaper,
The Daily Nexus, by David Horowitz accusing them of being a part of
the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is important now, more than ever, to fight against the ADL’s
involvement in academic or even community affairs, especially in the
Santa Barbara area. The students of UC Santa Barbara will continue to
work to keep the genocide deniers at the ADL off their campus. These
students, who are dedicated to human rights, are determined to set
an example for other student groups, Armenian Americans and other
minorities alike, to take action when they are marginalized by a more
powerful entity.
Clearly, no one benefits when the sponsor of a community program
diminishes a crime against humanity and denies the historical
truth of any genocide. The ADL’s position as deniers of genocide is
untenable. In southern California, the ADL has learned, the hard way,
that they will enjoy no safe haven to practice genocide denial on
the campus of UC Santa Barbara.