THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE’S DECEIT HELPS SINK A JUDGESHIP
Foreign Policy Journal
March 26 2014
by David Boyajian | March 26, 2014
After two fair and lengthy hearings, the eight elected members of
the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, in a 4-4 tie vote on March 5,
refused to confirm attorney Joseph Berman to be a Superior Court
judge. It was a defeat for Governor Deval Patrick, who had nominated
Mr. Berman. But the Council took its responsibilities seriously and
rendered a well-considered judgment.
Councilors voiced many concerns about the nominee. Foremost was a
lack of truthfulness.
Berman, under oath, was asked three times whether he had requested
anyone to lobby the Council to advance his nomination. Each time,
he replied no.
Later, after some stumbling, he admitted to another Councilor that
he had phoned State Senator – now Congresswoman – Katherine Clark to
lobby Councilors.
Mr. Berman’s meager criminal trial experience also troubled
Councilors. Another concern was Berman’s scant knowledge of drug
abuse. And some worried that Berman, politically active and a national
leader in the heavily political Anti-Defamation League (ADL), would
promote those viewpoints as a judge.
Several Councilors questioned Berman’s $100,000 in campaign
contributions, including to Governor Patrick, since being turned
down for a judgeship in 2004. They saw this as a possible attempt to
advance his judicial ambitions.
At his second hearing, Mr. Berman tried to deflect these criticisms.
He claimed, for example, to have misunderstood the Councilors’
questions about lobbying them. He also said he had been studying up
on drug addiction and criminal law.
Berman’s being a 19-year member, and since 2006 a National
Commissioner, of the ADL also caught the attention of some Councilors
and media.
Recall the ADL scandal that broke out in mid-2007. It exposed that
organization’s decades-old hypocrisy in denying the Armenian genocide
and colluding directly with Turkey, a major human rights violator,
to defeat U.S. Congressional resolutions on that genocide.
Shocked at the ADL’s stance, the Massachusetts Municipal Association,
which represents every city and town, then dropped its sponsorship
of the ADL’s so-called “No Place for Hate” anti-bias program. So did
Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport,
Newton, Northampton, Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, and Westwood.
The ADL scandal quickly became national and international news.
Naturally, the Governor’s Council quizzed Berman about his ADL
leadership role. He claimed that after the scandal erupted in 2007 he
and some New England ADL members tried to convince the National ADL
to change its position on the Armenian genocide. But there is no hard
proof of that. And surely Berman knew long before 2007 of the ADL’s
anti-Armenian stance. Yet he never spoke out publicly or resigned.
Even after 2007, Mr. Berman remained publicly silent about the ADL’s
indefensible assault on Armenian Americans.
Alongside the Council’s other concerns, Berman’s ADL record raised
doubts about his worthiness to be a judge.
On August 21, 2007, the National ADL tried to squirm out of the scandal
with a press release that used deceptive and legalistic wording about
the Armenian genocide. It implied that the Armenian genocide was a mere
“consequence” of wartime events, which meant it wouldn’t qualify as
genocide under the United Nation’s official definition. The dishonest
ADL declaration was widely rejected.
Nearly 20 countries, such as Canada, France, and Argentina, the
European Union Parliament, the International Association of Genocide
Scholars, and the Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the word “genocide”
in the 1940s, Raphael Lemkin, have recognized the Armenian genocide
of 1915 -23 committed by Turkey.
Many American human rights, ethnic, and church organizations have
supported the Armenian genocide resolution. These include the American
Jewish World Service and the Jewish War Veterans of the USA.
But not the ADL nor, reports the Jewish media, the American Jewish
Committee, AIPAC, and B’nai B’rith. They adhere to a long-standing
arrangement among themselves, Turkey, and Israel to deny the Armenian
genocide (see “History of Lobbying” at NoPlaceForDenial.com).
The ADL professes to defend the human rights of all ethnic groups,
not just Jews. It insists that the American people acknowledge and
pass legislation on the Holocaust. Yet the ADL tries to prevent
recognition of a Christian genocide. The hypocrisy is astonishing.
Meanwhile, a significant precedent has been created: Members of
the ADL, or similar organizations, who aspire to a higher post,
particularly in government, may now be asked what they knew of their
organization’s genocide hypocrisy, when they knew it, and what they
did about it. Such are the bitter fruits of deceit.
From: A. Papazian