Armenians vs. the ADL
August 22nd, 2007Watertown, MA, home of the dubiously named Watertown Raiders, has a headline today in major newspapers including The Boston Globe and the blogosphere, notably in the Jewcy Blog. Our Town Council voted last night to oust the “No Place For Hate” campaign because it’s sponsoring body, the Anti-Defamation League, refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Now this is interesting.
Apparently the first message of hate for No Place For Hate came from townie Ralph Filicchia, who made vitriolic comments at a town hall meeting that were later reproduced in The Watertown Tab essentially asking that he be granted the right to hate homosexuals. “The proclamation is discriminatory and a violation and infringement upon my civil rights as an American citizen,” Filicchia said. “I want the right to speak out without being guilty of a hate crime.”
No Place For Hate, he seems to argue, interferes with the First Amendment which gives us the inalienable right to hate whoever we choose. His opinions were quickly echoed by Mark Charalambous in letters to the newspaper and are documented in a nausea-inducing post on the despicable blog Mass Resistance, which notes that it is “ironic” that the ADL is behind a program that is pro-gay since it should be a bastion of “Judeo-Christian values,” and then notes, “But then, the liberal Jews threw out their Bible-based beliefs and values a long time ago. They’re wandering in the desert again, ignoring the word of God.”
One would hope that even in a state formerly governed by presidential candidade Mitt Romney, the arcane value system of Filicchia, Charalambous and Mass Resistance would have little currency in gay-rights-supporting Massachusetts. But then the ADL’s admirable support of gay rights clashed with its despicable denial of any genocide other than, well ours. Here’s what the Jewcy editorial staff has to say about it:
The ADL has made a monster of itself by denying a genocide. It has made the entire Jewish community look morally incompetent for allowing ourselves to be represented by someone who engages in Holocaust denial. And it has earned the justified fury of the Armenian-American community, which bears witness to the mass-murder of its forebears, and refuses to see that memory trampled upon.
I could have told the ADL this: Don’t mess with Watertown, and also don’t expect that the Jews of Watertown will come running to the ADL’s defense. We live where we do because we appreciate the town’s diversity and would never jeaopardize it. At the same time, rallying to support our Armenian community in no way means that we agree with Charalambous’ hate-speech. And there is no doubt that in terms of being a safe-zone for homosexual students and adults, Watertown does still have a long way to go.
But there is no sense exchanging one kind of hate for another. Even in a town where cheerleaders imitate Native American tribal chants and swing imaginary tomahawks at football games.*
*circa 1998
This post appears in my blog.
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The Jewish community got the ADL to reverse itself. The organization now acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070821adlgenocide.html
That was a very good post.
The double standard that permeates virtually every level of human relations is really a test to the commitment of the whole principle of reconciliation and understanding.
That said, it should be against the law to spew hate. I believe libel and slander laws get as close to that as possible.
This is good news. And actually most other Western countries have some kind of law against hate speech. When Canada expanded the groups that were protected by those laws to include homosexuals a few years ago there was some controversy about it.
Thank you for this excellent post. Many Armenians understand the predicament Jews are in, given the threats Turkey has made to its own Jewish community and relations with Israel should a prominent Jewish organization acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. But Israel is here to stay, historical untruths have a tendency to get wiped away, government gag orders eventually get overturned, and no one wants to say they were on the wrong side of history. I applaud Foxman for finally coming around – better late than never.
Jason, what threats are you even talking about?
Jews are a lot safe in Turkey than in France or even Britain.
Sounds like more neocon Zionist dribble.
Foxman’s open letter finally admitting the truth after 90 years of Genocide denial by the ADL, is hardly something to be commended. Why? Because the letter states that the ADL still does not support recognition and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. Congress. In other words, the letter is another form of lobbying by the ADL against recognition of the Armenian Genocide. It sends a clear message to Congress that although the ADL may now call it Genocide, they encourage Congressman to vote against affirmation of that fact. The ADL is supposed to be a human rights organization. What kind of human rights organization lobbies against affirmation of a Genocide that it admits took place?
Daniel,
I believe you are correct. And today, the Turkish Foreign Ministry came out and stated their offense at Foxman’s suggestion that Turkish Jews were at risk somehow. Moreover, I have no idea how Turkish Jews would be at risk if the Armenian Genocide resolution is passed. Are modern Turks so maniacal that they would harm people who have nothing to do with the passage of that resolution? If anyone is going to be harmed in Turkey from passage of this resolution, it’s Turkish Armenians, not Turkish Jews. Foxman is just totally full of crap, as we now all know!
Daniel,
The risk to the Jewish Community in Turkey is in fact exactly what the ADL and the AJC have been concerned about. I work on the Hill that is the exact message. There are increasing incidents of violence against Jewish interests in Turkey.
Antisemitsm in Turkey is at a very sharp level. Major television news commentaries and news articles in the mainstream press include rants against the Jews. The protocols of the Elders of Zion can be found in all the major bookstores and many street side displays along with newer “Jewish Conspiracy” books.
The idea of tolerance by Turkey has always been a very thin veneer and at best a half truth. It is tolerance when everyone is bought off at very high costs. This is the way it has been since the Ottomans when we paid to avoid te child tax (forced conversions of male children). The labor battalions of World War Two and pogroms in the 1950’s sent most of the remaining beleagured Jews out of Turkey, including my father and mother.
[...] I should mention one thing though…Sullivan points to a blog (Mideast Youth) which gives a great context for the controversy but inserts a non sequitur that clouds the issue: Now here is where it gets interesting: the first strong voice of dissent regarding No Place For Hate came from a Watertown native named Mark Charalambous who wrote vitriolic letters to the Watertown Tab asking that he be granted the right to hate homosexuals. No Place For Hate, he argued, interfered with the First Amendment which gives us the inalienable right to hate whoever we choose. (source) [...]
Shame on the ADL for their half-hearted and politcally expedient contradiction… As a Jew, I am left stunned and truly ashamed more so NOW than I was before by ADL’s position… After FINALLY acknowledging what they admit privately they knew was the truth for decades (the Armenian Genocide), they squander any last vestige of moral authority by having the sheer audacity to URGE others (i.e. Congress) to STILL deny what they have just admitted is the truth!! It is precisely this sort of equivocation that has contributed to genocides around the world… But the greatest irony of course is that it was the same equivocation the ADL is now engaged in that specifically contributed to the tragedy of the Holocaust itself! On Augut 22, 1939, on the eve of his invasion of Poland, Hitler himself justified the unflinching brutality of his plans by telling his generals: ” Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenian?”… It seems if it’s up to the ADL nobody.
Turkey usually uses political means to keep people silent, not violent ones. At least internationally, they’re still pretty nasty to kurds and political dissidents.
here’s an article about the fallout of attempts at recognition in the US:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/06/061106crbo_books2
this is a really interesting account of what happened to a turkish academic when he tried to speak about the genocide in north america:
http://www.juancole.com/2007/04/detained-in-two-worlds-taner-akam-story.html
The risk to the Jewish Community in Turkey is in fact exactly what the ADL and the AJC have been concerned about. I work on the Hill that is the exact message. There are increasing incidents of violence against Jewish interests in Turkey.
i call bullshit on this, if this was a huge concern the ADL would never criticize iran or any arab government ever. israel and turkey have always had a very close relationship diplomatically, in the 1990s the armenian genocide was removed from school curriculum. this is a matter of the coinciding interests of conservative organizations not wanting to recognize that any genocide has happened other than the holocaust and turkish propaganda.
The issue of Israel, Turkey and the US as regards the Armenian genocide is like a spider’s web of lies and deception – and all of them are now stuck in it, squirming to get out. Yet, despite saying the events of 1915 were ‘tantamount to genocide’, the ADL has also reassured Turkey that it will not support the genocide resolution in the US Congress. What is the real issue here? Why on earth would Israel and the ADL be so concerned and active about hiding the truth? The reality may be alot deeper…as Taner Akcam has revealed. Post-genocide, billions of dollars in Armenian property and businesses were assumed by the key members of the CUP, and later by those in Ataturk’s republican government who got very rich as a result. In essence, those who organized the genocide were rewarded with the spoils…and many of those were not even true Turks at all. This aspect of the genocide and the subsequent hush-up has yet to be explored in full, largely because it is very incriminating, embarrassing and unpleasant for all concerned.
This author, Miriam, defames me with the following:
‘His opinions were quickly echoed by Mark Charalambous in letters to the newspaper and are documented in a nausea-inducing post on the despicable blog Mass Resistance, which notes that it is “ironic” that the ADL is behind a program that is pro-gay since it should be a bastion of “Judeo-Christian values,” and then notes, “But then, the liberal Jews threw out their Bible-based beliefs and values a long time ago. They’re wandering in the desert again, ignoring the word of God.”’
and
‘At the same time, rallying to support our Armenian community in no way means that we agree with Charalambous’ hate-speech. ‘
The comments attribued to me were not mine. I made no reference to the Jewish people whatsoever They must be the comments of the blogger that posted my letter.
If any readers are curious, I suggest you find _my_ letter to the Watertown Tab, which may or may not be online.
I request that the author issue a retraction and apology for cleverly attributing comments to me that are not mine.
–Mark Charalambous
Okay, here is the complete text of my letter.
Miriam, I expect your apology.
-Mark C.
Mark Charalambous (Fatherhood Coalition Spokesman):
It comes as no surprise that the Tab editors consider the anti-abortion movement’s use of “pro-life” as “cunning coinage” (”Editorial: The leftfinally wins one in the culture war,” May 10). After two generations worth of politically correct indoctrination in our educational system, logical reasoning has become a rare commodity.
The word “choice” describes a countless number of events experienced daily in every single person’s life, starting at the very beginning of the day with, perhaps, “Should I get up now or snooze for a few minutes?” Perhaps followed soon after with “Do I have time for a third cup of coffee?” Choices are made every moment of our lives. In fact, one could argue that consciousness itself is nothing more than a series of choices, constituting our very sense of existence.
The use of this neutral and innocuous word to describe the “right” of a woman to kill her unborn child/fetus remains the single greatest example of the cultural left’s corruption of language. “Affirmative action” as a euphemism for racial discrimination runs a close second. Somewhere George Orwell is smiling.
In comparison, it requires no stretch of the imagination or strained logic to recognize that “pro-life” is in fact a completely reasonable choice ofwords to describe the anti-abortion position. The issue at stake is life –human life, I might add — and those opposed to abortion wish to prevent its taking.
So let’s see now. I find rap music repellent, and I consider this “art form”and lifestyle representative of a degenerate culture. Under Watertown’s “No Place for Hate” resolution, that would easily qualify as “hate speech.” Similarly, I believe that homosexuality — which is overwhelmingly learned, adaptive behavior — is abnormal. (Once again, for the logic-challenged Tab staff and readers: “normal” is not just a word with some fuzzy, malleable definition; it means “that which functions according to its design.”)
It is to me a no-brainer that any healthy society would draw clear distinctions both in custom and law between biological nuclear (heterosexual) families and homosexual “families” that require artificial means to produce or obtain their children. That, undoubtedly, also qualifies as “hate speech,” and might cost me my job or even worse if the ‘No Place for Hate’ crowd continue to have their way.
I’m not sure if Mr. Filicchia is representative of a substantial proportion of the Watertown population who, except for him, have been mugged and muzzled by the PC thought police. I fear that he is the lone boy in the crowd of sycophants crying out that the emperor has no clothes. Perhaps his example of “speaking truth to power,” to borrow a phrase from the cultural left’s history, will motivate others to follow suit.
– Mark Charalambous, Leominster
Mark,
You are being blamed on a few extreme Zionist sites in Israel because your name is Greek and this fiasco is portrayed on those sites as a Greek – Armenian conspiracy against Israel.
There is lots of vitriol against Greeks going back millenia. EG in the Rabbinic literature of Istanbul, the term “Greeks” is often followed by “may their name be blotted out” (Minna Rozen 2002) which is a dehumanizing curse. And of course there are scores if not hundreds of Midrash references to the Armenians being the Amelelikites (see Horotwitz 2002 of Bar Ilan University (Reckless rites, 2006, Princeton University Press)).
This 2500 year hatred against Greeks and Armenians, coupled with certain craven present day issues such as attempted land grabs from the Greek and Armenians Patriarchs in Jerusalem directly motivate a small group and have an affect on a larger group of hard core Israelis and some in the diaspora. There is no question that for some the hatred of the Armenian “Amalekites” is behind this genocide denial as well. Your name is difficult to search for comprehensibly transliterated in Hebrew, but you got tagged because the Greek is the traditional enemy of the Jew for some Jews.
Israel, and its once entirely rational population, unfortunately over the past decade or so become infected with the near Eastern vice of conspiracy theories and xenophobic hatred of “the other.” The longer your culture or nation has been around the more you can expect to be disliked and blamed.
I am familiar with the controversey in Watertown and can tell you that Ralph Filicchia did not go to the Town meeting to demand the right to hate anybody. All he demanded was the right to freely express opinions that might not agree with the opinions and beliefs of the ADL. And what is wrong with that…?