ARMENIAN JEWS CALL OUT ADL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Published: 09/10/2007
Armenian Jews called on the Anti-Defamation League to support a
U.S. congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.
In a letter to ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, the chairman of
Armenia’s Jewish community, Rimma Varzhapetian-Feller, applauded
the organization’s "firm stand" recognizing the genocide. But
Varzhapetian-Feller lamented that the ADL refuses to support a
resolution now being considered in Congress to recognize as genocide
the World War I massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
"Any genocide committed against a nation must not remain unrecognized
or unpunished," said the letter, according to the Armenian Web site
PanARMENIAN.net.
"However, on behalf of our community I express regret over the fact
that the ADL doesn’t endorse the House resolution on the Armenian
Genocide."
Varzhapetian-Feller said the failure to recognize the Armenian genocide
paved the way for the Holocaust and suggested that a congressional
resolution could help prevent future genocides.
The ADL has been at the center of a controversy since the town
council in the Boston suburb of Watertown voted to sever ties with an
anti-bigotry program the organization sponsors in protest of the ADL’s
positions on Armenian genocide. Two other suburban Boston communities
have followed suit.
After Watertown’s decision, the ADL switched from its long-held
position of neutrality on whether the Armenian massacres constituted
genocide, but the group remains unwilling to support a congressional
resolution affirming ADL’s newly adopted position that the Armenians
suffered attempted genocide at the hands of the Turks.
Other Jewish groups — including the American Jewish Committee and
B’nai B’rith International — have adopted similar positions, citing
concerns about American and Israeli strategic interests in the Middle
East and threats to the Turkish Jewish community.
The Armenian National Committee of America has lined up support for
a congressional resolution from 12 Jewish groups, including the Union
for Reform Judaism, Americans for Peace Now, the Zionist Organization
of America and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
