Belmont asked to pull out of ‘No Place for Hate’ program

By Cassie Norton, Belmont Citizen-Herald
Watertown TAB & Press

Mon Sep 10, 2007, 06:02 PM EDT

WATERTOWN, MA –

The Human Rights Commission voted unanimously to recommend to the
Board of Selectmen that Belmont withdraw from the No Place for Hate
Program and sever all ties with the Anti-Defamation League.

The committee cited the ADL’s failure to unambiguously recognize the
Armenian Genocide and its continued opposition to Congressional
resolutions recognizing the genocide of hundreds of thousands
Armenians in the early 20th century.

"We very much like the No Place for Hate campaign," HRC chairwoman
Laurie Graham said in an interview. "It’s a viable curriculum and
program. But the connection to the ADL makes it imperative that we
part with it."

She said the group’s "sticking point" was the ADL’s refusal to support
HR 106, a congressional bill which calls for the recognition of the
Armenian genocide in U.S. foreign policy.

Graham said if the selectmen vote to withdraw from the program, the
HRC and Belmont Against Racism are ready to create a new diversity and
tolerance education program.

Selectmen Paul Solomon and Dan Leclerc attended Thursday’s meeting.
Leclerc said he wasn’t ready to publicly state his views on the issue,
saying he wanted to hear the HRC’s presentation without prejudice.

"You could say I’m in the process of processing it," Leclerc said.

Solomon said he was in total support of the HRC’s position.

"This is in advance of the [selectmen’s discussion]," he said, "but I
will support their stand."

Graham has already informed the Office of the Board of Selectmen and
the local branch of the ADL of the HRC’s recommendation, and will be
drafting a letter explaining its position.

Town Administrator Tom Younger said the HRC will be on the agenda for
the Sept. 17 selectmen’s meeting, unless the board decides otherwise.

The ADL has scheduled a meeting in November to discuss the No Place
for Hate program and the withdrawal of towns across the country in
support of Armenian-Americans and HR 106.

"We don’t know what will happen at that meeting," Graham said, "but we
didn’t want to wait that long to make our decision."

Around 100 residents of Belmont and a few neighboring towns attended
Thursday’s meeting, which was held at the Town Hall Auditorium.
Several Belmont Armenian-Americans gave voice to their frustrations.

Pine Street resident Lenna Garibian spoke about her grandmother, who
was 5-years-old when Turkish soldiers came to her house and told her
to start walking. She did, with her mother and 3-year-old brother,
across the Syrian Desert.

Garibian’s great-grandmother died on that long journey. Just before
she did, she told her daughter to take care of her little brother. She
tried, Garibian recounted, but somewhere along the way, her brother’s
hand slipped from hers. The guilt haunted her until the end of her
days.

In her remarks to the HRC, she said no Armenian "should sit with a
revisionist Turkish historian… to discuss whether the genocide
happened or not. The world knows. Turkey knows. [ADL director] Abe
Foxman knows. This was a genocide."

"As Armenians, we are aware of our past, taught about our past," she
said in an interview. "I think [the HRC’s decision] sets a good tone
moving forward, that Belmont will not tolerate an equivocation of the
truth, of justice."

She said she was pleased by the decision and by the support the
Armenian-Americans have received from the HRC and BAR.

"We’ll take the good things from No Place for Hate, and there are a
lot of good things," she said, "and move forward with our own plan to
combat hatred."

She added that she was "optimistic that the selectmen will do the right thing."

Source: 714242