ADL MUST MAKE AN UNEQUIVOCAL STATEMENT

Boston Globe
September 24, 2008
United States

IN THE Sept. 22 editorial "A good place for Blue Cross" it is suggested
that the Anti-Defamation League made a statement last month that
acknowledged the Armenian Genocide. What exactly was this statement
and where was it made?

The fact is that the ADL’s formal statement of August 2007 about this
tragedy declared that the "consequences" "were indeed tantamount to
genocide." This carefully crafted statement is not an unequivocal
acknowledgement of genocide.

The ADL also has actively lobbied Congress for years to prevent
passage of a symbolic resolution that would simply recognize the
genocide and name it as such.

Why should Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts support a program
that is run by an organization that offends some of Blue Cross’s very
subscribers? If the ADL cannot forthrightly acknowledge one of the
worst hate crimes ever committed and refrain from working against the
recognition of this, it cannot legitimately run an anti-bias program,
and should certainly not receive assistance from Blue Cross.

There are other successful anti-bias programs in many local
communities, such as the Not in Our Town campaign, that do not have
the polarizing effect of the ADL connection. Blue Cross would do well
to sponsor and support one of these programs instead.