ADL’s Genocide Denial Must Be Challenged

By Laura Boghosian

In seeking formal United States affirmation of the Armenian genocide, Armenians have encountered numerous opponents, ranging from the denialist Turkish government to the American military establishment.

Perhaps the most unexpected—and disappointing—adversary has been a confederation of national Jewish-American organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Because Israel is politically, militarily and economically allied with Turkey, these organizations have long lobbied for Turkey against recognition of the Armenian genocide.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, columnist Larry Derfner states, “On the subject of the Armenian genocide, Israel and some U.S. Jewish organizations … have for many years acted aggressively as silencers. … In the U.S. Congress, resolutions to recognize the genocide and the Ottoman Turks’ responsibility for it have been snuffed out by Turkey and its right-hand man on this issue, the Israel lobby.”

Yet, the ADL identifies itself as a human rights organization whose “ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike” and, as such, has partnered with municipalities to combat hate and bias with its programs such as No Place for Hate (NPFH).

By participating in Turkey’s multi-million dollar campaign of genocide denial, however, the ADL has relinquished the moral authority required to sponsor anti-hate programs in our communities. Pointing out the absurdity of a group engaged in genocide denial teaching tolerance, Boston-area Armenians organized this summer to dissociate participating towns from NPFH.

Genocide scholars classify denial as the highest form of hate speech and the last stage of genocide. Nobel laureate Elie Weisel calls it a “double killing.”

Israel Charny, executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, explains, “Denials of known events of genocide must be treated as acts of bitter and malevolent psychological aggression, certainly against the victims, but really against all of human society, for such denials literally celebrate genocidal violence and in the process suggestively calls for renewed massacres—of the same people or of others. Such denials also madden, insult and humiliate the survivors, the relatives of the dead, and the entire people of the victims.”

Genocide denial also increases the probability of future genocides. “The black hole of forgetting is the negative force that results in future genocides,” writes Professor Gregory Stanton in The Eight Stages of Genocide.

Indeed, the ADL itself, promoting a resolution denouncing Holocaust denial, stated, “We urge you to support this important declaration by the international community reinforcing that it will never forget the Holocaust and rejecting those who seek to deny it. … Such a declaration is critical to ensuring that the world does not ignore current and future acts of genocide.”

Initially joining Armenians in demanding that the national ADL recognize the Armenian genocide and support congressional affirmation was the ADL’s New England region. There has also been widespread support in the larger Jewish community and press.

The online magazine/community www.Jewcy.com has published numerous articles in solidarity with Armenians and has called for the firing of the ADL’s national director, labeling his actions “a scandal of unprecedented proportion.” Jewcy later stated, “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.”

Jewish Voice for Peace noted, “We speak for the many Jews who believe that ‘Never Again’ applies to everyone, not just Jews. … It frankly boggles the mind that any Jewish group could possibly justify any sort of minimization of atrocities committed against another group.”

Even in Israel, former Minister of Education Yossi Sarid wrote in Haaretz, “Denying another nation’s Holocaust is no less ugly than denying ours.”

The Boston Globe editorialized, “If the national ADL doesn’t acknowledge the genocide, it is complicit in a coverup.”

Under pressure, the ADL released a statement on Aug. 21 purporting to recognize the Armenian genocide. It read, in part: “We have never negated but have always described the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities. …the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide.”

This duplicitous statement does not acknowledge the Armenian genocide as genocide. First, the qualifier “tantamount” improperly diminishes the massacres and exile. The Armenian genocide was not tantamount to genocide; it was genocide.

More crucial, however, is that by employing the word “consequences,” the ADL—considered an authority on genocide and genocide denial—ensures that the Armenian genocide does not meet the international legal standard for genocide. The 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group...”

Legal scholars regard the word intent as essential in determining whether a mass slaughter is technically genocide. Even the Turks acknowledge that many Armenians died as a consequence of World War I conditions. By speaking of consequences of actions, rather than intent, the ADL continues to shield Turkey.

Moreover, the ADL announced in the same statement its continued opposition to the Congressional resolution, characterizing it as a “counterproductive diversion.”

Within days of its statement, the ADL apologized to the Turkish government for putting them “in a difficult position.” Turkey’s prime minister reported that the ADL “said they shared our sensitivity and expressed the mistake they made [and] will continue to give us all the support they have given so far.”

Further inflaming the controversy, the ADL publicly endorsed Turkey’s calls for a joint historical commission to study the events of 1915, announcing, “There is room for further dispassionate scholarly examination of the details of those dark and terrible days.”

The ADL’s own webpage describes this tactic as genocide denial in its most insidious form: “Deniers portray themselves as individuals and groups engaged in a legitimate, dispassionate quest for historical knowledge and ‘truth’ [yet] seek to plant seeds of questioning and doubt.”

The world’s foremost body of genocide experts, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), brands this Turkish proposal as a “red herring [that] would only serve the interests of Turkish genocide deniers.”

Given the ADL’s strong condemnation of a similar 2006 Holocaust conference held in Iran, it is appalling they would press Armenian scholars “to work cooperatively” with Turkish genocide deniers “in re-examining the shared past of both peoples.”

A united Armenian community rejected as disingenuous the ADL’s statement on the Armenian genocide and intensified its grassroots campaign against the ADL.

Joining Armenians in challenging the ADL were human rights advocates, local officials and much of the Jewish community. The Belmont Human Rights Commission, for example, voted unanimously to recommend withdrawing from NPFH, asking how Belmont could participate while its ADL sponsor “is actively working against congressional, international recognition of the Armenian genocide.” Newton Mayor David Cohen, in withdrawing his city, called it an “issue of conscience.”

Despite the demands from the Armenian, and a substantial portion of the Jewish community, municipalities, human rights bodies and its New England region, and with demonstrators protesting outside, the national ADL, meeting in New York on Nov. 2, refused to change its position. Rather, they issued a dismissive, one-sentence statement that read, “The National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today, at its annual meeting, decided to take no further action on the issue of the Armenian genocide.”

With this vote, the entire organization became complicit in the genocide denial perpetrated by its national director and board. Sadly, the New England region announced that they were now in accord with the national ADL.

To date, 10 Massachusetts communities have withdrawn from NPFH. Efforts are underway to expand the campaign nationwide and to persuade NPFH’s co-sponsor, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, to rescind its endorsement in view of the ADL’s genocide denial.

Ultimately, the ADL must choose between its conflicting purposes and decide if it is primarily a lobby for Israeli interests or a human rights organization that upholds the dignity of all people. Human rights are universal and cannot be defended selectively. Nor must they ever be subordinated to geopolitical interests.

Within our communities, human rights services must be equally accessible to all persons. Because NPFH is sponsored by the ADL, Armenians are excluded from a vital resource. What Armenian would wish to seek help from a body that denies its genocide and works diligently on behalf of the Turkish government to prevent its recognition? Thus, to uphold the rights of all its residents, cities and towns are morally obligated to end all partnerships with the Anti-Defamation League.

Finally, the ADL must recognize unequivocally the Armenian genocide and support official U.S. affirmation. Verbal acknowledgment is simply not adequate given the damage its years of active opposition has inflicted.

The ADL must also cease its calls for joint study of the Armenian genocide, which is settled history and not open to debate. Lastly, the ADL must apologize to the Armenian people for the immense pain and harm its words and actions have inflicted.