No more 'No place for hate'

By Mia Lamar

The city of Somerville suspended its relationship with the Anti-Defamation League's “No Place for Hate” anti-prejudice program last Thursday, in protest of the ADL's failure to “unequivocally” recognize the Armenian genocide, according to a city spokeswoman, Lesley Delaney Hawkins. Hawkins added that the city specifically chose to make its announcement on the annual day of remembrance for the genocide, April 24, a message Hawkins called “significant.”

“We want to send a clear message that bigotry, whether its on a local level or a genocide level, is not appropriate,” said Hawkins. She said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, a member of the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) who is also president of the Massachusetts Mayors' Association, received an “immense” amount of correspondence from individuals, of both Armenian and non-Armenian descent, expressing their concern over the controversial position of the ADL. The Massachusetts Municipal Association withdrew its co-sponsorship of the "No Place for Hate" program earlier this month, moving Mayor Curtatone to follow suit with Somerville.

Hawkins stressed that the city's decision “was not a question” of the overall efforts of the ADL. “We certainly do respect and appreciate their [anti-] bigotry efforts,” she said.

According to Hawkins, the city has not received any communication from the ADL concerning its announcement Thursday, and is currently looking into whether it must take further steps to formally cease its relationship with the “No Place for Hate” program. She also said she expects the city to pass a resolution in coming weeks to join the National League of Cities Partnership for Working Towards Inclusive Communities.

A regional spokeswoman for the ADL, Jennifer Smith, did not return calls for comment.

Somerville joins a growing list of Massachusetts communities taking a stance against the ADL and its position towards the Armenian genocide, including nearby Belmont, Watertown, Lexington and Newton.

Comments

[JPM]

Gesture politics at its worst. Get back to today please ...not what happened in 1916..

[From Davis Square]

Gesture politics? That is extremely offensive.

It was outright offensive, hypocticial, and counterproductive that an organization that engages in genocide denial would have been given the authority to teach our community about tolerance in the first place.

Our ability as a community to address the challenging issues of our time is entirely effected by our actions, including those of the past.

Genocide denial is the worst form of hate speech. Somerville has never been a city of hate.

[Ed Wood]

The ADL felt the safety of Israel, which considers Turkey a rare Muslim ally, was paramount to the issue.

Basically they don't want to piss off the Turks.

[Union Square Resident]

It is common knowledge that the Anti-Defamation League has long been working on behalf of the Turkish government to undermine efforts to secure recognition of the Armenian genocide. As such, it has become a human rights organization that offers its services to a foreign government engaging in genocide denial.

On November 2, 2007, the ADL National Commissioner's meeting had a chance to reverse this policy -- but it voted not to do so. This formal decision confirmed that the organization is determined to continue to abet Turkey's denialist agenda, and it is a shame that representatives of the New England ADL (who in August 2007 took a very principled position against this unacceptable policy of their parent organization) have gone along with this verdict.

The Anti-Defamation League is supposed to be a human rights organization. It has chosen to continue to act as an agent of the Turkish government's campaign of genocide denial. It follows that it can no longer be trusted to be involved with human rights issues in our towns and cities.

Because of these reasons, I thank the Mayor of Somerville, Joseph A. Curtatone, for dissociating our town from the ADL.

[thetruth]

The town of Somerville makes absolutely the right choice.

Please someone explain to me how the official condemnation of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, where the Ottoman Turks systematically murdered 1.5 million Armenians, is somehow bad for Israel's security? I cannot think of one reason ever, to deny the facts of any GENOCIDE.

To this day, the Turks not only deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide but have yet to be apologetic or remorseful, all with the continued help of the ADL.

[gary]

the turks are barbarians.