Letter: Berman Part and Parcel of ADL Hypocrisy
Berman Part and Parcel of ADL Hypocrisy
January 2014
The following letter appeared in the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly the Weston Town Crier newspaper (Weston, MA), and USA Armenian Life magazine
To the Editor:
The Governor’s Council is leaning against Superior Court judicial nominee Joseph S. Berman for sound reasons, including no Superior Court criminal trial experience and his lack of candor about asking a politician to lobby the councilors.
Since 2006, Berman has also been a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League, which has long colluded directly with Turkey to deny the Armenian genocide and lobby against congressional recognition of it (www.NoPlaceForDenial.com, “History of Lobbying”).
In 2007-2008, over a dozen cities, including Needham, Newton and Westwood, cut ties with the ADL’s “No Place for Hate” program when they learned of the group’s anti-Armenian policies. Before and during that time, Berman neither resigned — unlike some others — nor spoke publicly against such policies, which remain unchanged. That was a moral failure.
Even non-lawyers grasp that the national ADL’s infamous Aug. 21, 2007, statement played legalistic word games (www.NoPlaceForDenial.com, Q&A) such that the Armenian atrocities could not qualify as genocide under the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention. The Massachusetts Municipal Association and cities including Bedford, Northampton and Peabody didn’t believe the ADL and cut ties even after Aug. 21.
Significantly, the ADL has never withdrawn that dishonest statement and continues lobbying against Armenian-Americans, who have never done anything to deserve such abuse.
The national ADL claims to be a human rights organization and insists that others commemorate the Holocaust and pass resolutions on it. Yet it hypocritically works against acknowledgement of a Christian genocide.
As an ADL national commissioner, Berman is part and parcel of those hypocritical policies. The governor should withdraw his nomination.
David Boyajian
Belmont, MA