I cannot say much about this news, except for that the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, seems to be a bit confused… to say the least. Where he first refused to call the killings of Armenians during World War I ‘genocide,’ he now has changed his mind due to public pressure:
In a dramatic reversal, the Anti-Defamation League�s national director has issued a statement describing the massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as “tantamount to genocide.”
The ADL and its national director, Abraham Foxman, have faced mounting criticism in recent weeks for refusing to use the genocide label and for firing Andrew Tarsy, the head of the organization’s Boston office, who publicly challenged that policy.
Tarsy’s dismissal sparked a furious backlash from local community leaders; including critical statements from prominent Boston Jews, a “community statement” calling for the ADL to change its position, and the resignation of two members of the ADL’s regional board.
Ok – so it is so clear to Foxman that it was a genocide that he refused to call it as such, until people basically forced him to do so. That makes sense. Well, it does not of course.
I criticize Foxman not for calling it a genocide – the material from other than Turkish sources that I have read on this imply this as well. What I do criticize, however, is that this was a political game of sorts. This was not anymore about a condemnation of what happened in the past, but about politics and pleasing certain groups. Initially he tried to please Turks and the leaders of Turkey, now he wants to please Armenians and people who believe that it was a genocide. All in all, the decision was not based on principles, but on political grounds.
And that should never be the case when we talk about matters as serious as genocide.
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