Vic Gerami’s LA-based Truth and Accountability League (TAAL) has done fine work on Armenian American issues.
Posted on September. 2. 2023
By David Boyajian
August 22, 2023
To the Editor of USA Armenian Life:
Vic Gerami’s LA-based Truth and Accountability League (TAAL) has done fine work on Armenian American issues.
I’m dismayed, however, by TAAL’s “Synergistic Relationship with the Anti-Defamation League” (TAAL email, June 12).
The ADL long worked alongside Turkey and Israel to deny/diminish the Armenian Genocide and defeat Congress’ Armenian Genocide resolutions.
That’s why Armenian Americans, elected officials, human rights advocates, and principled Jews threw the ADL’s so-called No Place for
Hate program out of a dozen Massachusetts cities from 2007-2008. The Massachusetts Municipal Association, representing the state’s cities and towns, did the same.
Similarly, Glendale cancelled an ADL “non-violence seminar” at Hoover High (LA Times, Dec. 5, 2007).
After LA Times journalist Mark Arax unmasked (April 2007) the ADL’s anti-Armenianism, he was forced out.
These campaigns spawned thousands of regional, national, and international headlines, reports, commentaries, and editorials that slammed the ADL.
Significantly, the ADL has never apologized to Armenians, opened its Armenian-related files, or made amends.
Only in 2016 — after I again exposed the ADL in Massachusetts — did it acknowledge the Genocide, but merely in ablog post. The ADL also said it “would” (not will) support an Armenian Genocide resolution. It did so in 2019 but only one day before a resolution was about to pass anyway.
Web searches will reveal hundreds of reports and government/civil lawsuits regarding the ADL’s illegal spying on minorities and other innocent parties.
I explained the above to Mr. Gerami and sent him my 2019 article, “Hypocritical Jewish Organizations and the Armenian Genocide.” I’ve received no reply.
In his deceptive 2022 book, “It Could Happen Here,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt made this shocking admission about the ADL’s previous reasons for denying/diminishing the Genocide: “[These] may have been valid at a certain point.”
“Valid”? The ADL has not learned its lesson. Moreover, Greenblatt’s book conveniently omits the ADL’s lobbying to defeat Genocide resolutions.
Incidentally, some top Jewish American organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee, support Azerbaijan. One wonders if the ADL’s doing the same.
The hypocritical ADL has exposed itself as a political organization rather than a principled civil/human rights one.
Responsible Americans, particularly Armenian Americans and their organizations, must continue to oppose the ADL.
Sincerely,
David Boyajian
Belmont, MA 02478