Editorial by Fred Taub,
President,
Boycott Watch
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 7PM the Cleveland
Heights -University Heights (OH) Public Library will show a film called "Peace
in the Middle East" by Landrum Bolling, an Arafat apologist who claims "Israel
was established by an international Zionist conspiracy" and called Arafat's
terrorist image "nonsense."
The event is being
presented by Cleveland Peace Action and will be co-facilitated by Julia
Sheerson of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Saudi funded
group with ties to Hamas. When I spoke to David Baronson of Cleveland Peace
Action, the event promoter, he made it abundantly clear that he had no
intention of having any balance in the panel despite the claim in the library
bulletin which states "diverse representation of the relevant Jewish,
Christian, Muslim and Arabic communities." These events have been deliberately
falsely advertised.
The video in question starts off
by drawing a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorism, including suicide
bombings, to Israel's response to terrorism. The rest of the video is a blatant
attack on Israel, with a few scattered pro-Israel comments which are
strategically placed to frame the Bolling's anti-Israel / anti-Semitic stance.
This video has no balance, yet it poorly attempts to masks itself as such. You
can see it and judge for yourself
here.
There are two other
related events by the same "peace" group scheduled at the library and
advertised in the library newsletter with no events presenting the other side
of the issue. While I have no objection to various groups using the library for
their events, I must object to the fact that the library is using taxpayer
dollars to advertise, thus promote these anti-Israel / anti-Semitic events. It
also shows that the library staff either did not do their due diligence looking
this event or allowed it to be posted to promote a political agenda. There is
no third possibility - either someone at the library is incompetent or
anti-Semitic.
The Library Director, Mr. Stephen
Wood, stated that he had no problems with such events as long as there is
balance, of which there clearly can be none with this film, not to mention the
guest speakers, or lack thereof. Another problem is that the library used
taxpayer dollars to advertise, and I stress advertise, this political agenda
event which very well may constitute misuse of public funds.
After informing Mr. Wood that a CAIR representative
was the event co-facilitator and that CAIR has a documented direct connection
to the Hamas terrorist organization, a demand was made to Mr. Wood to cancel
all of the events by that organization at the library. Mr. Wood has declined to
cancel or retract the event or its advertising. In fact, Mr. Wood stated he
wanted to present all viewpoints, and that apparently includes the viewpoints
of CAIR and its Hamas friends. You may contact Mr. Wood at 216-932-3600 x 240
to express your concerns.
The library used taxpayer
dollars to promote events with presenters associated with terrorist
organizations, which is clearly not in the best interests of our community. It
is therefore imperative that we send a message to the library and vote no on
the library tax levy in response.
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