Tuesday, April 9, 1996
Israeli Intelligence agency conducts surveillance of
anti-Zionist organizationsName Withheld
Do you know what the Anti-Defamation League is? The assistant
director of this organization, A. Randall Steinberg, published a
belated response ("Fact vs. fiction," April 2) to the Palestinian
perspective of a recent five-part series claiming that it distorted
facts about the current situation in Israel and Zionism. Rather
than dispute the "facts" that they present, we can kill two birds
with the proverbial "one stone" by just presenting some facts on
the organization which purports to fight anti-Semitism and defend
minority rights.
According to 1993’s "The ADL: Civil Rights and Wrongs" by Abdeen
Jabjara, in 1974, Benjamin Epstein, the national director of the
league, (along with Arnold Foster, general counsel for the league)
said, "criticism of Israel reflects insensitivity to American Jews
and constitutes a form of anti-Semitism." This would mean that the
Ethiopian Jews who protested the trashing of their blood by the
Israeli government were being anti-Semitic and demonstrating
insensitivity. Of course, this attitude sparked dissension because
the league was originally defined as a nonprofit, charitable and
religious organization.
However, when Saul Joftes (the executive secretary of the
International Council of the B’nai B’rith, the league’s parent
organization) expressed the following, "It is no longer nonprofit.
It engages in international politics and more often than not does
the bidding of the Government of Israel. Its leaders make frequent
trips to Israel for indoctrination and instructions. I had tried to
prevent this change … " Jabara writes that he was subsequently
FIRED! This statement was made in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia, CA No. 3271-67, in the 1970 employment
termination lawsuit of Saul E. Joftes vs. Rabbi Jay Kaufman.
Given the league’s record, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the
editor of The Bruin, and other campus groups at UCLA who have
taken, or merely presented, anti-Zionist, anti-racist  or any
antioppressive stances  in the past, are under direct
surveillance of the Israel Intelligence via this charitable
organization known as the Anti-Defamation League.
In addition, in November l983, the league circulated to many
campus Jewish leaders a secret list of campus groups, academics and
other professionals involved in Middle East studies. These letters
were stamped "Confidential," and the blacklist was accompanied by a
letter from league New England director Leonard Zakim denouncing
their contribution to the "alarming increase in anti-Semitic
incidents and anti-Israel propaganda" ("The Middle East on the U.S.
Campus," The Link, May-June 1985 issue).
What do the following groups have in common? African Black
Students, ACT UP, Muslim Students Association, African Network,
African National Reparations Organization, American Indian Center,
El Centro de La Raza, Filipino Organization Committee, Food not
Bombs, MEChA, Young Korean United, Irish National Aid, Nicaragua
Network News, Women Against U.S. Intervention and Women of Color
Resource Project.
These are all small, yet conscious, progressive organizations
that are determined to challenge the status quo of apathy that
currently prevails in our society. However, the names of these
organizations were not found in a community directory, the yellow
pages or a charity dinner invitation list. These are the names of
organizations found in the files of the Anti-Defamation League
after the San Francisco Police raided the houseboat of two police
officers, Gerrard and Bullock, in October 1992. The two were later
convicted.
The police search uncovered over 7,000 files on individuals who
were members of these types of organizations. Richard Hirschaut,
who was the regional director of the league in 1993, said that the
relationship the league had with Gerrard was the same as with
thousands of police officers around the country (San Francisco
Examiner, Jan. 24, 1993).
In 1993, the league had an annual budget of $34 million to keep
files on 36 Arab organizations, 33 antiapartheid organizations, 412
"pinko" organizations and 349 right-wing organizations, for the
purposes of espionage  which is illegal, a violation of
trust, a threat to civil liberties and an infringement on first
amendment rights.
On April 28, 1993, George Cothran and Peter Hagerty authored an
article in the San Francisco Weekly entitled "Spies of Zion." This
article enumerated the sophisticated schemes the league has
undertaken in America. Henry Schwartzchild, who worked in the
league publications department between 1962 and 1964, reported that
the league had spied on Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf
of the FBI.
Perhaps the league wishes to bait people into responding to its
article so that they can become part of a surveillance "black"
list, but Tuesday’s (April 2) letter in the Daily Bruin warrants
this probe into a rugged super-spy organization that infringes upon
the liberties, rights and freedoms of all Americans.
Name withheld because of possible repercussions.