ADL and Others Fail To Condemn Voting in ‘Droves’ Slur
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Published March 19, 2015.
Benjamin Netanyahus election day Facebook warning to his supporters that Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polling stations drew global outrage. All seemed to be incensed by the comment, including the White House that described Netanyahus remarks as cynical election day tactics.
But the wall-to-wall condemnation somehow skipped the Jewish community.
As the Huffington Post noted Jewish groups chose to give Netanyahu a pass, or at most, to issue a soft word of warning.
This includes organizations such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which has been active in supporting rights of Arab Israelis and has fought for equality in Israel; and Bnai Brith.
The Anti-Defamation League, clearly the Jewish communitys go-to group when it comes to fighting bigotry, also chose to go easy on Netanyahu. Abraham Foxman sought to explain Netanyahus remarks, noting that he didnt say the Israeli Arabs couldnt vote.
Against this backdrop of the otherwise complacent Jewish community stood the Conservative Movements Rabbinical Assembly, which is hardly known as a liberal marker of the Jewish community. In a harshly worded statement, the groups president Rabbi William Gershon and its executive vice president Rabbi Julie Schonfeld issued a call to the Jewish community to take action:
We must condemn the Prime Ministers statement, singling out Arab citizens for exercising their legitimate right to vote, they wrote. It is incumbent upon Jews around the world to denounce the Prime Ministers divisive and undemocratic statement and we do so here.
Read more:
Conservatives Break Jewish Silence To Denounce Bibi's Anti-Arab Election Scare Tactic
