10/16 Arlington Advocate: Selectmen back resolution on No Place for Hate

Selectmen back resolution on No Place for Hate

By Shauna Staveley

Tue Oct 16, 2007, 11:45 AM EDT

Arlington, Mass. - Selectmen unanimously endorsed a resolution Monday night, supporting the decision of the No Place For Hate Steering Committee to suspend Arlington’s involvement with the program.

The resolution, presented by Human Rights Commission Chairman Joe Curro Jr., is the latest in an ongoing controversy dogging the Anti-Defamation League, which sponsors the No Place for Hate program. Arlington’s No Place committee suspended the program because the ADL has refused to acknowledge the murder of more than 1 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks as genocide.

“I don’t feel we need to be certified to say we are a town that believes this is no place for hate,” Selectman John Greeley said at the meeting Monday night.

The commission also rescinded endorsement of the ADL, but said it reserved the right to review the decision if:

· The ADL reconsiders its position on the Armenian genocide. At first, the ADL outright refused to use the word genocide in association with the murders. Under pressure, the group later conceded the killings were “tantamount” to genocide.

· The ADL supports House Resolution 106, currently in Congress, which the Arlington commission considers part of understanding past genocides and reacting to current ones.

The Human Rights Commissions also encouraged members of Arlington’s No Place for Hate Committee to explore alternate programs.

“As a person of Jewish descent, I can’t understand the history of the Holocaust without knowing Hitler pointed to the Armenian genocide to say the world would think nothing of the Holocaust,” Selectman Chairwoman Annie Lacourt said.

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/news/x1633043576