11/07 Arlington Advocate: Town confirms decision on No Place for Hate

Town confirms decision on No Place for Hate

By Shauna Staveley

Arlington, Mass. - The Anti-Defamation League wouldn’t budge and the Arlington No Place for Hate Program Steering Committee refused to compromise.

On Tuesday, the committee chose to make permanent its withdraw from the national program because the ADL once again refused to acknowledge the death of more than 1 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide.

“The committee will continue to work, along with many other groups and citizens, to ensure that Arlington is a place that’s welcoming to all and where the diversity that each of us brings is celebrated and mutually respected,” said NPFH Chairwoman Cindy Friedman in an e-mail. “Over the next few months we will be looking at how we continue our work outside the umbrella of the No Place for Hate program, and how we ensure that anyone who wants to join us in this effort will feel welcome.”

The ADL sponsors the No Place for Hate organization.
Activists in Watertown, which has a large Armenian population, were among the first to speak out publicly when the ADL refused use of the word genocide. The Watertown Town Council rescinded its involvement with NPFH in August.

Several NPFH programs followed suit, pushing the issue into the public conscience. The outcry put pressure on the ADL’s national office to reconsider its stance on the issue.

Arlington’s NPFH program chose to suspend its association, a decision endorsed by the Human Rights Commission. Part of that decision set parameters for Arlington’s return to the program, which included the ADL changing its stance.

“I had no intention before, and I have no intention now of bringing that up for reconsideration,” said Human Rights Commission Chairman Joe Curro Jr. on Monday. “I think especially so in light of the failure of the ADL to act on the issue.”

The Arlington No Place for Hate program first took root in at the beginning of 2007 and was supported by many residents as well as Police Chief Frederick Ryan.

Project Director Myriam Zuber told attendees of a meeting Jan. 18 that more than 60 communities in the state are “officially part of the program,” with 35 of them joining in 2006.

“We are sorry we can no longer be part of the program,” Friedman said Tuesday.

Hilda Silverman, an Arlington resident and noted peace activist, was one of the individuals against the program from the start, and it was originally due to the ADL involvement.

“Our town deserves better,” said Silverman.
Silverman cites what she calls ADL’s “suppression of dissent” and “blacklisting” as reasons for her opposition to the group.

As of Tuesday, she felt the very premise of the NPFH program may have been the true problem.

“I think that notion of opposing hate is the wrong concept for an anti-bigotry program,” Silverman said. “Look at how upset people were at what the ADL did, but nobody claims ADL hates Armenians. It wasn’t about hate. It’s about interests. It’s about taking a position that ignored the suffering of a group of people because of certain other interests…if we want to educate people, especially young people, it’s not about hate, it’s about understanding the experience of the other.”

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/homepage/x1086970438