US Campaign to End the Occupation Boasts About Being a Hate Group

On October 14, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a press release identifying the top ten anti-Israel groups in America. Those hate groups are:

• Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER)
• Al-Awda
• Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Friends of Sabeel-North America
• If Americans Knew
• International Solidarity Movement
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• Muslim American Society
• Students for Justice in Palestine
• US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

The last group on that list promptly sent out an email with the subject "Congratulations to Us--We Made ADL's List," in which it boasted about being included.

As is typical, the "End the Occupation" email was full of errors, misrepresentations and contradictions, but the very first sentence, "We were honored to learn yesterday that we made the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) top ten list of 'anti-Israel groups' in the United States," makes it obvious it (correctly) looks on itself as anti-Israel. It doesn't even pretend otherwise except for one lame sentence lost near the end, in which it unconvincingly protests "Of course, we dispute the ADL's facile characterization of our mission as 'anti-Israel.'"

Once again, we have confirmation of the wisdom in Golda Meir's observation that peace would come when the Arabs started loving their children more than they hate the Jews.

The following is the full text of the email from "End the Occupation;" we omit only those parts in which it pleads for money to help it promote its hate campaign.

We were honored to learn yesterday that we made the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) top ten list of "anti-Israel groups" in the United States. Read more about our accomplishment by clicking here.

Help us "thank" the ADL for its recognition of our work by replanting Palestinian olive trees, which Israeli settlers are currently uprooting and stealing fruits from.

[Plea for money.]

You can help us replant 1,000 olive trees in Palestine as a "thank you" to the ADL. Then, we'll give the ADL a nicely framed certificate showing how naming our coalition to the list enabled Palestinian farmers to remain steadfast on their land, despite Israel's attempted colonization and ethnic cleansing. [Plea for money.]

The ADL, which long ago abandoned its noble charter to fight racism--in favor of spying on U.S. peace and justice organizations, fanning the flames of Islamophobia, and defaming anyone who supports Palestinian human rights, named the US Campaign the "primary organizer of efforts to persuade the U.S. government to cut off aid to Israel." The ADL said that the US Campaign "function[s] as an umbrella organization [that] boosts cooperation among various anti-Israel groups."

Thanks, ADL, for recognizing our centrality in building a national movement to end U.S. support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians and to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality. We appreciate it!

[Plea for money.]

Of course, we dispute the ADL's facile characterization of our mission as "anti-Israel." It's the same type of wrong thinking that produces the red herring that people who criticize U.S. foreign policies are "anti-American." That Bush-era mentality went out of fashion a long time ago.

[Plea for money.]