ALDERMAN BERNARD STONE REACTS TO CITY EVENT
CHICAGO ARABESQUE: "DEPLORABLE"
ANTI-ISRAEL, ANTI-SEMITIC MATERIAL AT 09 PROGRAM; CITY-FEDERATION MEETING
Bernard Stone, the veteran City alderman (50th) and Vice Mayor, said this month he "will move to dissolve" the Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) if it again sponsors an event which violates its mission to "promote respect and individual responsibility for understanding and accepting differences of all Chicagoans".
Stone was reacting to the story in this newspaper on the City-hosted 3rd Annual Chicago Arabesque, held in June (Jewish Star, July 3).
The report documented, with photographic evidence and translation of Arabic material, the fact that anti- Israel crafts and literature were sold at the four-day program, and that anti- Semitic literature was dis- tributed. It noted that the Jewish Federation of Metro- politan Chicago had formal- Iy complained to the CCHR about this development.
Anti-Israel literature had also been distributed at the 1st Chicago Arabesque in 2007, and for several years before that during the City's Arab Heritage Month. That activity was only stopped after a 2003 Jewish Star investigation revealed the longrunning pattern of anti-Israel programming.
Following these reports, and meetings in 2003 and 2007 with city officials at the request of the Jewish Federation, city officials said they "will not tolerate" such political activity.
It has, nonetheless, continued.
In a July 3 editorial, the Jewish Star called on the city to shut down its Arab Affairs Council, which was responsible for organizing all of these events.
"With this six year record of failure before us, City officials have proven that they are unable to monitor, or to prevent, the promotion of political and religiously-motivated materials targeting Jews and the Jewish state at Cityhosted Arab festivals," the editorial stated.
Stone told the Jewish Star on July 16 that what had taken place at this year's Chicago Arabesque "must stop", and that he intended to follow-up on the matter.
He did so in a Sept. 2 letter to Dana V. Starks, Chairman of the CCHR. Stone wrote: "I assure you, if the Commission promotes this again I will not only publicly address it, but I will move to dissolve the Commission."
Starks - who did not respond to a Jewish Star message on Sept. 4 seeking comment for this article, or to the original July report in the Star - on June 30 had referred the Star to Ken Gunn, CCHR First Deputy Commissioner.
Gunn had been unavailable at presstime for the Star's July report, but said on July 1 that the City's position "has always been that we abhor" the type of political activity which had occurred at the 3rd Chicago Arabesque.
"I was certain this year would be better," he said. "Unfortunately, some push the envelope."
He noted that while "embassies are touchy to deal with," that he had responded to the Jewish Federation's call to stop the Embassy of Libya from distributing an anti-Semitic handout at the festival.
"Where it really gets fuzzy," Gunn said, "is when they talk about history. You do have to respect that they are giving their history."
Gunn said the festival received "rave reviews".
Sept. 22 meeting
Meanwhile Starks has invited Jewish Federation officials to meet with the Arab Advisory Council representatives and the CCHR Board.
The meeting is scheduled for Sept. 22.
The invitation came iri a July 17 letter, which was a response to a June 25 letter from the Federation to Starks marked "Urgent".
That letter, which highlighted an anti-Semitic document (see above) disseminated from the Libyan Embassy booth ' at the festival; stated that "We are beyond our wits end. We cannot fathom how or why the Commission is unable to ensure that its own event - endorsed by the mayor - lives up to its stated standard of being non-political."
Commenting last week on the upcoming meeting, the Federation's Senior Vice President Jay Tcath told the Jewish Star that the Federation will urge the city to institute "stringent clearance on who is actually allowed to have a booth" at these festivals.
He cited in particular the Palestine Solidarity Group, "which is nothing more than an advocacy group".
Tcath attended the past two meetings with the city on this subject, and will be at the September one.
[Sidebar]
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The motivation underlining the Declaration was io no Europe of Jews, rather than espress sympathy for them
The Persecution of the Jews:
The Jews are an unfortunate people They nave suffered greatly al the hands of governments, leaders and oihat peoples stnce ancient times. Why? Because this ts the will Df God. |usi as the Quran makes clear in the accounts of Egypt's Pharaoh and as their treatment at the hands of the rulers from Babylon. Roman emperors from Titus iq Hadrian, and the kings cf England, such as Edvuard illustrates. The Jews have been banished neld captive massacred, disadvantaged and persecuted in every possibfe fashion at ibe hands of the Egyptians, the Romans, the English, the Russians, the BiiLvlomans the Canaanites. and. more recently, at the hands Pt Hitter
[Author Affiliation]
By DOUGUS WERTHEIMER
Editor
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