Arab TV Ratchets Up Anti-Semitism; ADL Calls for Sanctions Against Lebanon
Washington, DC, November 20, 2003 … Shocked by the gratuitous dramatization of a Jewish ritual murder on Lebanese satellite television, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called for the United States government to consider formal sanctions against Lebanon "until the Lebanese government takes action to confront the rampant anti-Semitism on their airwaves."
In a meeting on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director called for the U.S. to curb its foreign aid package to Lebanon, making at least a portion of the funding contingent upon the Lebanese government's willingness to confront anti-Semitism.
"Lebanon needs to understand that it cannot, without any consequences, broadcast a blood libel that has been the cause of centuries of pogroms and anti-Semitism," said Mr. Foxman, the author of Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003). "At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise globally and just days after Jews were targeted with violent attacks in Paris and Istanbul, we must look to put a stop to the root sources of this hatred in the Muslim and Arab world."
The meeting was convened by the bipartisan Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism and hosted by Co-Chairs Reps. Tom Lantos, D-CA and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL. At the meeting Mr. Foxman briefed a dozen members of the House and Senate on recent anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish communities in Turkey and France.
The Lebanese-based satellite station Al-Manar, which is owned by the terrorist group Hezbollah and is available throughout the Middle East and the U.S., has been airing a virulently anti-Semitic program timed to coincide with Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when TV viewership peaks. Purporting to be a dramatization of the history of Zionism, the series has depicted Jews as blood-thirsty, conniving conspirators, plotting to infiltrate world governments in order to achieve world domination. The series took a turn for the worst this week, when it included a graphic dramatization of the age-old anti-Semitic blood libel charge.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
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