White House Assures ADL: Anti-Semitism In Qatar 'Unacceptable'
New York, NY, June 17 2003 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed assurances from National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice that the Administration "is doing its best" to stop the rampant anti-Jewish incitement in Arab nations, especially in their media, including recent manifestations in Qatar, a key U.S. ally in the region.
In a letter prompted by a new ADL report exposing a series of virulently anti-Semitic cartoons in the Qatari press, Ms. Rice called the images "abhorrent" and "unacceptable" and indicated that President George W. Bush had raised the issue in his meetings with Arab leaders on his recent trip to the Middle East. ADL, which just released its report, had provided the material to the White House in advance to the President's trip to Qatar.
"On behalf of the President, we are as offended as you are by the abhorrent anti-Semitic images you provided from the Qatari press," Ms. Rice said. "There is no place for them in the Qatari or any other media, and we are doing our best to see that this stops.
"On the recent trip to the Middle East and the Gulf, and in meetings in Washington with Arab officials, the President made it clear that anti-Semitic material in any form is totally unacceptable in the media, in school textbooks, or anywhere else," she added.
ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said, "We are heartened by the President's commitment to raise the issue with Arab leaders and to speak out against anti-Semitism in the Muslim and Arab world. Anti-Semitic incitement is an endemic problem that in the Arab world that damages the long-term prospects for peace."
The League's report, Anti-Semitism in Qatar's Al Watan, showed that over the course of the war in Iraq and its aftermath, vicious anti-Semitic cartoons demonizing Jews as dirty, hook-nosed, money hungry and conspiratorial regularly appeared in Al Watan, a leading Arabic-language newspaper based in Doha.
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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