Over a year ago, the leader of a major foreign country saw fit to question the reality of the Jewish Holocaust by pronouncing, "those Holocaust events need to be further investigated by independent and impartial parties." Translation: maybe there was no Holocaust.
More recently, the leader of a major American human rights organization questioned the reality of the Armenian Genocide by stating, "there is no room for further dispassionate scholarly examination of the details of those dark and terrible days." Translation: maybe there was no genocide.
These two men differ in many regards, but they reflect one thing in common. They are willing purveyors of the cruelest and most evil phase of genocide. They are both genocide deniers.
The firsts denier is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has been widely and properly denounced for his comments. The second is Executive Director Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League who, although admitting genocide denial to be the ultimate form of hate speech, has escaped long overdue and deserved condemnation for his perverse disavowal of the Armenian Genocide.
I write this letter having just been informed that some ADL programs in Massachusetts are sanctioned by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, a semiofficial organization supported by our tax dollars. I also have been informed that at its next meeting in April, the Massachusetts Municipal Association will "take a position" on its official sponsorship of ADL programs in our state.
I wish to take this opportunity to ask our public officials, particularly those who sit on the Massachusetts Municipal Association board, to do what is principled and to insure genocide denial, from whatever source, has no place in our communities. The words of James Baldwin, who knew the importance of human rights, come to mind: "you cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing yourself."
PETER SAHAGIAN, Waltham
