Bikers Repudiation of SINTCC Anti-Semitism
(Continued from Page 1)
seems to be the villain of your
memorandum did not buy both the
U.S. and the Soviet vote on that
occasion. And is the mantle of UN
recognition any less legal when
applied to a white state than it is
for Mali, Chad, Ghana or Zambia?
And, speaking of the emerging
black African nations, I wonder if
your researchers ever bothered to
inquire whence came the help
and support for these countries in
the days of their struggle? Was it
Arabs or Israelis who trained
their engineers, craftsmen, build-
ers, seamen and teachers? Ask
who almost single-handedly built
Ghana's merchant marine; ask
whether emerging black Africa
looked to Cairo or Jerusalem for
their "bond of friendship and
brotherhood."
You seriously assert that the
destinies of Arabs and Negroes
are intertwined; you are, of course,
perfectly correct in that assertion.
History itself will bear out the
constant relationship of Arab and
Negro. Your own ancestors would
hardly have arrived on these
shores had it not been fors the
beneficiaries and diligence of Arab
slave traders. And speaking of
slavery, did it escape you—or was
it conveniently glossed over—that
at least one of the countries whose
cause you have just espoused,
Saudi Arabia, . practices slavery
today, in 1967? And that many
of its slaves are Africans brought
to Arabia and sold there by Mos-
lems engaged in the Holy Pil-
grimage to Mecca?
Indeed, what manner of govern-
ments are these, your new pro-
teges? What political structures
do they represent? Kingdoms and
sheikdoms, on the one hand; dic-
tatorships and military juntas on
the other, whose masses live in
poverty, squalor, serfdom or slav-
ery, with a total absence of even
the pretense of democracy. How
do you think a cry of "black pow-
er" would be met in Riyadh or
Mecca? How would "poor power"
sound in Baghdad?
To top it all, you found your-
selves actually capable of repeat.
ing the obscene comparison be-
tween Israelis and German Nazis
advanced at the UN by the So-
viet delegate, replete with hideous
caricatures worthy of the finest
anti-Semitic pamphlet. I feel no-
thing but the deepest contempt for
such irresponsible behavior. It
insults the memory of the martyrs
who perished in the mass slaugh-
ter; it insults the dreams and
hopes of their sons and heirs who
built a home and a refuge in
Israel, and who resisted being
"pushed into the sea." Their
crime seems to have been that
they were resisting their own an-
nihilation successfully. Had the
"Holy War" called for by Nasser
and accomplices succeeded, you
might have joined the list of those
offering condolences for yet an-
other case of genocide; for the
annihilation would have been
total, make no mistake.
War is cruel and inhuman, as
is all violence. Only the open
blade of a murderer can ever
justifiably be met by force. Such
was the case in the Middle East
last June.
I am an American. I am a Jew.
Thus I have a commitment,
doubly reinforced by historical
and moral commandment. I sin
determined to make equality and
freedom a reality in this country,
no matter what the setbacks. I
am equally determined to honor
the bonds to my ethnic and reli-
gious background. "For out of
Zion shall go forth the law and
the word of the Lord from Jeru-
salem." You have this day at-
tempted to violate both my com
mitments. The violation of one
alone would have been enough.
That you have for some time
past made a mockery of the word
"nonviolent" in your name, both
in word and in deed, was inade-
quately defended by the facile
explanation of violence begetting
violence, chaos begetting chaos.
That the innocent should have suf-
fered—Negroes more often than
whites, that in the wake of "Burn
Baby Burn" real babies got burn-
ed and most of them Negro, is a
responsibility which partly lies on
your shoulders. I hope it lies
heavily. Yet while I more and
more disapproved of your methods
I still believed that your ultimate
aims deserved support. I am no
longer certain of that either. I
supported Black Power as a poli-
tical concept; as a tool of anarchy
I find it reprehensible, Not that
the concept of revolution is in
itself frightening; our modern
world and America itself have
been built on the foundations
forged by one revolution or an-
other. What is frightening is a
revolution without a blueprint.
If it's a case of "get Whitey" first
and worry about planning later,
then the tactic seems both stupid
and dangerous. The assumption
that, by definition, all whites are
enemies and all blacks are friends
is as simplistic as it is untrue.
It is not my intention to pre-
scribe what direction SNCC should
take, either in theory or in prac-
tice. It is, as you will quite
rightly argue, none of my affair.
What is my affair, however, is
whether or not I wish to associate
myself, my name, my energy or
my resources with an organization
with which I have fundamental
disagreements. Thus it has be-
come quite clear to me that, for
the various reasons outlined in
this letter, such loose ties as I may
still have with SNCC will have to
be severed forthwith. I cannot in
conscience be part of any organi-
zation which condones injustice, let
alone commits it. I shall continue
to be part of the civil rights move-
ment and to be active in it. But I
shall choose to fight on the side
of those who, like Dr. Martin
Luther King, speak with the voice
of sane and deliberative determi-
nation; who believe that this is a
movement to unite men as broth-
ers, not divide them by the litmus
test of color; who seek not to
establish one kind of supremacy
doctrine in place of another but
who concentrate instead on the
fight against the real enemies—
poverty, ignorance and hatred of
fellow-man.
What you have wrought in this
latest of a long line of missteps
will be with us for a long time
to come. It will not deter those
among us who are secure in the
knowledge that the Movement is
bigger than your pronouncements
and that it speaks responsibly and
with reason. But many thousands
not so secure will in bewilderment
withdraw support from all civil
rights causes because of your in-
Friday, August 25, 1967-5
THEDET ROIT JEWISH NEWS
Morocco Jews 'Condemn' Israel
But Rabbi Leaves for Holy Land
CASABLANCA (JTA) — A , Jewish hotel director at Tangier
violent campaign against Moroccan of "pro-Israel sympathies."
Jews has been launched here by A number of Moroccan Jewish
Istiqlal, the extremist, nationalist intellectuals published a statement
political party.
iMonday condemning the "aggres-
The party's organ, L'Opinion, sion of Israel against the Arabs
which recently ran the infamous and Israel's expansionist policy."
canard, the Protocols of the Elders "Keenly devotes to our country,
of Zion, declared in its current
issue that Jewish functionaries in
the Moroccan government are
"notorious Zionists." It accused a
continence and folly. Thus once
again you will have harmed no
one but the Negro himself.
Not being able to turn my mind
from your monstrous comparison
of my brothers with the arch foe
of my people—nay, of all people—
I shall leave you this thought:
you may want to spit in my face
for being Whitey and a Fat Cat.
But do not look to me for silence
while you insult the memory of
my people so recently martyred;
you have no right to tamper with
their graves. And think of Mickey
Schwerner and Andy Goodman.
You have no right to spit on, their
tomb; they died for a concept of
brotherhood which you now cover
with shame.
THEODORE BIKEL
N O Where
N O Place
minor-
Morocco, and to its Jewish minor-
il lyor the statement added, "we
affirm strongly that Zionism can-
not be our ideology and that Is-
rael cannot be considered -as the
motherland of Jews or even as
their second motherland." The
statement asked Moroccan Jews
to battle against the Zionist
ideology.
Meanwhile, another member of
the Moroccan Rabbinical Tribunal,
Rabbi Yoshue Oliel, of Rabat, is
leaving this country to settle in
Israel, it was learned here. Several
other rabbinical judges are also
preparing to leave Morocco. Rabbi
Oliel's departure will still further
decimate the rabbinical leadership
in this country.
1 The longest name in the Bible is
Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the sym-
bolic name of the second son of
Isaiah (Isaiah, Chapter VIII, verses
11 and 3).
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