PURELY COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

Eternal Vigilance

E

ternal vigilance as the
price of liberty keeps
gaining importance in
the growing prejudices, in the
spreading anti-Semitism.
With the avenues paved by
hatemongers against Jews in
universities on a par often
with the racism against
blacks, battles against them
become apparent.
Indifference to evil minded
who keep spreading the lie
that the Holocaust and the
murder of many millions are
mere Jewish propaganda,
emerges as a crime in ranks
of those who should make
refutation of the distortion a
life's commitment.
Such outrages as the blood
libel, such distortions as the
so-called Protocols have been
permitted to circulate. The
Benjamin Franklin Forgery is
among the falsifications that
have been injected in history
teaching in a Florida
university.
A recent analysis of hate
showed how universities have
become avenues for venom
spreading against Israel.
At Indiana-Purdue Univer-
sity, a part-time civics teacher
had no hesitation in acting as
a Holocaust revisionist with
accusations that Jews were
capitalizing on a selfish cam-
paign to gain reparations and
thereby to benefit Israel.

Battling The Mounting Villainies

Dean John Barlow, of the
Indiana-Purdue University
School of Liberal Arts, now
assures caution in selecting
faculty members. He is also
planning university
assemblies to expose the lies
and to present the Holocaust
historical record
authoritatively.
Meanwhile the criminal
record of the part-time
teacher who was spreading
the revisionist libel was
revealed. Donald Hiner serv-
ed jail sentences. His criminal
record included having been
convicted of stealing books
about Hitler from his univer-
sity library in 1970. In 1980
he was found guilty of theft,
and in 1988 was convicted for
stealing Nazi memorabilia.
That's the source of some of
the anti-Jewish Holocaust
revisionism. Now there is the
increasing guilt of Arab
utilization of means in this
revisionism in their anti-
Israel propaganda. The latest
PLO terror-mongering is
related in the AIPAC "Near
East Report" in the following
shocking account:

We all felt sadness, pain,
and fear mixed with
disgust. This because all of
us fell under the influence
of Zionist lies and the exag-
gerations about what the

Nazis did," said Dr. Khalad
El-Shamali in El Istiqlal
(Dec. 13, 1989).
The journal that publish-
ed the article according to
the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, was started last
year by Yassir Arafat to
serve as the main organ for
Palestinians on events in
the territories. The editor
of the Cyprus-based maga-
zine is Luai Abdo, former-
ly of Nablus and one of the
senior leaders of the in-
tifada and the PLO in the
West Bank.

-

Government
officials must be
made aware of
spokespeople who
bask in such
ugliness.

In the preface to the Dec.
13 issue, the editor wrote
that the article, which
refers to "Israeli exag-
gerated propaganda . . . us-
ed to spread these inflated
stories in the service of the
goals of world Zionism;' is
a very important study.
"Worth of reading, elo-
quently described and sup-
ported by scientific
arguments of the folly of

Zionist propaganda con-
cerning the alleged
Holocaust;' said the editor.
The following week, the
same author, identified as
an expert on intense heat
stoves, wrote another arti-
cle — "Burning of the Jews
in Nazi Chambers is the Lie
of the 20th Century in
Order to Legitimize the
New Nazism" — which said
"Nazi camps were more
`civilized' than Israeli
prisons?' Jews are chided
for complaining about
Gestapo treatment when
"the truth is that they were
served 'healthy food . . : "
The author visited
Dachau and Sachsen-
hausen concentration
camps and saw the re-
mains of "four pitiful,
almost invisible stoves:'
After using inaccurate
figures on actual death in
the camps, he calculates
that it would have taken
1,300 years to burn all the
bodies.
The implication is that
evidence of Jews being in-
cinerated in crematoria
has been fabricated. "The
world must combat
Zionism;' he concludes,
"because it is more
dangerous to human
civilization than the Nazis
. . . what we have to expose

is Israeli exaggerations in
order to show how Zionism
is benefitting from the lies."
This article was prefaced
by the editor's remark that
the study was prepared "to
expose the forgery of West-
ern propaganda which is
based on distortion of facts
and then on extortion. This
propaganda turned the
Nazi chambers into
materials (that serves the
Zionists) in its long march
to cheat nations [sic]:'

The deep regret is that
there is even the merest men-
tion of such filth. Yet there is
a compulsion not to ignore
White House and State De-
partment officials. Especially
Secretary of State James
Baker must be made fully
aware of the spokespeople for
the Arabs, the leaders of the
PLO, who bask in such
ugliness.
What is to be said by Jews
who are otherwise commen-
dably dedicated to peace who
fraternize with PLO, with the
authorship of the quoted
falsehoods? They, too, have
much to account for.
Another pity that
Holocaust revisionism can
not be fully ignored. It is part
of the duty to expose the lies
whenever and wherever they
are uttered.

Jerusalem's Faithful: Historic Dignity

ersualem is constantly
catapulted into public
attention. The Holy Ci-
ty is sensationalized into ex-
aggerated indignities; its
sanctity is besmirched with
hatred.
Many misconceptions about
the city's status merely echo
the hatreds applied to the
Arab-Jewish relations. Arab
nations are often feuding, but
when there's antagonism
against Israel they unite.
This is so in Jerusalem. All
efforts are made by the

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Vol. XCVII No. 12

2

May 18, 1990

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1990

Jewish leaders to motivate
understanding and coopera-
tion. When there is a spark of
hatred, it is inflamed into
venom.
The Jewish sacred areas
were molested and sullied
during Jordan's rule. Jews
were barred from ap-
proaching the Western Wall
— the Kotel. Synagogues
were destroyed. When the
redemption came in 1967 a
new rulership installed
justice among all faiths in the
city.

Still, there is misunderstan-
ding. The fairness of the ad-
ministration headed by
Mayor Teddy Kollek is not ful-
ly credited for the justice it in-
spires. It compels Kollek
himself to correct errors. A
misconception in a New York
Times editorial, April 24, was
corrected by him only a day
later, in a letter published
May 1, in which he stated:
While I agree with many
points in "Slouching in
Jerusalem" (editorial,
April 24), on the taking
over of St. John's Hospice

by 20 Jewish families and
its sequel, I take exception
to the last paragraph,
which creates the false im-
pression that these events
have infringed on the
freedom of worship of
Christian communities.
All the Easter religious
ceremonies of the Eastern
and Western churches,
which coincided this year,
took place undisturbed,
with even more pilgrims
than in previous years.
Also, more than 50,000
Muslims prayed on the
Temple Mount on the last
Friday of Ramadan.
St. John's Hospice is not
a place of worship or a ho-
ly site. It has not even serv-
ed as a hospice for pilgrims
for many years, but was
leased to commercial in-
terests by the Greek Or-
thodox patriarchate.

What was infringed on
was the traditional delicate
balance between the
religious communities in
the Old City of Jeruslaem,
which for generations has

consisted of four largely
separate quarters: Chris-
tian, Muslim, Armenian
and Jewish.
In 1967, we rebuilt the
Jewish Quarter, which had
been virtually destroyed
by the Jordanians after
they occupied it in 1948. We
insisted then that it should
be once again populated
by Jews, and this decision,
when appealed against,
was upheld by the High
Court of Justice (the
Burkhan case, 1978).
I strongly believe that the
same principle should be
voluntarily applied to the
three other quarters of the
Old City in keeping with
both the wishes of the
residents and long-
standing tradition.
In these troubled times,
this would add greatly to
allaying fears and main-
taining harmony among all
the residents of this com-
plex city, insuring its
future as a city of religious
tolerance and good
neighborly relations.
Beyond the issue of law,

there are the virtues of
wisdom and sensitivity.
It is pitiful what little at-
tention is usually given to
such corrective words. The
basic facts listed by Kollek,
who raised the standards of
Jerusalem to their sanctified
goals, should have come from
the heads of the Christian
and Moslem religious com-
munities of Jerusalem. In
this respect, there has been
too much indifference towards
the Jewish roles from Chris-
tians of the world.
Mayor Teddy Kollek of
Jerusalem is in a most
honored role as protector of
all faiths in Jerusalem. The
facts he presents, the dignity
and courage with which he
labors, remain inerasable.

Jewish Jerusalem's
Meaning To Man

While Jerusalem's sanctity
is universally acclaimed, it all
began stemming from
Judaism and Jewry,
perpetuated in that role. Dr.
Continued on Page 40

