The following is a brief update on the developments since the August 14th decision by the Watertown City Council to cut ties with the ADL's No Place for Hate Program, citing Foxman's & ADL's Armenian Genocide denial.
On August 17th, the Boston Globe reported that since the Watertown Town Council Meeting, New England ADL Regional Director Andrew H. Tarsy had called an emergency meeting of the regional ADL Board which voted to urge National ADL (Foxman) to revise their policy of Genocide denial. This story was covered by the New England Cable News in its evening broadcast.
The National ADL responded to the publication of the Boston Globe article with a statement (posted on the ADL website and to be placed as an ad in the Boston Globe and the New England Jewish Advocate) repeating the standard denialist euphemisms and citing their "neutrality" about the Armenian Genocide resolution, while stating that they do not find the genocide resolution "helpful" in helping Turkey come to grips with its past.
Immediately following the posting of the ADL statement, noplacefordenial.com was informed that the New England ADL Regional Director Andrew Tarsy had been FIRED, specifically over the Armenian Genocide issue.
The Boston Globe in its August 18th issue ran a front page article about the firing of Tarsy, including outrage expressed by the Jewish and Armenian American communities. According to the Globe story, the New England ADL board's executive committee “backed Tarsy and…..went a step further, resolving to support legislation now pending before Congress to acknowledge the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during the World War I era as genocide.”
The Boston Globe ran its own editorial on August 18th chastising the National ADL for not characterizing the Armenian Genocide as "genocide" for perceived geopolitical reasons.
The Boston Globe ran an op-ed on August 18th by State Representative Rachel Kaprielian and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz speaking about the imperative of speaking openly and unequivocally about genocide.
On August 19, the Boston Globe reported that "at least two prominent board members of the regional Anti-Defamation League have resigned in protest over the national ADL's decision to fire the regional director for acknowledging the slaughter of Armenians during World War I as genocide." The report added that a meeting of the entire New England regional ADL board has been scheduled for Wednesday morning.
UPDATE: AUGUST 17-19
