September 23, 2008
Cleve L. Killingsworth, Chairman and Chief Executive
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Landmark Center
401 Park Drive
Boston, MA 02215-3326
Dear Mr. Killingsworth:
We are writing to urge you to end Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’s endorsement of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) No Place for Hate (NPFH) program.
Although the ADL professes to secure the human rights of all people, it continues to deny the Armenian Genocide and actively works against its recognition. These unacceptable activities render the ADL unsuitable as a partner for tolerance education, regardless of other worthy functions it may perform.
On August 22, 2008, the ADL issued a confusing letter buried deeply on its web page and signed solely by its national director, Abraham Foxman, stating, “ADL has never denied the tragic and painful events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians, and we have referred to those massacres and atrocities as genocide.” This letter provocatively accuses those who are working to end genocide genial of “demonization.”
This disingenuous statement apparently refers to the ADL’s now infamous August 21, 2007 release – the ADL’s only other public statement on the Armenian Genocide – that said, “the consequences” of the Turkish massacres and atrocities were “tantamount to genocide.” This statement is not an acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.
The 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group...” By employing the word “consequences,” the ADL – considered authorities on genocide and genocide denial – is, in fact, endorsing the Turkish claim that Armenians died simply as a consequence of World War I conditions and not as a deliberate, planned program of extermination. Moreover, the ADL does not even recognize the Armenian Genocide as an outright genocide, but simply an event “tantamount to genocide.”
Within days of its August 21, 2007, statement on the Armenian Genocide, the ADL apologized to Turkey in a letter to its government and endorsed Turkey’s call for a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian scholars to examine “the details of those dark and terrible days.”
The ADL’s own web page labels such calls as genocide denial, explaining that deniers “portray themselves as individuals and groups engaged in a legitimate, dispassionate quest for historical knowledge and ‘truth’ [who] seek to plant seeds of questioning and doubt.”
Most significantly, the ADL has for many years actively lobbied on behalf of the Turkish government to deny the Armenian Genocide and prevent passage of a Congressional resolution formally affirming the Armenian Genocide. It continues to publicly and repeatedly voice opposition to such a Congressional resolution. These actions are documented in the attached packet.
The ADL simply cannot portray itself as a universal human rights organization while it engages in genocide denial. The ADL has an existential contradiction between its two missions as a human rights organization and as an ethnic advocacy group. Whenever these two purposes conflict, the ADL prioritizes its advocacy interests – not human rights. Acknowledging this contradiction, Mr. Foxman admitted, “there are two moral issues, but one trumps the other.” Documentation is included in the attached packet.
Genocide is the most serious of hate crimes and genocide denial is the highest form of hate speech and the last stage of genocide. Indeed, the ADL’s web page states, “What is on the surface a denial of the reality of genocide is, at its core, an appeal to genocidal hatred.” Further, in its August 22, 2008 statement, the ADL proclaims, “All ADL’s anti hate programs classify genocide as the ultimate crime against humanity.”
How, then, can an organization engaged in genocide denial be allowed to instruct others on tolerance in community anti-hate programs?
Given the ADL’s failure to adhere to the most basic standards required of a human rights organization, Blue Cross Blue Shield has an obligation both to its subscribers and the larger community to end its endorsement of this national ADL program. Because Blue Cross Blue Shield’s initial endorsement of NPFH provided the momentum for many communities to adopt the program, BCBS has a special responsibility to end its corporate endorsement and financial support of this ADL endeavor.
Blue Cross Blue Shield should not be associated with genocide denial. Thus, we request that you rescind BCBS’s endorsement of the No Place for Hate program due to the ADL’s refusal to unambiguously acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, its engaging in the denialist tactic of proposing further study the Armenian Genocide, and its continued active opposition to United States formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Thank you.
Armenian Assembly of America
Armenian Church of the Holy Translators (Framingham)
Armenian Cultural and Education Center
Armenian Democratic Liberal Party
Armenian General Benevolent Union
Armenian Independent Broadcasting of Boston
Armenian Library and Museum of America
Armenian Memorial Church (Watertown)
The Armenian Mirror Spectator Weekly
Armenian National Committee
Armenian Relief Society
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Weekly
Armenian Youth Federation
First Armenian Church (Belmont)
Hairenik Weekly
Hamazkyin Cultural
Holy Cross Armenian Church (Belmont)
Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church (Worcester)
Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church of Greater Boston (Cambridge)
Homenetmen General Athletic Union
Social Democrat Hunchakian Party
St. James Armenian Apostolic Church (Watertown)
St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church (Watertown)
Tekeyan Cultural Association of USA and Canada
An open letter from the Armenian American community to Blue Cross Blue Shield
