BellaOnline Forums Career Library Sciences Does the American Library Association Have an Anti-Israeli Bias?

Why has ALA's Social Responsibilities Round Table not issued a condemation of the murder of Dina Carter by militant Palestinians. Who was Dina Carter?

Dina was a Jewish librarian and
archivist in the National Library at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Although she spoke Hebrew fluently, as a native English speaker she had come to Mt. Scopus for a Hebrew language exam which was a prerequisite for starting a library science program. On July 31, 2002 Dina stopped at the cafeteria before the exam and was one of
nine people slaughtered when a Hamas ordered suicide bomb exploded. When will SRRT see fit to be outraged over the murder of this Jewish librarian, as they were over Palestinian libraries, when indeed...

Please email SSRT's board as well as SRRT's Coordinator Rory Lewin and ask that SRRT officially condemn's the murder of Dina Carter.

For more information go to the web page of the International Responsibilities Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (American Library Association. After you do, please contact the board members of the Social
Responsibilities Round Table to express your concern about their anti-Israel bias.

ok I didn't believe it. I thought this can't be true. Then I found this:

Librarians Against Israel
Posted 12/24/2002
By N. Leonard Tolkan
Go to the website of the American Library Association, an organization with more than sixty-six thousand members in the United
States and elsewhere. Follow the links to the ALA`s so-called `Social Responsibilities Round Table` the SRRT. Continue following the internal links from there to the SRRT`s misnamed International Responsibilities Task Force, and then go to a copious listing of `alternative` literature. You will now be able to choose from a smorgasbord of articles calling for the annihilation of Israel.

If there exists even one pro-Israel article linked from the American Library Association`s website, I could not find it, despite laboriously repeated search attempts. Not a single one.

To be sure, the overwhelming majority of the ALA`s membership does not seek the Jewish state`s obliteration. But a hardcore group of
haters, especially within the ALA-SRRT, works with obsessive determination to bring that about. And these Israel-bashers have been
pushing their agenda since the mid-1980`s.

Sometimes resisting, but more often caving in to the will of the haters, the ALA Council has passed a horrendous series of edicts
which in turn are distributed to the PLO, the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, foreign governments, and other national and
international entities in order to maximize the harm to Israel.

And those on the ALA Council who have voted for the anti-Israel resolutions have done so knowing full well that for the haters egging
them on with such fervor, the issue is really not what Israel does or does not do. It is Israel`s very existence itself that they object to.

The American Library Association has condemned no other nation with anywhere near the frequency and vitriol it has reserved for Israel.
Indeed, there would have been even more condemnations of Israel were it not for the fact that for several years now the ALA Council has
had a problem obtaining voting quorums.

But the bigots may have overcome that obstacle to their mischief. Last June they succeeded in getting the Council to establish a quorum, still to be approved by the entire ALA, which cuts in half the number of members needed to pass resolutions.

A pro-Israel librarian, whose name it is safer to keep anonymous, characterized the ALA`s latest foray into anti-Israel, pro-Arafat
advocacy as ``hogwash,`` but then added that because of the move to lower quorums, ``I am personally more pessimistic on our chances of
overturning this mess, though we need to keep our voices heard...``

Some of the condemnations of Israel are displayed on the SRRT-
International Responsibilities Task Force portion of the ALA website, including a 1992 Council resolution that was revoked the following year; a 1998 SRRT-sponsored resolution that the Council rejected; and last June`s condemnations of Israel for purportedly destroying ``Palestinian libraries, archives and other cultural institutions.

The latter alleged destruction, distinct SRRT and ALA Council resolutions assert, ``...represents a significant loss for the
Palestinian people and the world.``

Can it be that the ALA people are unaware of the vile and blatant anti-Semitism -- including Holocaust denial and calls for genocide,
ethnic cleansing and jihad against Jews -- that prevails in Palestinian ``libraries, archives and cultural institutions``?

Doctors Against Child Sacrifice (DOCS), an organization composed of about three hundred pediatricians, has cogently described the
literature directed at young people in areas ruled by Arafat`s criminals as a ``form of societal child abuse.``

Interestingly, the text of one of two anti-Israel resolutions, passed in 1992, is conspicuously absent from the ALA website. Apparently that one -- which never was rescinded -- has proved a bit too
embarrassing, even for seasoned Israel bashers.

The malicious document said, in part: ``Resolved, the American Library Association protests the deportation of Omar al-Safi...a
librarian at Bir Zeit University in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank.`` It also referred to al-Safi as ``our colleague.``

Suffice it to say that the Omar al-Safi resolution was an astonishing blunder, a faux pas about which the ALA now hopes the public at
large, particularly after the tragedy of 9-11, will remain ignorant.

But the al-Safi resolution should be neither obscured nor forgotten by the American people, because its passage exposes so much that is
wrong and vicious about the American Library Association.

First, Omar al Safi was a terrorist nom de guerre for a convicted felon, with a long and violent criminal record, who was never deported by Israel.

Second, there is nothing to indicate that he was ever a professional librarian, although he seems to have occasionally worked in the library of Bir Zeit, a university that owes its existence to Israel`s administration of the territories. The Jordanians never allowed it to be founded; after June 1967 Israel did.

Finally and most importantly, al-Safi was a member of and recruiter for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a
ruthless terror gang that still calls for the murder of all Jewish Israelis and which only recently took ``credit`` for the death of an
Israeli child.

One of the many atrocities carried out by that group of sadistic thugs that most readers will surely remember was the 1974 massacre in
Maalot of twenty-two Israeli schoolchildren plus several adults.

Thus, the American Library Association -- a major organization of professionals who, to a very large extent, work with schoolchildren,
and whose conventions are, in part, funded by U.S. taxpayer money -- passed a resolution in support of a terrorist from a group with a
long history of targeting children for murder.

It must also be pointed out that al-Safi has not been the only terrorist murderer linked to the ALA`s anti-Israel campaigns. An invited guest at a 1992 ALA convention was Khader Hamide, a member of and fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP, which is the parent group of the DFLP murderers, gained particular notoriety in the 1970`s due to its penchant for gunning down civilians in airports and hijacking commercial passenger planes around the world.

Among its many crimes against humanity, the PFLP planned the 1972 Japanese Red Army machine-gun rampage at Ben-Gurion (formerly Lod) Airport, which left sixteen Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims dead, among the other innocents who were butchered. More recently, the PFLP
assassinated Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavim Ze`evi.

In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Khader Hamide -- the PFLP killer and honored ALA guest speaker -- be deported from the United
States.

While these revelations are undoubtedly disgusting, what is especially alarming is the fact that this past June the SRRT also
tried to get the American Library Association Council to pass a resolution that urged librarians to focus on the acquisition of
politically correct -- i.e. radical, anti-Israel, anti-U.S. and anti-democracy -- materials for their collections. (Fidel Castro`s
dictatorship has been lauded by this bunch.)

And while the resolution has not been formalized as official ALA policy, evidence is emerging that far-left librarians have been
implementing it in their own unofficial fashion. Especially troubling is what appears to be an unspoken policy of de facto censorship that
hinders the public`s access to centrist, conservative and pro-American books and material.

Recently, attorney J. Edward Pawlick did democracy a great service by reporting the results of searches in 35 Massachusetts libraries for eleven important conservative books. Their paucity or absence in library collections led Pawlick to assert, ``The professional librarians appear to be the leaders of the censorship effort.`` He further stated, ``If they wish to censor, they don`t have to burn anything. They just refuse buy the book. It`s very tidy and very clean.``

Nor is the problem limited to Massachusetts. Conservative patrons of public libraries throughout the country have long complained that
books by liberal authors -- particularly new releases -- are promptly ordered and never in short supply, while books by conservatives or on
conservative themes seem to make it onto the shelves months after publication, if then.

I am not a professional investigator, but simply someone who has worked as a librarian. The worrisome information presented here is
the full extent of my knowledge of this problem, and I have no answers or solutions. But surely these revelations lead to questions that need answering:

1. What is the full extent of the relationship between elements within the American Library Association and terrorist organizations,
and exactly which terror groups are involved?

2. Considering the fact that U.S. taxpayers, to a remarkably large extent, pay for the transportation, accommodations, and compensation
time of library personnel attending the semi-annual ALA conventions, has the American Library Association been violating the law by
engaging in activities championed by those of its members animated by an anti-Israel agenda -- activities that include sending the anti-
Israel resolutions to the U.S. State Department, the U.N., and Arafat?

3. How many more biased condemnations of the only democracy in the Middle East will the ALA`s Israel bashers and group masochists sadly, there are some Adam Shapiro/Noam Chomsky types involved) manage to push through?

4. Will the American people be complacent while members of the ALA vocally campaign against tighter security measures in the war against
terrorism (the ALA was a fierce opponent of the U.S. Patriot Act that Congress passed by an overwhelming majority), while encouraging the
censorship of books, periodicals, and audio-visuals which do not conform to a leftist agenda?

5. The latest ALA Council`s implicit condemnation of Israel (more often than not, the condemnations have been explicit) calls for an
``investigative`` group to be sent to the Palestinian-controlled territories. Who will be footing the bill for that and what will be
its composition? Will the ``librarian-investigators`` endanger the lives of Israelis?

6. What are the chances that any funds the ALA transfers to Arafat`s people, purportedly for ``rebuilding Palestinian libraries and
cultural institutions`` will end up in one of Arafat`s private Swiss bank accounts? And how much of that money will be used to purchase
bullets and bombs for the murder of innocents?

The time is long past due for Americans to view both the American Library Association and their local public libraries with greater scrutiny.

N. Leonard Tolkan is the pseudonym of a veteran librarian who, for obvious reasons, chooses to remain anonymous.

Readers wishing to contact the ALA may do so by calling its toll-free number: 1-800-545-2433. (Ask for the executive offices.) The
president of the ALA is Maurice (Mitch) Freedman
(freedman@wlsmail.org.) and the president-elect is Carla D. Hayden (chayden@epfl.net).

More About Librarians Against Israel
Posted 1/15/2003
By N. Leonard Tolkan
My article about the American Library Association`s long history of unfairly singling out Israel for vicious condemnation, which appeared in the Dec. 27 issue of The Jewish Press, has resulted in my being the object of verbal attacks from some ALA leaders.

I have been called an ``ALA basher`` by Library Juice, a leftist online publication edited by ALA-SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table) coordinator Rory Litwin. That label is one I wear proudly, considering the sordid campaign the American Library Association has been waging against the Jewish state -- a campaign that has included support for Palestinian terrorists.

The ALA`s president, Maurice J. ``Mitch`` Freedman, himself a member of the anti-Israel SRRT, replied to those writing protest letters that I had confused the separate June 2002 ALA-SRRT and ALA-Council anti-Israel resolutions. Nothing could be further from the truth -- and I had even made the point that the latest Council condemnation was implicit (although more frequently the ALA-Council`s canards against the Jewish State have been explicit).

Even the aforementioned Rory Litwin, in an open letter to Freedman published in the Library Juice of Jan. 2, has this to say regarding my accuracy: ``You stated that the author of the article in The Jewish Press confused the SRRT resolution and the ALA resolution...I could find nothing in the article that I could identify as indicating an actual confusion...``

Litwin also, with surprising candor, admitted that people within the ALA-SRRT were simply motivated by ``...their opposition to Zionism.`` In other words, the problem they have is not with what Israel purportedly does or does not do. The problem they have is with the very existence of the Jewish state.

In an apparent attempt to defend that which cannot be ethically defended, the ALA president also attempted to cast doubt on the truthfulness of what I wrote by simply dismissing my points as ``a rash of allegations.``

But they are not mere allegations. They remain the truth. Indeed, one ALA official, thoroughly sickened by the organization`s long anti-Israel obsession, relayed thanks to me and described my article as ``factual.`` (For the sake of that individual`s safety and job security, his or her name will not be revealed.)

Need more proof of the ALA`s leftist proclivities? Consider the films Freedman has selected for free viewing as part of the Video Nightcap ``entertainment`` at the Midwinter American Library Association Convention. Librarians in the audience will be treated to the ``The Trials of Henry Kissinger`` and ``Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times.`` Both films attack U.S. foreign policy, blaming it for much of the world`s ills, including terrorism, and the Chomsky travesty has the expected verbal barrage against Israel.

Naturally, no films in support of the American and Israeli struggles against terrorism are planned for this conclave, which is partially paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Judging by Freedman`s announced choice of a major speaker, he appears to have even further stacked the forthcoming ALA conference against Israel. Addressing the librarians will be Amy Goodman, a writer with a markedly pro-Palestinian flair who hosts a leftist radio program on the Pacifica Network, which the media watchdog group CAMERA has described as "repeatedly provid[ing] a forum for racists, anti-Semites and virulent critics of Israel."

Other revelations are coming to light. For example, did you know that Israel is the only nation on earth to have had the dubious distinction of being included in the name of a condemning ALA subgroup? It`s true. The Committee on Israeli Censorship was indirectly underwritten by unwitting U.S. taxpayers. For a time it was coordinated by former ALA-SRRT member David L. Williams, a rabidly anti-Israel Chicago-based public librarian who managed to get his purportedly objective bibliography, ``The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict,`` published by and housed in the Chicago Public Library`s Social Sciences and History Division.

In a 1993 Jewish Press article, Andrea Levin, director of the aforementioned CAMERA, described the Williams compilation as follows: ``An appallingly one-sided inventory of pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian books and periodicals, the bibliography mocks the responsibility of librarians to offer wide-ranging and complete information.``

Moreover, the ALA gave Williams plenty of space to rant against the Jewish state in the Fall 1990, Winter 1991, Spring 1991, and Summer 1991 issues of International Leads, one of its official publications. To add to the diatribes against Israel, the Israel-bashing venom of yet another librarian, Zoia Horn, were published in a prominently headlined and indexed article written for the January 1992 issue of American Libraries, the main ALA journal.

And I have just confirmed that several Jewish attendees at the June 2002 ALA Convention, held in Atlanta, were forcibly ejected by security guards under the pretext that they were ``outsiders`` -- despite the fact that past ALA conventions had welcomed interested non-members as guests, including, as I reported in my first article, a PFLP terrorist.

The actual ``crime`` of the expelled Jewish observers was that they were peacefully distributing literature with the objective of heading off yet another ALA Council condemnation of the Jewish State.

A plethora of anti-Israel propaganda is considered fine for ALA publications and for distribution at American Library Association conventions. Pro-Israel material, on the other hand, is apparently verboten.

As if all this were not troubling enough, there is every indication that the ALA has even more anti-Israel mischief in mind.

On June 25, just days after both the ALA-SRRT and ALA Council passed their most recent vitriolic, anti-Israel resolutions, SRRT member Al Kagan, a longtime supporter of the ALA`s anti-Israel campaigns, wrote about the Council`s condemnation in Library Juice. Concerned that the condemnation was ``weak,`` he asserted that ``...we may need to come back with a further resolution for the next meeting.``

Kagan, a professor of library administration at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois, has been active in the movement to get that institution to divest from investing funds in the Israel, as well as with firms that do business with the Jewish state. He has also promoted the anti-Israel propaganda campaign of University of Illinois graduate Ahmed Bensouda, who had been studying there on a student visa. Last spring, Federal authorities arrested Bensouda as a possible threat to the security of the United States. Bensouda was released on bail several weeks later, pending further government investigation.

Like a spreading virus, SRRTs are being organized in local library groups. Library associations in Oregon, New York, and the State of Washington now have them, for example. Anyone concerned about the survival of Israel has real cause for concern.

Finally, it may be helpful to review some of what I have recently written, plus several new revelations:

* Did both the SRRT and the ALA Council pass resolutions in support of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) terrorist-murderer Omar al-Safi in 1992 and refer to him as ``our colleague``? The answer is yes.

* Did both the SRRT and the ALA Council condemn Israel in 1992 for the ``deportation of Omar al-Safi,`` despite the fact that he was never deported? The answer is yes.

* Were the above resolutions ever rescinded? The answer is no.

* Does the DFLP target children for murder? The answer is yes. The DFLP committed the infamous Ma`alot massacre of Israeli schoolchildren and just recently took ``credit`` for the murder of a Jewish child.

* Was Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist Khader Hamide an invited guest speaker at an ALA Israel-bashing session in 1992? (The PFLP has a long history of hijacking commercial jetliners and committing massacres in airports, among its many other atrocities.) The answer is yes.

* Was the above-named Khader Hamide ordered deported by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 because of his terrorist activities? The answer is yes.

* Did the ALA Council pass anti-Israel resolutions in 1984, 1992, and 2002? The answer is yes.

* Did the SRRT also try to get the ALA Council to pass a condemnation of Israel in 1998? The answer is yes.

* Has any nation other than Israel been condemned and vilified by the ALA Council? The answer is no.

* Is the ALA a tax-exempt organization whose conventions are, in part, underwritten by taxpayer money? The answer is yes.

* Has the ALA Council voted in favor of a new policy which will cut in half the quorum needed to pass resolutions, thereby making it easier for it to churn out new anti-Israel resolutions in the future? The answer is yes.

* Have those within the ALA who`ve been pushing condemnation of Israel for so many years also been sending the anti-Israel resolutions to the PLO, the UN, the U.S. State Department, foreign governments, and other national and international entities, expressly to maximize the damage to the Jewish state? The answer is yes.

* Does the ALA website link to a multitude of articles calling for the obliteration of the Jewish state? The answer is yes.

* Could I find any pro-Israel literature linked to the ALA website? Despite my long and repeated search attempts, none could be found.

* In June of 2002, was an effort made by members of the SRRT to get the ALA Council to establish a policy of getting librarians to give priority to the acquisition of materials that emphasize the causes of terrorism (i.e. a policy that would blame the victims of terrorists)? The answer is yes.

* In June of 2002, did the ALA Council vote to send an ``investigative`` group to the territories, and might that group endanger innocent Israeli lives? The answer is yes.

* Has the ALA totally ignored the pervasive presence of materials that promote Holocaust denial, blood libels, glorification of Hitler -- and which advocate murder, ethnic cleansing, jihad, and genocide against Jews (and sometimes Christians) -- in the libraries and ``cultural`` centers controlled by Arafat`s thugs? The answer is yes.

* Has Doctors Opposed to Child Sacrifice (DOCS), an organization of hundreds of pediatricians, condemned the literature that prevails in areas ruled by Arafat`s dictatorship as a form of ``societal child abuse``? The answer is yes.

* Has Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate (M.A.T.C.K.H.) also condemned those same materials? The answer is yes.

* Do both the June 2002 ALA Council and ALA-SRRT anti-Israel resolutions say that the ALA considers the same hate-inspiring material condemned by DOCS and M.A.T.C.K.H. to be ``...of great value to the world``? The answer is yes.

* Does the tax-exempt and partially tax-supported American Library Association actively participate in international politics? The answer is yes.

* Have the Anti-Defamation League, the Israel Association of Libraries and Information Centers (ASMI), the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), and Americans for a Safe Israel all condemned the American Library Association`s anti-Israel activities? The answer is yes.

* Will personal attacks against N. Leonard Tolkan deter him from further exposing the ALA`s anti-Israel bias? Will those attacks succeed in getting impartial people to ignore the above facts? The answer to both questions is no.

N. Leonard Tolkan is the pseudonym of a veteran librarian who, for obvious reasons, chooses to remain anonymous.

Readers wishing to contact the ALA may do so by calling its toll-free number: 1-800-545-2433 (ask for the executive offices.) The president of the ALA is Maurice (Mitch) Freedman (freedman@wlsmail.org.); the president-elect is Carla D. Hayden (chayden@epfl.net).

The following is a letter by Pearl Berger, Benjamin Gottesman Librarian and Dean of Libraries at Yeshiva University,which was mailed and e-mailed to the ALA President, the ALA Executive Director, and the journal American Libraries. It appeared in the �Reader Forum� section of the American Libraries September 2002 issue, under the heading, �Rescind the Palestinian Resolution.� The letter was also posted on Hasafran, the Association of Jewish Libraries listserv, with the introductory statement �I share the text with you in the hope that it will encourage others to follow suit and send letters of your own. You may feel free to use and/or adapt the text should you see fit to do so..."

July 22, 2002
I write this letter as a veteran member of ALA, having joined twenty six years ago and maintained membership ever since, and as the recently elected President of the Association of Jewish Libraries, an organization of more than one thousand librarians in the US and abroad. I was appalled to learn of the Resolution on the Destruction of Palestinian Libraries, Archives and Other Cultural Institutions passed by the ALA Council at its Annual Meeting in Atlanta this June. A review of the Statement in Support of the Resolution, reached through ALA's web-site, confirms my conclusion that a political agenda has been permitted to overshadow concerns of true professional leadership in the Association I have long regarded as representing my profession. My continued membership, and that of many of my colleagues, is at risk.

* A resolution that "deplores" the destruction of libraries, without taking into account the context, is deplorable in itself.
* A resolution that speaks of libraries, without mention of the fact that if indeed these were destroyed, the destruction was in response to terrorist acts of murder against innocent victims, is shameful.
* A resolution that speaks of libraries without acknowledgement of the fact that many buildings housing these "libraries" harbored perpetrators of terrorist acts is inexcusable.
* A resolution that speaks of libraries without admitting that documents and records they housed bear witness to carefully planned, organized, and financed acts of terror defies even the most minimal standards of truth and honesty.

ALA, as a professional library organization, should support libraries in all parts of the world. ALA, as a professional library organization, has an obligation to act fairly and equitably, to represent ALL of its members and to resist partisan entanglements. I urge the ALA Council to rescind its resolution on Palestinian libraries.

From the Jewish Voice: "...American librarians who support Israel will have their work cut out for them this month. On January 23, the American Library Association (ALA) will meet in Philadelphia for its regular MidWinter conference. Given the organization's history, many supporters of Israel among the group's 65,000 ibrarians are expecting the worst. Last June, the group, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, passed a resolution deploring the destruction of "Palestinian libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions." An earlier resolution, which was defeated, actually blamed the alleged destruction on Israel, calling on the Jewish State "to refrain from further actions of this type..."

The adopted resolution which is entitled "Resolution on the Destruction of Palestinian Libraries, Archives, and Other Cultural Institutions," calls on the US "as well as other governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to prevent further destruction of libraries and cultural resources and to provide material assistance for the reconstruction and restoration of these resources; and that the ALA takes leadership in recommending that International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) study the needs of Palestinian libraries and cultural institutions, and establish a mechanism for providing assistance to Palestinian libraries and cultural institutions."
Objects of "Importance"

The preamble to the resolution maintains that "in course of recent events in the Middle East," Palestinian computers, photocopiers, books, audio and video recordings, data, institutional archives and records, and "objects of historical, cultural, and artistic importance" were destroyed. Further, the ALA said, these "cultural resources" represented "a significant loss for the Palestinian people and the world."

The "International Relations Committee of the ALA" was charged with implementing the resolution and sharing it with the president of the IFLA, the director of the IFLA Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Activity, the Secretary General of the UN, the director general of UNESCO, the US Secretary of State, the Israeli Ambassador to the US, and the Representative of the Palestinian National Authority to the US.

Although the resolution claimed that IFLA had met in Jerusalem in 2000 and established "a working relationship of cooperation" with Palestinian librarians, according to the Israel Association of Libraries and Information Centers (ASMI), the Palestinian librarians ignored the invitation to attend and boycotted the international event.

An Anti-Israel Resolution

Asked about the charges that Israel had in some way destroyed Palestinian libraries or cultural institutions, Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said, "We don't target libraries; we don' t burn books. This would seem, on face value, to be an anti-Israel resolution."

Yahel Vilan, consul for public affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York, noted that any areas which terrorists or snipers tried to use as safe havens might be liable to be caught in the cross fire.

"The Israeli Defense Forces do not indiscriminately destroy Palestinian cultural or academic institutions," he said.

Relying on the Press

University of Pittsburgh librarian Thomas Twiss, who presented the original resolution which blamed Israel directly, said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his documentation amounted to a statement from Palestinian Culture Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and articles from newspapers. These sources, he said, "documented the destruction at the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Culture in Ramallah."

In Philadelphia this month, some librarians hope to initiate a resolution condemning the murder of yeshiva boys who were killed recently by Palestinian terrorists in the Nevei Dekalim Yeshiva library.

"If they were concerned about 'destruction of Palestinian libraries,' let's see if they are also concerned about murder in a library," said Dr. Ellen Zyroff, a California librarian who serves as chair of ALA's Jewish Information Committee.

Violating Every Tenet

Dr. Zyroff noted that her comments represented her own views and not necessarily those of each member of her committee, which is part of ALA's Ethnic Materials Information Exchange Round Table.

She pointed out that the Palestinian Authority "violates every tenet of the intellectual freedom values of IFLA and the international library community, particularly ALA's Freedom to read statement."

"The PA has a stranglehold on textbooks, magazines, TV, and radio, and the only speech allowed is hate speech against the West and Jews," said Dr. Zyroff. "ALA's double-standard is shameful. Gross violations of access to ideas by totalitarian regimes, like the PA, are not a topic at ALA, but formal resolutions falsely accusing Israel of just such violations have become ALA's stock in trade."

Rescinded

She is also hoping to have the entire pro-Palestinian resolution rescinded, noting that the source for almost all information in Mr. Twiss' documentation is the United Nations, which Dr. Zyroff characterized as "long known for its false and wildly exaggerated reports of Israel's 'crimes.'"

"Just as their widely disseminated report about the massacre of Jenin proved false, so, too, this accusation is likely a confabulation being creatively called 'the destruction of libraries,'" she said.

She pointed out that it is the Palestinians who have censored their newspapers, jailing journalists with whom the leadership has disagreed, and destroyed archaeological sites, including the Byzantine mosaic synagogue floor in Gaza, Joseph's Tomb in Shechem, and the foundations of the Temple Mount.

Small Group

The group which considers and votes for such resolutions for the ALA consists of some 180 librarians, called the ALA Council, which convenes twice a year to conduct the business of the entire organization.

According to Dr. Zyroff, the Council as well as some key ALA committees are strongly influenced by the group's Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT). Dr. Zyroff said this activist group of ALA librarians "share a common political view of the world-socialist, Marxist, anti-Israel, and pro-Palestinian." Many of the librarians who serve on SRRT are also on the group's International Relations Committee.

Other ALA groups which seem to share members are the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Public Awareness Committee.

On its Web site, SRRT solicits librarians who believe promoting "alternative press; the environment; feminism; gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights; poverty; and international responsibilities" are "vital issues for today's libraries."

According to Dr. Zyroff, SRRT's concerns make the group's disregard of PA failings even more reprehensible. "The silence of SRRT on the PA's terrible violations of human rights, gay rights, women's rights, and children's rights is deafening," she said.

Noam Chomsky

Dr. Zyroff noted that, as part of the ALA Conference in Philadelphia, the organization's president, Dr. Maurice Freedman, director of the Westchester, NY, Library System, will personally host a screening of a new film about Noam Chomsky, which reviewers have said is one-sided in its flattery of the ultra-left-wing anti-Israel MIT linguistics professor.

"Whenever they are questioned, they fall back on freedom of speech. Aren't they entitled to hate US policies and want to weaken and destroy Israel? they ask," said Dr. Zyroff.

She admitted that most ALA members-librarians, library trustees, publishers, and friends of libraries across the nation-do not realize that a small cadre of librarians with a socialist activist agenda have, for a number of years, been gaining key leadership positions in the ALA.

"As these people get appointed, elected, and reelected, and then promote one another's candidacies and appointments, you realize that they have brought their personal political agendas onto center stage of the ALA, agendas which are wasting the time of the organization and weakening it, waylaying it from the key challenges which need to be addressed in assuring quality library service in America. They are abusing the good offices of a prestigious organization, knowing that librarians are respected in most circles and perceived as individuals who should be discerning about information," she said.

No Position

Defending the ALA's resolution, Dr. Freedman denied that the organization has taken sides in the Israeli-Arab conflict, but, rather, merely condemns the destruction of libraries, regardless of how they were destroyed, "some occasioned by military actions, others as a result of natural disasters."

"ALA has no position on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. ALA is concerned with the destruction of libraries-in this case, Palestinian libraries," he said.

According to Dr. Zyroff, resolutions can be brought to Council and membership meetings with as little as six hours lead time, leaving no one but the authors of the resolutions to know for certain whether there is any veracity to the claims being made.

ADL

In Atlanta, after Mr. Twiss, a member of SRRT, submitted the original resolution which deplored the destruction of "Palestinian cultural resources" by "Israeli forces" and called upon the "Israeli government to refrain from further actions of this type," Dr. Zyroff contacted the local ADL. The organization's Southwest Region Director, Deborah Lauter, stood outside the membership meeting with a prepared statement which called the ALA resolution "pure propaganda, presented without verifiable facts or context."

"Its one-sided criticism of Israel's recent military action ignores that Israel's operations have been a direct response to the murderous attacks on its citizens and are aimed at rooting out the terrorist infrastructure and activity," said Ms. Lauter.

She noted that, as an organization seeking to promote knowledge and access to facts, the ALA "should not allow a few individuals to hijack its conference with a narrow and biased political agenda."

"While mere criticism of Israel is not bigotry, one has to wonder why the ALA would consider singling out Israel for condemnation when no other international controversy is being addressed at this meeting, such as China' s destruction of Tibetan culture," she said.

Watering Down

Her statement, coupled with other members' criticism, may have led to the watering down of Mr. Twiss' original resolution. In her statement, Ms. Lauter urged the ALA, if it felt compelled to be involved in Middle East affairs, to focus on "the real problem": the widespread use of antisemitic textbooks that indoctrinate and incite Arab youth to hate and murder Jews and which urge the destruction of the State of Israel.

Mr. Twiss dismissed her concerns, saying that "bias" cannot be compared to "massive destruction of cultural resources." Ms. Lauter called his statement "ridiculous."

Not Aware of Problem

Dr. Zyroff said she and most others who were at the membership meeting spoke up against the "fabrications in the resolution, aggressive bias, and willingness to make judgments on events and details about which it knew nothing," while those who had brought the measure "spent much time trying to get a straw vote since so few people attended that there was not a quorum."

As soon as the membership meeting started, those who brought the resolution demanded that Ms. Lauter leave. But the vote on the resolution did not take place at the full membership meeting. Mr. Twiss' group presented it two days later to the ALA Council, when most of the other librarians had already left the conference.

"Few members of the Council who voted for the resolution had been present at the membership meeting to hear any of us who had spoken against it," said Dr. Zyroff, noting that the Council passed the resolution by a large majority. "They went through four wordings and votes, obviously believing that some form of that document had to be passed."

Leadership Support

Among those voting in favor of the resolution were Dr. Freedman and one of the two candidates currently running for his position, Carol A. Brey, director of the El Paso Public Library. The other candidate, Herman Totten, was not present at the meeting.

Asked about the ADL's criticism, Ann Sparanesi, a librarian at the Englewood Public Library and a member of the SRRT, said the ALA had adopted resolutions against the destruction of libraries elsewhere in the world, such as Bosnia and Yerevan.

Ms. Sparanesi, who voted for the resolution, suggested the ALA might have been more interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than in other areas of the world because of the Middle East's prominence in the news. However, she said, she did not know too much about the region herself, and, like the majority on the Council, simply followed Mr. Twiss' lead.

Asked if she could see a difference between a Palestinian archive which might have been destroyed because it was in the crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists, and an Israeli yeshiva library which was destroyed because the young men studying there were targeted, she said, "Yes, there is a difference between being caught in the crossfire and caught in the crosshairs."

Coming Back?

According to Dr. Zyroff, many long-term SRRT activists, who refer to themselves as "progressives," are affiliated with universities rather than local public libraries. They include Al Kagan, head of the Africana Unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana, who voiced upset that Mr. Twiss' original resolution was watered down. He told the June issue of the professional journal, Library Juice, that the resolution was "weak." "We may need to come back with a further resolution for the next meeting," he told the journal.

Asked what he meant, Mr. Kagan hedged, saying only that the ALA "traditionally takes positions on cases in which libraries are endangered." He said he was not currently planning to submit another resolution on the issue.

He said that while he would look at the information concerning the yeshiva boys who were murdered by Palestinians in their school's library, it is "usually harder to get condemnation when people are hurt than it is when the libraries themselves are destroyed."

"Grieving"

Trying to show that neither the ALA nor SRRT is anti-Israel, he pointed to a statement concerning the death of librarian Dina Carter, who was among those murdered in the Hebrew University bombing last summer. The statement, written by Rory Litwin, SRRT coordinator and a librarian with the California Research Bureau in Sacramento, expressed the organization's "grief" at the death of their fellow library worker, but rather than a word of condemnation, it said only that "the vicious circle of deadly violence must be broken."

Extending condolences to Ms. Carter's friends, family, and colleagues at the Manuscripts and Archives division of the Jewish National Library, Mr. Litwin concluded by saying, "We affirm our commitment to a just and binding peace which alone can provide security and all other human rights for Israelis and Palestinians alike."

Mr. Kagan did not comment when it was pointed out that while SRRT had condemned the alleged destruction of a Palestinian Ministry of Culture, it merely "grieved" at the murder of a librarian. Other academics who serve on SRRT are Mark Rosenzweig, chief librarian at the New York Reference Center for Marxist Studies; Peter McDonald, of the Syracuse University Bird Library; and Maurine Pastine, of Temple University.

Maine Opposed to Bias

Not only Jewish librarians were aghast at the ALA's action. According to ALA member Melora Ranney Norman of Maine, an informal poll of Maine librarians revealed that only six were in favor of the anti-Israel resolution while 22 were opposed. "I don't believe the ALA should be involving itself-and by association us-in this type of issue. Librarians, as a profession, should be perceived as neutral," said Lisa Auriemma, director of the Lincoln Memorial Library in Lincoln, Maine.

She said she wanted the ALA to take a stand on issues that directly touch a library's mission, but, she said, "we would be failing the people we serve if our profession were perceived as taking sides."

"There is also the fact that librarians are just as divided on this issue as the rest of the country and the world, and the ALA should not presume to speak for us all on such a sensitive issue. It could alienate a number of dedicated librarians," she said.

Censorship

It is not the first time ALA has passed a one-sided anti-Israel resolution. In 1992, the group passed a resolution "condemning Israel for censorship and human rights violations." When the resolution was rescinded a year later, some said it was due to a procedural error. Ms. Sparanesi said the recall was politically motivated.

Dr. Zyroff, who was at the session when Israel was condemned for censorship, called the episode "outrageous." "No other country was even mentioned as practicing censorship or human rights violations-not Iran, not Iraq, not Syria," she said.

Likening that case to the resolution passed in Atlanta last June, Dr. Zyroff said, "The modus operandi of Israel's accusers in academe and elsewhere is to assert that Israel has violated any and all values most dear to that academic interest group. In the case of librarians, censorship and the destruction of libraries will do just fine, thank you."

Zionist-Nazi Collusion

In 1994, the ALA's "task force on Israeli censorship and Palestinian liberation" was abolished and the committee's chair, David Williams, was forbidden to hold any office in SRRT for three years. At the time, a task force member said Mr. Williams "has disregard and insensitivity to his collaborators regarding the issues of Jewish ethnic identity." Mr. Williams had organized a lecture by Jeffrey Blankfort to discuss "Zionist-Nazi Collusion Theory and the Role of the Judenrat Collaborators in Nazi Germany."

But just a few months later, at another ALA session called "The West Bank and Gaza Since the Oslo Accords and the Needs of Palestinian Libraries," ALA member Cheryl Rubenberg gave a lecture criticizing the peace accords as "biased towards Israel." An ADL official at the time described her lecture as "an antisemitic approach to a difficult situation" and said her talk "contained very few facts, bore no supporting data, and had many inaccuracies."

"Unfortunate"

Recognizing the "strong feelings and passions" generated by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Dr. Freedman said it was "unfortunate" that the ALA Council's "concern with the destruction of Palestinian libraries and cultural institutions is viewed as an endorsement of terrorism and the killing of Israeli civilians, and, overall, as ALA's condemnation of the nation of Israel."

"ALA makes no such endorsement or condemnation," he said. "Any perception to the contrary is in the eye of the beholder, not in the ALA resolution."

According to Dr. Zyroff, by neglecting the Palestinian destruction of Israeli cultural sites and the gross antisemitism and incitement in Palestinian textbooks and in the PA media, to say nothing of terror and murder, the ALA is showing its bias.

"The Palestinian Arabs are guilty of every manner of censorship, terror, murder, distortion of the historical record, destruction of archaeological sites, but members of the SRRT and other library leaders don' t say a peep about that or the library-related, book-related, cultural-related sins of any Arab country. Why no help for Israeli libraries? Why no mention of the mass censorship in Palestinian libraries and the revision of history and hate mongering required by Palestinian leadership in all matter of printed material and media?" she said. She noted that Arab dissenters living under PA jurisdiction could expect summary execution without trials.

One of the most telling statements is this one: Litwin also, with surprising candor, admitted that people within the ALA-SRRT were simply motivated by ``...their opposition to Zionism.``

Personal politics and bias have become policy within this group of the ALA.

What? Why? Who? I don't understand why any one could possibly have an anti Israli bias! Its not like they excectute 12 year old "terroists" or destroy civilian towerblocks at 3am in the morning when there full of people! Having an anti Israeli bias is as stupid as thinking that America wants Iraq for its oil and to get GWB more votes!

You don't give facts, only opinon and ad hominum attacks. Back up your statements. We can all point to school a bus bombings directed at Israeli children and students.

what does ad hominum mean? Also theres not much to back up, the Israelies have an apauling human rights history and are in breach of both UN treatys as well as the Geneva convention. Im not saying the Palistinians are right just that the Israelis arnt terriorists but a country and should therefore act like one!!!!!!!