Media Announcement — For Immediate Relase
August 14, 2006
Statement from the JCRC:
San Francisco — This past weekend a coalition made up of International ANSWER, the National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society held an anti-Israel rally and march in San Francisco. At this rally support for Hezbollah and Hamas—two terrorist organizations—was shouted not only from the podium but also from the crowd. There were overtly anti-Semitic signs including one that read “Nazi Kikes out of Lebanon!” another stating “Kill Jews!” and other signs demeaning Judaism and Jews. The rally organizers tolerated an anti-Jewish chant, shouted in Arabic, by a large group of young people for over 20 minutes.
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) condemns these expressions of intolerance and calls upon the organizers of this rally to condemn this contemptible hate speech, also.
At the same time, we distance ourselves from the few individuals who brought hateful signs to the pro-Israel counter-protest that we helped promote. Such signs are disgraceful and do not reflect the views of JCRC. At this rally, most people were there not only to support Israel, but also to call for an end to the violence begun by Hezbollah.
Both JCRC and SF Voice for Israel make every effort to discourage improper speech at all rallies we plan or endorse. When we can’t prevent hate-speech, we won’t hesitate to condemn it.
We condemn hateful and bigoted messages regardless of the source, and call upon all people to refrain from hate speech while expressing their opinions on the current situation in the Middle East.
The Jewish Community Relations Council is the central public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, representing more than 80 synagogues and Jewish organizations in the Bay Area on pubic affairs issues.
JCRC is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.