PRO-PALESTINIAN COALITION JETTISONS APOLOGIST FOR ANTI-SEMITES

It’s a simple rule, really. You give quarter to fascists, make excuses for them and even endorse positions they might take like, say blood libel against Jews, you don’t get to stand with anti-racists. Alison Weir of If Americans Knew has had this coming for a long damned time!

One People’s Project

A coalition that was formed to fight for Palestinian rights has severed ties with a longtime and well-known activist and writer due to her repeated and controversal associations with far right and racist groups and individuals to the point that she even took positions similar to theirs.

In a statement published on July 16, The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO) said it was breaking from Alison Weir and her organization If Americans Knew (IAK), citing her appearences on white supremacist radio programs, contributions to the anti-Semitic American Free Press, and promotion of figures like former Klan leader David Duke as among many instances she has ran counter to their anti-racist position. “After a thorough review and a correspondence with Ms. Weir, the committee has concluded that Ms. Weir’s repeated statements and actions, often as the Executive Director of If Americans Knew, did indeed violate our anti-racism principles,” the statement read. “Ms. Weir’s responses led us to believe that these violations will continue in the future. Based on the report of the review committee, our Steering Committee voted in favor of removing Ms. Weir and If Americans Knew from our coalition.”

Alison Weir is a journalist who in 2001 founded IAK, an organization that focuses on the Middle East, particularly the Arab-Israeli conflict and the foreign policy of the United States in regards to the region. IAK has had a good relationship with the left, with Weir contributing articles in left leaning outlets such as Z Magazine and Conterpunch, and speaking at college campuses across the country. An article by Political Research Associates shows, however, a unbending strain of antisemitism in the organization’s efforts, as well as an effort to reach out to the more nefarious circles on the right, even endorsing them. One of the more damning missives was her contention in articles that Israel was harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians, which was immediately denounced as a modern day “blood libel”, the false accusation that Jews kidnapped and murdered the children of Christians to use their blood in rituals during Jewish holidays.

On June 8, 2007, The Council for the National Interest and The United States Navy Memorial Foundation did a joint memorial on the 40th anniversary the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 that killed 34 crew members.Ever since it has been a favorite rallying point of anti-Semetic conspiracy theorists who have been peddling the idea that it was an intentional attack. So naturally CNI’s Alison Weir and Ingrid Rimland Zündel, wife of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, would happen to be at this event!

“IAK’s criticisms of Zionism and Israel dovetail with traditional antisemitic narratives, and Weir often cites antisemitic writers and publications as her sources,” the article noted. “When asked if the work of antisemitic authors including Israel Shamir, Gilad Atzmon, and (California State University, Long Beach Professor and American Freedom Party Board of Directors member) Kevin MacDonald were truly legitimate, she replied, ‘Yes. I suggest people read their work for themselves.’”

In their statement, the USCEIO noted in particular Weir’s appearance on the radio program of White supremacist Clayton Douglas, a Holocaust denier who has expressed belief that Communism is a Jewish conspiracy and has promoted as truth the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semetic hoax that claims to detail Jewish plans to control the world which was exposed as fraudulent in 1921. The statement notes that not only did Weir, when asked about this, not confront or rebut the positions taken by Douglas, but continued to appear on his program and has even dismissed the charges that he was a racist. In addition, she has also spoken with the American Free Press, a newspaper founded by anti-Semetic activist Wills Carto about social issues as recent as April 2015. “According to her response to our inquiry, Ms. Weir is fully committed as a matter of principle to continuing to contribute to American Free Press, “Free American Hour”, and any other show regardless of its agenda,” the statement read. “That may be her principle but it is not ours.”

This was not the only organization to distance themselves from Weir. A June 15 statement from Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) said that they informed Weir in May that they will no longer work with her either, also citing her Clay Douglas appearences. “In our letter to Weir we communicated that we have chosen not to work with her because our central tenet is opposition to racism and oppression in all its forms, and she has consistently chosen to stay silent when given the opportunity to challenge bigotry, which we find repugnant,” the statement read.

The decision to break from Weir and the IAK has been met with some blowback. The Free Palestine Movement, a small organization run by activist Paul Larudee that shares its El Cerrito, California address with the Sharpe & Flatte Piano Service, broke from the USCEIO saying in a statement published Tuesday that they did not believe that the coalition showed any evidence that Weir herself was racist or anti-Semetic. “We resign because the USCEIO policy on racism is so broad that someone who is not racist can be found in violation for being insufficiently vigilant about confronting and challenging anti-Semitism whenever it is encountered,” the statement read. This is so vague that the rule can be applied arbitrarily, as has been the case with IAK and Alison Weir.”

Currently, Weir also serves as President of the Council for the National Interest , a think tank on Middle East affairs.