Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
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A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XLV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April 17, 1970
Look Who’s Pressing for Education
Student Activists Push
N. Y. for more money
NEW YORK, (JTA) — Forty- ered outside Federation head-
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No. 16
one student activists were ar
rested this week at the execu
tive office of the Federation of
Jewish Philanthropies after re
fusing to give up their protest
against alleged Federation In
sensitivity to Jewish educational
and cultural needs. The sit-in
and sing-in began at 8 a.m. with
100 members of the ad hoc Com
munity for a Jewish Federation
taking over the switchboard and
blocking entrances. By 2 p.m.
around half of them had left.
There was no violence and sec
retaries continued their work,
but Federation executives were
pre-occupied with the demon
stration. The protest group com
prised members of such organi
zations as Habonim, Havurah,
Jewish Liberation Project, Jew
ish Peace Fellowship and Stu
dents Struggle for Soviet Jewry,
as well as rabbinical students.
The ultra-militant Jewish De
fense League was not involved.
The protestors called on Fed
eration to guarantee quality of
Jewish education in the city, fi
nance a foundation to aid youth
projects, underwrite Jewish cul
tural endeavors, ahd contribute
$10,000 to the April 26 Exodus
March for Soviet Jewry. A
leader of the group said the lat
ter figure was determined on the
basis of the Exodus planners’
$11,000 deficit. The group
charged that “the select circle
who run the Federation and
formulate its policies have re
mained stubborn in their de
termination to deny a major
commitment of Jewish commun
ity funds” for the recommen
ded projects. The FJP, which
has exchanged letters with the
group over their demands, sug
gested a meeting with president
George H. Heyman Jr., execu
tive vice president Sanford Sol-
ender and other “key” board
members to consider the de
mands if the sit-inners dispersed.
But the protest group insisted
that the executives stated that
only the 400-member board
could take formal action. As
the impasse continued, the exe
cutives called the police, resist
arrest. The demonstrators were
taken to police headquarters and
charged with criminal trespass.
If convicted it would mean up
to three months in prison and up
to $500 fine. They were released
on their own recognizance, for
return April 16.
The protestors’ major point
centered on Federation’s alleged
short-changing of Jewish educa
tional needs They quoted audit
figures indicating Federation
allocated $840,000 for religious
education in 1967-68—with only
4.7 percent going to New York
member agencies as against 14.1
percent to agencies in other com
munities. Federation spokes
men told the JTA that more re
cent figures showed 1.6 million
for education purposes, and that
while the id-city percentage of
distribution was lower, because
of the number of agencies in
volved, the slice of the pie was
actually much higher than in
cities and towns outside New
York. It was learned that the
protestors had not decided in ad-
ance how to react to threats of
police action, not expecting that
such a situation would occur.
Thus they spent several hours
heatedly debating among them
selves as to strategy. There were
shots of “The Federation is guil
ty of anti-Semitism” and “Let
them arrest us studying Ram-
b&m," A large crowd was gath-
quarters in the city’s midtown
shopping area as the 41 arres
tees were led from the building,
singing “Am Yisroel Hai” (Israel
lives) making the V-for-peace
sign.
Seven rabbis, writer Elie Wie-
sel, professors and other com
munity leaders issued a state
ment of support for the “fully
peaceful and non-violent” stu
dent protest. They called on the
Federation to withdraw crimi
nal trespass charges against the
41 arrested activists and meet
with them in “good faith” on
their “just” demands for more
Turn to page 4
At Premier’s Home
Police Disport
Protesting Hebron Policy
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Hundreds
of Israeli youths clashed with
police and soldiers Saturday in
their second demonstration in
four days against allegedly ex
pansionist, inflammatory and anti-
peace policies of the Israel Gov-
ernement. Eight students were ar
rested and four of them, including
a girl, were treated for minor in
juries after a small group of de
monstrators scaled the wall sur
rounding Premier Golda Meir’s
home. The rest battled steel-hel-
meted police outside the wall.
The police, carrying metal
shields, dispersed the youngsters
Stokely Carmichael Sides
With Arabs - Of Course
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
Stokely Carmichael, the black
militant leader, declared here
that the Palestinian Arabs were
engaged in a “just struggle”
against an Israeli “settler col
ony” that by definition ‘“must
commit genocide” but will be
“destroyed.”
Mr. Carmichael, who recently
returned from 14 months con
sulting with African leaders,
was making his first public
speech on his return at George
Washington University, where
he was met with
from the largely white, largely
Jewish student audience.
“It’s beginning to look like a
bar mitzva,” he commented. Mr.
Carmichael, warning his listen
ers not to confuse anti-Israelism
with anti-Semitism, described a
“settler colony” as one “where
Europeans leave their land, go
to an area and completely take
it over.”
He identified other such “set
tler colonies” as the United
States, Canada and South Africa.
But, , he said, the Palestinian
Arabs had “history, justice and
truth” on their side, “and you
can never beat that combina
tion.” He added:: “Who is Bal
four to give the land of Pales
tine to a bunch of Zionists?” As
to Jewish claims to the
said, “The Jews wroti
that’s why it belongs
“Why not,” he asked, “take the
land (for a Jewish state) from
Germany?” Mr. Carmichael des
cribed E. Fatah as “a logical and
scientific reaction to the Israeli
bombing.”
with clubs and high pressure
water hoses. Some reports said
mounted troopers took part in the
melee. Last Wednesday, five per
sons were hurt—three requiring
hospitalization—as police broke
up what was described, as a
peaceful sitdown demonstration
on a main intersection outside of
protested the government’s re
jection of a plan for Dr. Nahum
Goldmann, president of the World
Jewish Congress, to go to Cairo
to meet with President Gamal
■Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Demon-
setrators also denounced a plan,
recently approved by the Cabinet,
to settle some 250 Jews in the
all Arab town of Hebron on the
occupied West Bank. The demon
strations began with a march of
about 150 on Hebron which was
blocked by Israeli troops as cars
and trucks filled with students
entered the occupied zone near
Premier Meir’s office.
The demonstrators on both days
F.ethlehem. The youngsters car
ried signs demanding, “Let The
Hebron Settlers Go to the Negev”;
“Let Goldman go to Cairo”; “Send
Golda to the Old-Aged Home.”
A brief clash ensued when sol
diers attempted to grab the signs.
The youngsters were confronted
at the roadblock by the Military
Governor, known as “General
Ghandi,” who told- them “Some
times I doubt your Jewishness.”
students, joined by some faculty
members and by other youngsters
from Tel Aviv and various kib
butzim. According to one report,
the demonstrators were applaud
ed by Arabs in a passing bus as
they confronted the soldiers out
side of Bethlehem. Arab Chris
tian nuns brought them water.
Unable to proceed to Hebron, the
youngsters returned to Jerusalem
where they massed outside of Mrs.
Meir’s home in the fashionable
Rehavia sectiton. The 72-year-old
Prime Minister was eating lunch
at the time. Aides said she took
no notice of the turmoil outside.
One observer remarked that Pres
ident Nixon watches football
games on television and Premier
Meir eats lunch when peace de
monstrators appear outside their
residences.
Charges of police brutality
were made by a few demonstra
tors. One Hebrew University
mathematics professor said bruises
on his face were caused by police
using a dub with a nail protrud
ing. EH strict police commander
David Ofer denied this. He said
only truncheons and water can
non were used. The water was
dyed blue, apparently to enable
police to pick demonstrators but
of the crowd for
arrests were made apart
eight youngsters who
Meir’s
were mainly members of Com
munist and leftist factions. The
youths described themselves as
Israel’s “New Left.” Most in the
clashes were Hebrew University
lam Hazeh and
tions. Their sit-down
call to action by Dahn Ben-Omotz,
a popular entertainer and author.
Prof. YeshosfauB Ariel!, of the
Hebrew University told them,
“This government must go. As
long as it exists there can be no
Police Disperse more
effective initiative for peace.” He
referred to the aborted Goldmann
mission to Cairo.
While the core of the demon-
trators appeared to be mainly
from leftist splinter groups, the
Goldmann affair, according to
observers, exposed widespread
discontent and frustration in Is
rael over the lack of progress
toward peace. The observers said
that Israelis are far from des
perate over the continuing war
of attrition and its mounting
casualties or the economic dis
locations as yet barely felt, but
are weary of the apparently un
breakable deadlock and the fu
tility so far of the government’s
approach toward peace with the
Arabs. The Cabinet’s veto of the
Goldmann-Nasser meeting,
though overwhelmingly en
dorsed by the Knesset last week,
aroused a storm of criticism
here over the way the govern
ment, especially Mrs. Meir,
handled the affair.
Israel’s mass circulation news
paper Maariv reported that a
senior Israeli representative met
with a senior Arab representa
tive to discuss the possibility of
advancing peace prospects and
restoring the cease-fire agree
ment. The report was signed by
Moshe Zak, one of the editors
of Maariv who is regarded as
one of Israel’s best informed
journalists. Zak said the meeting
was kept top secret because the
government believes that a strict
ban on publicity is necessary to
maintain contacts between Arabs
and Israeli personalities. He said
Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s
Knesset speech last week con-
Tura to page 8