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The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry • Our 57th Year
Vol. I.VIII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April 23, 1982
No. 17
‘Operation Red Dove’takes a holiday
j
by Hugh Orgel
TE1. AVIV (JTA) “Operation
Red Dove,” the forced evacuation
of militant squatters and die-hard
settlers from Yamit, was
temporarily suspended Tuesday
because of Yom HaShoah, a day of
remembrance for the Holocaust
victims. But the army was kept
busy tracking down and ousting
Israeli and foreign reporters
determined to cover the events in
northern Sinai despite a military
order severely limiting media access
to the region.
The Supreme Court Tuesday
rejected an appeal by the Foreign
Press Association to overrule army
and government measures which
prevent reporters from exercising
their right to keep the public
informed. The court accepted the
government’s contention that a
pool arrangement limiting
coverage to 16 selected journalists
was sufficient for media needs.
The government argued that the
presence of hundreds of reporters
and television cameramen
representing hundreds of
newspapers, radio and television
stations all over the world would
only encourage the militants and
make the army’s evacuation task
doubly difficult.
Even though the government
backed away from its initial total
ban on press coverage in the Yamit
area, journalists saw the pool
arrangement as an attempt to
muzzle the media and would have
none of it. Members of the Israel
Editors Committee and the Israel
Journalists Association went to
Yamit in defiance of army orders.
Busloads of editors and reporters
attempted to break through the
army roadblocks around Yamit
but were turned back by troops.
But some journalists, adopting
the tactics of the “Halt the
Withdrawal” movement, managed
to infiltrate the town. Twelve
Foreign Press Association
journalists representing media
outlets in nine countries are
reported to have barricaded
themselves in an abandoned house
in Yamit. Others were said to have
intention is to remove the squatters
forcibly and demolish the
structures immediately thereafter,
burying the debris in the ditches.
MK Geula Cohen of the ultra
nationalist Tehiya faction, who is
Late news!
Almost simultaneously with Israel's announcement
Wednesday, that the Sinai withdrawal would proceed as scheduled,
Israeli jets, in response to what officials say are 32 PEO violations
of the cease-fire in Lebanon, bombed PLO bases in l-ebanon.
According to reports, more than 20 people were killed and 80
wounded. The five-plane attack w as seen by many as a warning to the
PLO.
donned skullcaps to pose as
Orthodox Jews who make up the
majority of the Yamit resistors.
The army, which completely
surrounds Yamit, resumed the
forced evacuation Wednesday.
In preparation for the final
showdown, army bulldozers
were digging deep ditches
around the buildings oc
cupied by squatters. The
in Yamit, told a reporter that the
government would “not be burying
the houses but burying itself.”
Yamit and the rest of the Israel-
occupied portions of Sinai must be
handed back to Egypt this Sunday.
Most of the die-hards have said
they would offer only passive
resistance when the troops come to
get them. But trouble is expected
from followers of Rabbi Meir
Kahane’s Kach movement w
have barricaded themselves in
air raid shelter and reportedly t
armed. They have threaten
suicide if approached by lsra
soldiers. They said they wot
shoot themselves at half-houi
intervals when the army enters
Yamit.
Many of the Kach members are
American-born Orthodox Jews
and their threat has alarmed
relatives in the United States. Israel
Radio broadcast appeals from
the mothers of some of them and
the mothers of Israeli Kach
members begging them to “give up
this foolishness and come home.”
Meanwhile, the media
continued to protect what it sees as
the government’s infringement on
freedom of the press. Israeli
newspapers Tuesday appeared
with blank spaces on their front
pages symbolizing the ban. Radio
and television observed one
minute of silence last night.
No evidence of anti-Semitism
Jewish graves hardest hit at Oakland
As dawn broke last Thursday on
Atlanta’s historic Oakland
Cemetery, bits and pieces of
history could be seen strewn about.
Rubble was everywhere,
tombstones smashed, grave
decorations broken and epitaphs
lay scattered in pieces throughout
the grounds.
One tombstone was in three
pieces, but its 80-year-old
inscription could still be read:
“Rebecca Barnett, wife of Joseph
Weinberg.” Those words had
stood firmly since 1902, giving
lasting remembrance of a man’s
beloved wife, withstanding hard
times and the beating of Mother
Nature After all those years, it was
vandalism that brought Mrs.
Weinberg’s memorial stone
down—in pieces.
Many people immediately
concluded that the damage was the
result of anti-Semitic acts, but
investigation indicates otherwise.
Although damage seemed
heavier in the Jewish section, Betty
Cantor, associate director of the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith, says that “anti-Semitism was
not the motive.”
“ADL’s investigation finds
nothing to substantiate that the
damage was an act of anti-
Semitism,” Mrs. Cantor stated.
“The Atlanta police have been
working with us, and have also
turned up nothing to indicate
prejudice," she added.
. The damage, which was
* discovered early Thursday
morning by the cemetery’s security
guard, has been estimated at
between S500.000 and SI million.
Two juveniles, ages II and 12, have
been arrested and charged with the
act. The boys' names were not
released because they are minors.
Oakland Cemetery, which was
established in 1850, is the burial
ground for many prominent
Atlantans, both Jewish and non-
Jewish The Jewish section
includes prominent family names
like Rich, Elsas and Jacobs.
The cemetery sexton, Jim
Whitnel, says that the damage
was “spread throughout the
cemetery and was not limited to
the Jewish section."
Whitnel said that the boys
arrested “probably weren’t even
aware what sections they were in.”
He said that a reason that the
Jewish section appears to have
been the worst hit is due to the fact
that “the Jewish graves are so close
together.”
“Jewish people are buried close
together, as congregations, that is
why the stones are closer together
in the section," he explained.
Both the boys arrested and their
families have told police that they
did not know what sections they
were vandalizing. According to
Cantor, one of the youths said that
“he saw a Jewish star on one of the
tombstones, but didn't know what
it was.” Mrs. Cantor added that
the parents of both youths, who
reside in the Cabbagetown area of
Atlanta, did not believe that their
sons’ actions were prejudicially
motivated.
“Police have found no signs of
anti-Semitism in the children’s
homes, and we’ve been assured
that the parents are cooperating
fully with the investigation,”
Mrs. Cantor said.
Despite the ADL’s assessment
of the situation, Mrs. Cantor says
her office has received a number of
phone calls from distraught
families who believe the act was
directed maliciously to the Jewish
section. “I’m afraid that I’ve been
unable to persuade those callers
otherwise,” she said, adding,
“Classically, desecrating a Jewish
cemetery has been seen as a violent
act of anti-Semitism. And, of
course, people are going to think of
it in those terms," she said.
Damage to the Jewish section
included the breaking of rare
grave decorations and the
knocking over of monuments and
tombstones. Although there was
no major damage to any of the
mausoleums in the section, there
was extensive damage to
decorations and windows of
mausoleums in the adjoining non-
Jewish sections.
While the investigation
continues, Whitnel says the
cemetery will have to wait before a
cleanup can begin. “The primary
concern is deciding whose job it is
to repair the damage. Nothing like
this has ever happened," he said.
“I'm not sure what the city can do
or whose responsibility it is to fix
everything up,” he added.
“The city does not have
insurance for something like this."
Whitnel says that under ordinary
circumstances the families are
responsible for the upkeep of their
family plots but he is stumped as to
how this will be handled
Mrs. Cantor said that she has
written to the Atlanta Jewish
Federation with the suggestion
that a central group be established
to assist in the repairs.
One major problem that will
occur when cleanup finally does
See Oakland, page 21.
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