NEW YORK- While Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was meeting with President Bush at the White House, members of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) held a vigil nearby to protest against Abu Mazen, the Bush Road Map plan, and the proposed creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
A large number of ZOA members and other activists came from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C. area to take part in the event. It was co-sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of the USA, the National Council of Young Israel, the National Unity Coalition of Christians & Jews for Israel, the Christians’ Israel Public Affairs Campaign (CIPAC), and Americans For a Safe Israel.
The events began at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where eleven of the protesters donned concentration-camp uniforms, to dramatize the fact that Abu Mazen is the author of a book denying the Holocaust. The number eleven also symbolized the eleven victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, an attack that was personally financed by Mazen (according to the autobiography of Abu Daoud, one of the masterminds of the attack).
“These are replicas of the uniforms worn by Jews during the Holocaust that Abu Mazen says never happened,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein explained to reporters. “I have yet to meet a Holocaust-denier who likes Jews or Israel; Abu Mazen’s refusal to retract and apologize for his Holocaust-denial exposes his hatred for Jews.” (The uniforms were created and sewed by Anastasia Jancu, wife of ZOA Executive Director Robert Jancu.)
He added: “It is appalling that President Bush would invite Abu Mazen to the White House, when in the last few weeks alone, Mazen has named two camps after terrorists; has publicly stated again that he will not dismantle Hamas or Islamic Jihad or confiscate their 50,000 weapons requires; continues to refuse to arrest terrorists; continues to promote vicious anti-Jewish incitement in the official PA media; and continues to pledge his undying loyalty to the arch-terrorist Arafat.”
Holding signs reading “Abu Mazen, Arafat, and Bin Laden Are All Terrorists,” “No to a Palestinian Arab Terror State,” “Road Map is as Dangerous as Oslo,” and “Abu Mazen is a Holocaust-Denier,” the demonstrators marched to the Ellipse, near the White House.
Speakers at the rally at the Ellipse included ZOA National President Morton A. Klein; CIPAC president Richard Hellman; Frieda Goldman of the National Unity Coalition; Rochelle Lieberman (a relative of U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman), whose cousin, Hillel, was brutally murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel; Holocaust survivor Paul Schneck, who spoke about his experiences in Europe and Abu Mazen’s Holocaust-denial; and Helen Freedman of AFSI. Rabbi Herzl Kranz led the crowd in the recitation of the Jewish memorial prayer “Kaddish”, in memory of the Six Million and the Israeli and American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism.
The rally concluded with the singing of the American and Israeli national anthems.
The rally was the launch-event of a new a nationwide ZOA campaign that will include:
* Full-page newspaper ads in the New York Times and twenty other newspapers, headlined “Should Your Tax Dollars Be Used to Create a Palestinian Arab Terrorist State?”
* A nationwide letter-writing campaign to President Bush by pro-Israel activists, urging him to rescind his support for a Palestinian Arab state, since the Palestinian Arabs continue to sponsor and harbor terrorists, in violation of the Bush “Road Map” plan.