Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
Public libraries are supposed to be oases of peace, quiet, contemplation and the pursuit of truth and knowledge. But on June 28-30, the West Asheville, NC public library and other locations hosted an antisemitic, anarchist ACAB [Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair], advertised as a place “to gather and rethink our strategies for destroying this world.” The book fair included at least four libelous and dangerous anti-Israel, pro-terror teaching sessions.
At a pro-terror session at the library on Saturday entitled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance with Idris and Adi,” which began by celebrating Hamas’ October 7 massacre of 1200 Jews, a group leader suggested murdering three pro-Israel individuals in the audience (David Moritz, a Jewish son of Holocaust survivors; Monica Buckley, a Jewish woman who identifies as queer; and Bob Campbell, an 80-year-old veteran with cancer). The leader then suggested that the attendees should decide what to do with the “Zionists.” A mob of anti-Zionist anarchists encircled and assaulted (punched, kicked and stomped) and dragged the three pro-Israel individuals out of the room, and took two of the “Zionists”’ cell phones. The 80-year-old suffered multiple contusions. The library staff reportedly didn’t even call the police for help. (For details, see “Masked Activists Violently Attack Jews at North Carolina Public Library,” by Peter Reitzes, Algemeiner, July 1, 2024.)
Thus far, there has been only one arrest of an alleged perpetrator, Taylor Danielle Zarkin. ZOA thanks the local Asheville police for making this arrest; for seeking information from the public regarding eight more “persons of interest” shown in these photos; and for urging anyone with information or who recognizes those persons to contact the Asheville Police Department (APD) directly at 828-252-1110, OR anonymously by texting TIP2APD to 847411 then by using the TIP2APD smartphone app.
A lot more needs to happen here. ZOA calls for and supports a full hate crimes and criminal investigation by the local police, the North Carolina SBI (State Bureau of Investigations) and federal authorities, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law of every member of the antisemitic anarchist mob that incited and/or assaulted the three pro-Israel individuals. In addition, why did a public library host this hateful pro-terror event? The library policies must be changed. A city park pavilion was also listed as hosting other ACAB sessions. The same goes for the city.
The ACAB sessions announcements revealed ahead of time that ACAB would be a pro-terror event. Interestingly, anarchists supposedly want to destroy all world nations – but the only nation that the ACAB sessions and workshops repeatedly targeted was the Jewish State of Israel. That’s classic antisemitism. (The U.S. was an occasional target. ACAB called the U.S. an “imperialist beast.”) Here are the descriptions of some relevant ACAB sessions:
- “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance with Idris and Adi” (the session in which the audience beat up three “Zionists”) was a session for Western revolutionaries to learn from “the Palestinian resistance” [meaning: terrorism] and from the strategic practices developed over the past 75 years by Palestinian resistance groups [meaning: terrorist organizations’ tactics], in order to assist the Western “struggle to stop the genocide in Gaza and free Palestine” [meaning, to aid Hamas to win the war and to destroy Israel.]
- “The No-State Solution” was a session on ending the Jewish State of Israel.
- “An Anarchism of Despair” was a session that falsely accused Israel of “genocide” and promoted anti-Israel “Palestinian solidarity.” The opening sentence of the session announcement stated: “After October 7, the upswell of Palestinian solidarity has been heartening.” It’s sickening that ACAB is “heartened” by those who sided with the perpetrators of the mass slaughter, kidnapping, torture and rape of Jews in the wake of October 7th.
- “Taking the State Out of the Body: Embodied Anti-Zionist Practice” was a workshop that claimed that “The fight for Palestine is a fight for all of our aliveness.” (Actually, the “fight for Palestine” is aimed at eliminating Jews.) The session announcement also accused Israel of the typical false, absurd, antisemitic leftist libels (“ongoing colonization of Palestine,” “apartheid” and “genocide”); stated that the workshop will “Disentangle from Zionist propaganda’ and “Root into anti-Zionist and anti-fascist histories of resistance”; called for defunding Israel; and insisted that we must keep fighting and “We must keep resisting.”
Throughout history, promoting these falsehoods against Jews or against the human-rights-observing Jewish state has been the precursor to actual antisemitic violence.
All the members of the mob that viciously attacked three pro-Israel attendees or incited the attack must be brought to justice.
