El Fatah is Receiving Financial, Moral and Political Aid in U.s., the ADL Reports

The El Fatah guerrilla organization is receiving financial, moral and political support from extremist groups in the United States and has had “considerable success in mobilizing extremist support here,” the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said today. Money and propaganda support have been provided to El Fatah since it launched U.S. activities in 1968, Arnold Forster, ADL general counsel, told the organization’s 56th annual national Commission meeting here. Supporters include the 10,000-member Organization of Arab Students, groups of the Communist “old left,” New Left radicals and some black extremists and revolutionary organizations, he said. El Fatah maintains headquarters at the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization at 801 Second Avenue, in New York City, he said. The office is reportedly directed by Saadat Hassan, said to be a longtime Arab propagandist in the U.S.

Mr. Forster said that an El Fatah publication entitled Free Palestine is being sold on a subscription basis through a Washington, D.C. post office box. Funds are being raised under Palestine Liberation Organization auspices, throughout the U.S., by Fatah representatives Abram Abdul Majeed and Yosef Hanafi, identified as Palestinians. El Fatah emissaries are also engaged in fund-raising in Canada and Latin America. The major targets for money have been New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles and Detroit, Mr. Forster said.

The ADL said that El Fatah activities have received substantial and favorable treatment in The Black Panther, official publication of the Black Panther Party, and Muhammad Speaks, organ of the Black Muslim movement led by Elijah Muhammad. Last Jan. 4, the Panther, which ran three pro-El Fatah items, published a long article headlined “Palestine Guerrillas vs. Israeli Pigs.” The Black Conscience, published in Detroit by the Organization for African American Education, carried a long article that glorified El Fatah and denounced Israel. It had been reprinted from The Militant, organ of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party.

Other pro-Fatah positions have been taken repeatedly by the following extremists elements, the ADL said: Youth Against War and Fascism, youth arm of the pro-Peking Workers World Party; the Committee to Support Middle East Liberation, an element of the Youth Against War and Fascism; and the U.S. Committee to Aid the National Liberation Front, described as a pro-Viet Cong group. The latter picketed the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on Feb. 15 in support of El Fatah. Other extremist supporters of El Fatah, the ADL said, include: the pro-Peking Progressive Labor Party, formed in the early 1960s by Communist Party dissidents and the Military Labor Forum, an arm of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party.

There have been recent indications, Mr. Forster said, that Students for a Democratic Society, (SDS), strongest of the student New Left organizations, may be moving toward “acceptance of old-line, anti-Zionist Arab propaganda, overlaid with support for the new Third World versus colonialism line of Arab revolutionaries–and toward a pro-El Fatah position.” He said that far left elements “view Israel and the Western ‘imperialist’ countries, especially the U.S., as forces opposing the efforts of the ‘Third World’ peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America to defeat ‘colonialism’ through wars of national liberation.” England and France are also bases for efforts on behalf of the El Fatah, according to Mr. Forster. He said that Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Mexico are among the Latin American countries where recruiting efforts, fund-raising and “highly professional” propaganda have been reported. Disseminating El Fatah propaganda there is the Arab League, often in conjunction with the Embassies of Egypt, Syria and other Arab governments, Mr. Forster said.

FIND MOST AMERICANS SUBSCRIBE TO ANTI-SEMITIC BELIEFS OR ARE INDIFFERENT

A majority of Americans either subscribe to anti-Semitic beliefs or are indifferent to the problem of anti-Semitism, a four-year study financed by the ADL has disclosed. The study, conducted by the Survey Research Center of the University of California, found only 16 percent of the population to be totally free of anti-Semitic stereotypic views and to warrant the description of “consistent opponents of anti-Semitism.”

The results of the study, which began in 1965, were made public at the ADL parley here by its national chairman. Dory Schary, who warned that apathy was more dangerous than overt anti-Semitic practices, which were found to be low. He said, however, that the findings on the whole constituted a “danger signal” to Jews and to all Americans.

According to Dr. Charles Y. Glock, director of the Research Center, the results were based on 2,000 interviews representing a national cross-section of the population. They showed that the acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes is “firmly anchored in a whole system of generally unenlightened beliefs and weak commitment to democracy.” It is most pervasive among the least educated, among the older segment of the population and in the rural South and Midwest. The survey showed that while education “can be the primary countervailing influence,” acceptance of social club discrimination, if not anti-Semitic stereotypes, was found among persons with high educational and occupational status.

The survey showed that 37 percent of the population has a negative image of Jews based on old canards that Jews control international banking, engage in shady business practices, are too powerful, too shrewd and tricky, too clannish, too ambitious, too bossy, and are less loyal to America than other citizens. More than 25 percent defended the right of social clubs to exclude Jews while 29 percent, though opposed in principle, would do little or nothing to combat social club discrimination. Only 36 percent firmly opposed it. Only five percent of those questioned said they would vote for an anti-Semitic candidate, but over one-third indicated that a candidate’s anti-Semitism would make no difference to them, the survey showed.

It confirmed the findings of other studies which showed that anti-Semitism was far less prevalent among American Negroes than among whites. Ninety-one percent of Negroes interviewed were against anti-Jewish social club discrimination; 87 percent opposed anti-Jewish employment practices; and 68 percent-as against 51 percent of the whites–said they would not be disturbed if a Jew were nominated for President. But negative beliefs about Jews were evident among Negroes in the economic sphere. For every 100 whites who said Jews use shady business practices, 145 Negroes gave that response. For every 100 whites who said Jews were not as honest as other businessmen, 129 Negroes said so. But unlike the white population, where the young were less anti-Semitic, in the black community negative opinions of the Jews were more prevalent among the young than the old.

Among religious groups, liberal Protestant denominations were found to be lower in anti-Semitism (24 percent) and higher in college education (52) than either Roman Catholics or conservative Protestant denominations. Mr. Schary said any amount of anti-Semitism among the college educated “is far from trivial…since they typically occupy positions of power and prestige which set or maintain society’s values. The acceptance of social club discrimination by the educated elite helps to validate and reinforce the anti-Semitic attitudes and beliefs of the less educated,” Mr Schary said.