Israeli Ambassador Zalman Shoval used the occasion of a Martin Luther King memorial gathering last week to express the “hurt” felt by Israelis that some of the most “vocal criticism of Israel” has come from the black community in the United States.
“We sometimes feel there is not enough sympathy for Israel’s plight in the Middle East,” which is “about our very right to exist,” he said.
Shoval spoke Jan. 14 at the Israeli Embassy’s sixth annual commemoration of the slain civil rights leader’s birthday, held in cooperation with the Jewish National Fund of America.
“I, as a Jew, am proud that among the leaders who fought for civil rights for African Americans since the movement began at the start of the century were so many of my own people,” the ambassador said.
“Jewish men and women organized, picketed and even died for this noble cause.”
Shoval also pointed to Israel’s record of providing economic and technical assistance to black Africa, as well as its opposition to apart-heid and support of full political rights for all living in South Africa.
BLACK GOVERNOR IS HECKLED
But the keynote speaker at the ceremony, Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first black elected governor of any state, entered the embassy to shouts by anti-Israel demonstrators accusing him of being a “traitor to his people” by attending the ceremony.
Wilder, who expressed support for continued economic and military aid to Israel, said it is important for people from various backgrounds to work together.
“Amidst such diversity, disagreements are bound to rise,” he said. “Yet differences should not be viewed as liabilities.”
During the ceremony, JNF presented its 1991 Civil Rights Awards to U.S. Appeals Court Judge Spotswood Robinson III, who was one of the leading lawyers in the landmark civil rights cases, and Hyman Bookbinder, former Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee.
The right of blacks and others “to be treated fairly and to be accepted as full partners in our pluralist society is part of the general struggle for freedom that includes the right of my people, the Jewish people, to be treated fairly and be accepted as full partners in a pluralist world,” Bookbinder said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
