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Black Leader Calls Detention of Jewish Hostages Reminder of Nazism

September 17, 1970
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A leading black militant has denounced the action of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in taking Jews as hostages from hijacked planes, comparing the action with events which occurred in Nazi Germany and to the time when black “slave families” were similarly separated. The denunciation will appear in the form of a front paged editorial tomorrow in the Manhattan Tribune, signed by Roy tones, national director of CORE and co-publisher of the new weekly. In the editorial, entitled “The Jews Must Not Stand Alone,” Innes charged that “the sight in Amman this week of fathers being separated from their families because they are American Jews not only vividly illustrates the irresponsible tactics of certain guerrillas, but undermines the argument of the Arab nationalists who maintain their fight is against Zionism and not against the Jewish people.”

Declaring that “our wing of the black movement in America has its own agenda of priorities to achieve,” the black leader added that “but for us to ignore what happened in Amman is to inaccurately acknowledge that injustice which does not touch the black man is not an injustice.” The taking of Jewish hostages “is a symbolic and frightening reminder of a disease which too many people ignored in Germany and a reminder of the days when slave families were similarly separated,” he said. He noted that “once before the Jews were left to stand alone” and that “our brand of black militancy cannot stand aside and allow this to happen again without injuring the justice of our own arguments.”

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