Federal District Judge Alexander Holtzoff ruled today that describing an attack on “political Zionist planners for absolute rule via one world government” as an “anti-Semitic diatribe” was a fair comment and threw out a $4,400,000 libel suit against the commentator.
During his testimony against the Administration’s trade expansion act, in August 1962, Curtis B. Dall, a Washington investment banker, told the Senate Finance Committee that the legislation was being pushed by “political Zionist planners for absolute rule, via one world government.” He added that the Zionists “gained the power to influence” and that “they have got the gold in their hands–notwithstanding that they have had to gather it out of oceans of blood and tears.”
Columnist Jack Anderson, writing in Drew Pearson’s “Merry-Go-Round.” described this as an anti-Semitic diatribe and Mr. Dall sued for $4,400,000 damages contending that criticism of “political Zionist planners” was not anti-Semitic, there being a difference between Jews and Zionists.
The defense submitted an affidavit by Herman Edelsberg, Washington director of the Anti Defamation League office, who said that often anti-Semitic propaganda does not directly identify Jews or Judaism as the object. One of the commonest forms of anti-Semitic attacks is an attack on Zionism or Zionists. This tactic is well known in the general literature of bigotry, Mr. Edlesberg explained.
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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.
