An official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the civil rights organization’s withdrawal from the National Black Political Convention this week was motivated by principles that are totally opposed to the Convention’s hostile position on Israel and school busing.
In a letter to the Black Political Convention released yesterday, NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins cited its “repugnant” resolutions on Israel and busing. Dr. John Morsell, assistant executive director, told the JTA that the NAACP was dismayed by a report in a NY metropolitan daily which attributed Wilkin’s position to the organization’s desire to retain its Jewish and integrationist support. He said NAACP support for Israel was always a matter of principle and in fact ante-dated the establishment of the Jewish State.
Dr. Morsell recalled that in 1947 when the United Nations General Assembly was debating whether to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, the late Walter White. NAACP executive secretary, lobbied vigorously for partition with the delegates from Ethiopia, Haiti and Liberia, and succeeded in influencing two affirmative votes and one abstention.
In his letter withdrawing the NAACP from the National Black Political Convention, Wilkins took exception to a resolution passed in the closing minutes of the Convention’s meeting in Gary, Indiana, last March 12 which called for the “dismantling” of Israel. The resolution was subsequently revised but the revised version, announced this week, still condemned Israel for “expansionist policies and forceful occupation of the sovereign territories of another state.”
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.
