The Ford Administration has rejected a demand by Washington area Jewish groups that President Ford rescind a permit for a local neo-Nazi “White Power” rally in front of the White House Friday. The group plans to be dressed in full Nazi regalia with storm trooper uniforms, swastika arm bands and Nazi flags for the demonstration timed for the Bicentennial weekend.
The Administration’s answer came yesterday at a meeting Sen. J. Glenn Beall Jr. (R.Md.) and Jewish community leaders had with John Kyl. Assistant Secretary of the Interior and officials of the National Capital Parks Service and police. Members of Club Shalom, an organization of Holocaust survivors, made an impassioned appeal to Kyl for cancelling the permit.
The Administration officials cited various park regulations and maintained that the permit would not be cancelled. A suggestion by Beall to change the location of the Nazi demonstration for a place less central and safer was also rejected.
Dr. William Perl, chairman of the international advisory council of the Jewish Defense League, said that the Nazi Party is a forbidden organization “in all civilized countries,” including Germany. He also stressed that “this is not a matter of offending Jews only, but all those who fought the Nazis in world War II and were killed by them.” He said “It is a betrayal of those buried here in Arlington Cemetery.” Perl demanded that Ford personally step into the dispute and cancel the permit granted to the Nazis.
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.
