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WASHINGTON - Cong. Charles Rangel today criticized remarks by Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League which he said were part of an effort to divide African-Americans and Jews.
"Abe Foxman has made a living attacking Black leaders on charges of anti-Semitism. His statements are usually libelous, divisive and serve no purpose but to pit Blacks and Jews against each other while keeping Foxman's name in the newspapers," Congressman Rangel said.
In a statement to a New York newspaper reporter today, Foxman demanded that Rangel apologize for his comments in a radio interview earlier in the week that compared the silence of the public on the Iraq War and the silence of the world during the Holocaust.
'Why does Foxman have nothing to say when I compare the silence over the war in Iraq with the silence of the world during the genocides in Yugoslavia, in Rwanda or in the Sudan? This is not a game of words. It's about what happens when people ignore illegal actions by their leaders. It is about man's inhumanity to man wherever it occurs," Congressman Rangel said.
"Abe Foxman knows very well of my compassion for the victims and families of the Holocaust, just as he knows my outrage over an unjustified war that has taken 1,600 American lives, wounded more than 20,000, and killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis," said Congressman Rangel, a decorated combat veteran of the Korean War.
"Abe Foxman knows that for my entire career in Congress I have worked in lockstep with my Jewish colleagues in support of Israel and in fighting injustice in this country and abroad," Congressman Rangel said. "But he chooses to ignore the facts and instead tries to twist my words and turn them into something ugly. He has done it repeatedly over the years, often making me and other Black leaders the targets of his attacks.
"The sooner Blacks and Jews recognize what Foxman is doing, the sooner he will be out of business, and the stronger both groups will be in working together to address our mutual interests," Congressman Rangel said.
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