AMP denounces ADL’s attack on Media Director

(CHICAGO 02/03/2012) – The American Muslims for Palestine denounces the ADL’s smear tactics in naming Media Director Kristin Szremski and other prominent activists to a McCarthy-like blacklist of “top anti-Israel” speakers in advance of their participation in the national BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania this weekend.

The article about Szremski, which was released Feb. 1, contains falsehoods and portions of quotes taken out of context, to defame Szremski and AMP. It falsely accuses her of encouraging people not to work with Jewish groups or with interfaith dialogue and for spinning  “anti-Israel conspiracy theories.”

AMP condemns the ADL for falsifying and manipulating Szremski’s words to present them in a false light, and for attacking the activists involved in this BDS conference.

“I never said Israel controls the media, as the ADL is claiming. The quote they perverted had to do with a statement I was making about an American news organization that admitted its Jerusalem bureau submitted its articles to the Israeli military before releasing them to the public,” Szremski said. “I have never told anyone not to work with Jewish organizations. We at AMP work with many Jewish organizations. What I have said is that we should never work with Zionist organizations because they support the occupation. There’s a huge difference and the ADL knows that. They are just trying to smear me by implying I am anti-Semitic, which I am not.”

Access ADL, the blog related to the organization’s department of Center of Extremism and Research ranked Szremski third after Phillip Weiss of Mondoweiss and Ali Abunimeh of the Electronic Intifada.  Helena Cobban and Kehaulani Kauanui round out the list. The article on Szremski was released just one day after she dominated a debate with Israeli Deputy Consul General to the Midwest Shahar Arieli that left him looking unprepared and confused. 

The blacklist is just one in a multitude of virulent reactions to the BDS conference Zionists have waged in the past several weeks. Other attacks include an op-ed written by a UPenn professor that compared the conference to the Holocaust and boycott supporters to Nazi collaborators. The conference is taking place this weekend, through Feb. 5.

“The fact that this blacklist exists at all is clear indication that the global BDS movement, which began with a call from Palestinian civil society in 2005, is working,” Szremski said. “The ADL is just trying to intimidate AMP and other social justice activists into silence but it is not going to work.”