The following is a reproduction of an ad in THE NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1975 Black Americans to Support Israel Committee

“Zionism is not racism, but the legitimate expression of the Jewish people’s self determination...From our 400 year experience with slavery, segregation, and discrimination we know that Zionism is not racism.” (From a column by Bayard Rustin, Director of Black Americans to Support Israel Committee)

We, black Americans, have been guided throughout our long struggle for racial equality by certain fundamental principles. These include:

✦ a commitment to democracy; ✦ opposition to all forms of racial, religious and sex discrimination; ✦ the conviction that denial of equal rights to any minority threatens not only every other minority but democracy itself.

These principles have led us to the following conclusions concerning the Israeli-Arab conflict and its bearings on American society: 1.We condemn the anti-Jewish Together with other Americans, we enthusiastically join in “blacklist.” reaffirming the rights of Israel exist as a sovereign state. We have fought too long and too hard to root out discrimination from our land to sit idly while foreign interests 4. Arab oil prices have had disastrous import bigotry into America. Having suffered so greatly from such prejudice, we consider most repugnant efforts by Arab effects upon blacks in America and in states to use the economic power of their newly acquired oil Africa. wealth to boycott business firms that deal with Israel or that The impact of the massive increases in the price of oil has have Jewish owners, directors or executives and to impose fallen disproportionately on the shoulders of black Americans. anti-Jewish preconditions for investments in this country. But we are not alone in our suffering. Millions of men, women, and children in Black Africa face starvation because 2. We believe blacks and Jews have the economies of their countries, already crippled by drought, were further weakened because of oil price increases. The common interests in democracy and chief cause of Black Africa’s disastrous economic situation is justice. the price that the Arabs are exacting for oil - at the same time In the fight against discrimination, black Americans and that they give lip service to their commitment to “African American Jews have shared profound and enduring common solidarity.” The Arab oil-producing states have offered only interests that far transcend any differences between us. Jews small loans to the Black African nations, and then only in through individuals and organizations have been among the return for humiliating political concessions. most staunch allies in the struggle for racial justice, sharing with us the conviction that equality is indivisible and that no Israel, small and isolated as it is, has done much to aid the minority is secure in its rights if the rights of any are economic development of Black Africa through creative impaired. technical programs.

3. We support democratic Israel’s right to 5. We support peace through mutual exist. recognition. The democratic values that have sustained our struggle in All of long to see and end to the tragic Arab-Israeli conflict. America are also the source of our admiration for Israel and We have learned from our struggle here in America that the her impressive social achievements. No nation is without only way to resolve a conflict of nationalities is through imperfections. But Israel’s are far outweighed by the freedom mutual acceptance and reconciliation. The Arabs have refused of her democratic society. Only in Israel, among the nations of to accept the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Israel the Middle East, are political freedoms and civil liberties consistently demonstrated the desire to make concessions in secure. All religions are free and secure in their observance. the interest of peace with her Arab neighbors. But she has Education is free and universal. Social welfare is highly refused to accept the conditions that would threaten her advanced. Her communal farms (Kibbutzim) are models of existence as independent sovereign nation. social idealism, creative innovation, cooperative spirit. Israel’s labor movement, the Histadrut, has earned the deep respect of freed trade unionists throughout the world. 6. We support genuine Palestinian self- 7. We will work for peace. determination. In the months ahead we will work for a just and stable peace, a We support the rights of the Palestinians to genuine self- peace that will not be a prelude to a new war but the beginning determination, but not at the expense of the rights of Jews to of an era of cooperation and good will between Israel and her independence and statehood, and not at the command of Arab neighbors. economic blackmailers or of terrorists who would force their own “solution” at the point of a gun.

We have compassion for all who have suffered in this conflict, not least for the Palestinian refugees. But who can avoid asking why so many of these people continue to live in poverty in the midst of Arab wealth?

The spokesmen for the goal of self-determination for the Palestinians through the so-called Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) have been elected. They represent only themselves. The P.L.O., like all terrorist groups, have turned indulging, Palestinians, and who disagree with them. Who can forget the murder of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games, the bomb letters, the airplane hijackings and attacks on the ground, sudden massacre of the innocent civilians at the Tel Aviv airport?

Regardless of what the Arab world calls it, in the horrified shock of he people it is indiscriminate murder of innocents. BASIC Black Americans to Support Israel Committee 260 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10010

A. Philip Randolph Bayard Rustin Lionel Hampton Chairman Director Treasurer

Hank Aaron Harry Belafonte Alfred L. Bright Reverend Ralph Abernathy Howard E. Bennett Director of Black Studies, Southern Christian Leadership National Chairman, Citizens Youngstown State University Conference Committee for Martin Luther King Yvonne Brathwaite Burke th Clifford Alexander, Jr. holiday Member of Congress, 28 District, Attorney Reverend William L. Bentley California Alexander J. Allen Interfaith Interracial Council of John T. Burnell Deputy Executive Director, National Clergy Director, Mayor’s Office of Labor Urban League Theodore M. Berry Relations, New York City James C. Allison, Jr. Mayor, City of Cincinnati Daniel Burnell Affirmative Action Coordinator, McHenry Boatwright Professor, Department of Afro- University of Florida Julian Bond American Studies, University of Mrs. Louis Armstrong State Senator, Georgia Wisconsin Marina Arroyo James E. Booker Miriam Burton Councilor, Actor’s Equity Opera Singer President, James E. 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