.
.
.
Cross-posted from The Happy Arab News:
On September 12, a group of progressive activists in Orange County hosted a film screening of the PBS Documenter “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville” followed by a discussion on the rise of hate groups in the county. The event originally listed the ADL (Anti Defamation League) as a co-sponsor, which was then changed to appear as though an ADL representative was simply one of 9 panelists rather than a sponsor.
It is time for resisters and progressives to realize that the ADL is not a progressive group to partner with at events that address equality and racial justice issues because of its long history of spying on American citizens and civil rights organizations.
A 1993 Los Angeles Times article revealed details of over 40 years of spying on groups such as NAACP, ACLU, Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), the AIDS activist group ACT UP and many more.
“To the outside world, Roy Bullock was a small-time art dealer who operated from his house in the Castro District. In reality, he was an undercover spy who picked through garbage and amassed secret files for the Anti-Defamation League for nearly 40 years.
“His code name at the prominent Jewish organization was Cal, and he was so successful at infiltrating political groups that he was once chosen to head an Arab-American delegation that visited Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in her Washington, D.C., office.
“For a time, Cal tapped into the phone message system of the White Aryan Resistance to learn of hate crimes. From police sources, he obtained privileged, personal information on at least 1,394 people. And he met surreptitiously with agents of the South African government to trade his knowledge for crisp, new $100 bills.
“These are among the secrets that Bullock and David Gurvitz, a former Los Angeles-based operative, divulged in extensive interviews with police and the FBI in a growing scandal over the nationwide intelligence network operated by the Anti-Defamation League.”
However, the ADL’s betrayal of our communities isn’t a thing of the past. The organization is heavily involved in a police exchange program championed by the Trump and the Netanyahu government, that according to deadlyexchange.org:
“…bring together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, border agents, etc from Israel. In these programs, “worst practices” are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing practices that already exist in both countries, including extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.
“These exchanges are organized by a range of governmental and non-governmental actors, but we were disturbed to learn that many are initiated by Jewish organizations, including the neo-conservative Jewish Institute on National Security of America (JINSA), Jewish Federations, the Anti-Defamation League, and even Birthright.”
Thousands of the highest ranking police officials and law enforcement executives across the country have participated in the exchange programs, including local police departments right here in Orange County.
According to research done by RAIA (Researching the American Israeli Alliance), a research initiative dedicated to exposing the connections between American and Israeli state violence, the exchange program includes the cities of Garden Grove and Irvine police departments, and the OC Sheriff Department…
READ THE REST AT HAPPY ARAB NEWS!

Screen shot of a 2016 Anti-Defamation League promotional video for the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar in Israel, a program the group described: “Each year, ADL takes a select group of the most senior United States law enforcement to Israel to learn how their counterparts fight terror.” [via Mondoweiss]
I don’t have a problem with using legal means to infiltrate white supremacist hate groups.
I don’t consider mainstream groups promoting Arab or Muslim interests to be in the same category.
But, I don’t see reason on this side of the jump to another site (which I know that most readers won’t take) to see why progressives groups should not NOW co-sponsor events with the ADL about white supremacy based on any RECENT actions. Going only on what we have here, I also don’t get the title. As part of site management, I just wanted to say for the record that if others don’t get it either, without making the jump, that’s understandable. The decision as to how much information to include here is up to the author, not to mr or Vern.
Interesting. I didn’t make that decision. It was a suggestion from the editor. So is it too hard to make that click if someone’s interested in knowing how the ADL is promoting repressive police practices in OC?
Whether or not it is “too hard,” I know from years of reviewing our statistics that most people will not do it unless there’s more there to pull them in. So I will generally limit my comments, if any, to what is on the portion presented here. That portion argued that people should not ally with the ADL because of what one guy did as an undercover operative in white supremacist groups a long time ago. That is so obviously insufficient to make the case — or even explain the title — that I thought that I should in effect note that that wasn’t intended to make any such case by itself and if the reader wanted more they would need to go to your site. Usually, the introduction to pieces that jump to other blogs offer enough that the reader has a sense of what the argument will be, especially if it is intended to support a strong prescription like “ostracize this self-professed anti-‘white supremacist’ group from your further activities.”
I wanted to preempt “WTF?” comments. I could have stepped out of editor mode and left one myself as a commenter, it that seemed inhospitable.
I added some more on our side of the break. This relates to our Sheriff, and the police departments of Irvine and Garden Grove.
Ok, reading the article in LA Times and the rest on Happy Arab News, I do not see any hint at the allegation expressed in the title. Did the ADL have an intelligence wing? Most organizations do – keeping files on donors, rivals, groups of interest, etc.
Is there a conviction record for that portion referred to in the LA Times story? I find no follow up there. Is there evidence the officers who participated in an Israeli exchange program engaged in any form of repression in the OC?
Without that link, what we have here is a hit piece operating bu insinuation, not reasoned discourse.
Agreed.
I don’t know why this post was published.
It’s nonsense.
The La times article demonstrates ADL’s history of spying, but the organization continues to undermine and damage our communities nationally and locally here in OC.
I find it extremely problematic that the ADL has led the exchange program with the OC Sheriff Dept. – the program brings together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, border agents, etc from Israel. In these programs, “worst practices” are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing practices that already exist in both countries, including extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.
Alright, Vern, what the hell is this?
Enough with the freaky bloggers. None of us need this.
Shocking information, isn’t it?
That you’re allowed to post here?
No, it’s not shocking. Lately we’ve had some serious issues with quality control.
I don’t think that this is at all beyond discussion, Ryan. My rose tinted glasses regarding Israel fell off during the 1980s when I learned that Israel (I forget whether it was the military itself or the intelligence services) was not only in league with apartheid South Africa in jointly developing nuclear weapons, but was training the very people in Central and South America that I was out in the streets protesting — nations like Honduras and Guatemala.
The notion that Israel may be exporting its “worst practices” in “crowd control” and “dissident suppression” (my terms, not Rashad’s) into OC is not at all beyond reason or rational debate. I’m not yet convinced by as much as I’ve read — but I don’t see those who seek to stop Israel from teaching the world how to be harsher more effectively as “anti-Semitic”; the policies in question revolt me. I’m not convinced that the ADL has to be held so directly responsible as to render them anathema — frankly, if one is going to engage in guilt-by-association, there’s going to be a lot of guilt in OC to go around — but it’s not freaky and it’s not ethically repulsive.
If it came out that the training for how to subdue Kelly Thomas had come by way of Israel, would it change your views of the allegations made here?
We often talk about intersectional solidarity work within the progressive circle and I find it extremely difficult to accept a group that facilitates such deadly programs to be a leading voice against hate, when they facilitate hateful and sometimes murderous actions against other groups.
Yes, I think ADL’s work to fight white supremacy and expose anti-semitism is great. They issue statements against Islamophobia. However ADL’s actions speak louder. Their blind support for Israeli policies and treatment of Palestinians and their role in this exchange program is not acceptable.
“In these programs, “worst practices” are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing practices that already exist in both countries,”
But are they? I’m unaware of extrajudicial executions in America; police shootings are serious, even if incidents don’t always translate into convictions or even judgments against the police. You’ll find rightwingers throwing a few facts together into conspiracies, but again, little evidence.
racial profiling? US police use quite different mechanisms than Israeli counterparts. After decades of trying to craft perfect profiling mechanisms in Israel/Palestine, the police their essentially gave up and abandoned the enterprise, now using more intrusive measures.
massive spying and surveillance? Much bigger issue in Israel, and police here have taken steps to start using some tools designed for more military/intelligence purposes. The ACLU challenges it; there’s ample overlap between ADL and ACLU, just as there’s overlap between ADL and police forces. No reason to jump to any conclusions one way or the other.
deportation? Indeed, a big problem in most of the country, as the police are routinely called to assist a lawbreaker in extorting from a victim (e.g., wife protests sexual or other abuse, husband calls the police to try to get her deported)
attacks on human rights defenders? Can you be more specific? I do not know of American police targeting human rights defenders, except perhaps in one or two cases of alleged collusion to transmit messages from detained prisoners to their other contacts. In many ways, the ADL itself is a ‘human rights defender’ – so police cooperation with them (and with other groups, including a number of Arab and Muslim groups) is standard ‘community engagement.’
Were you around when Lucille Kring said of one shooting of an Anaheim Latino man something like: “It was a good result. Saves us the cost of a trial!”
If my recollection of the timing is right, she was rewarded with ample police support in her next election.
Yes, I’d say that we do have at least *some* extrajudicial executions here.