NEW YORK, November 12, 2009 (WAFA) – Controversy continues to grow over a November 21st fundraiser at the New York Mets’ stadium Citi Field for the Brooklyn-based Israeli settlement group the Hebron Fund, Adalah-New York said Thursday.
It added: Settlement supporters have called for letters praising the Mets for standing with the Hebron Fund, while justice and human rights groups issued an alert on Tuesday quickly resulting in over 1000 emails, letters and calls to the Mets demanding cancellation of the dinner. In a November 3rd letter to the Mets, eleven organizations charged that the Hebron Fund violated international law and supported racist and violent Israeli settlers. Seven hundred Israeli settlers, living amidst 150,000 Palestinians in Hebron, are expanding their hold on the historic old city by driving out the Palestinian residents.
The Mets have responded to the controversy with a statement saying that “Citi Field hosts a wide range of events that reflect the diversity of our hometown and the differing views and opinions of New Yorkers. The beliefs of organizations holding events at Citi Field do not necessarily reflect those of the New York Mets.” Liel Liebowitz, commenting in Tablet Magazine, said, “The Mets, however, have refused to take any action, and the controversial event will take place as planned—a perfect coda, perhaps, to the team’s year of rancor and disappointment.” Pro-Israel pundit Jeffrey Goldberg said he could “think of better causes” than the CitiField fundraiser for Hebron’s settlers, and, at a Monday National Press Club panel broadcast on CSpan, Daniel Levy, former special advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. criticized the use of the New York Mets’ facility for the Hebron Fund fundraiser. US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has not commented on the event, though his office received the letter from eleven organizations calling for its cancellation. Mitchell has a long association with Major League Baseball.
Abed Ayoub from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) responded to the Mets statement by saying, “Tolerance for diverse beliefs should not include facilitating events for groups that break laws, and support racism and violence. Surely the Mets would not do business with white supremacists or anti-immigrant vigilantes. The Mets should follow those same standards in dealing with the Hebron Fund, and cancel this event.”
In the November 3, letter to the Mets, eleven organizations from the US, Palestine and Israel explained, “The New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and the Obama administration’s call for a freeze in settlement construction, and that actively promote racial discrimination, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron.” The letter also explains that reviewing last year’s and this year’s Hebron Fund dinner shows that some dinner honorees support violence and terrorizing Palestinians. The groups added that “It would be a tragic irony for an event funding Israeli settlers’ violent actions and discriminatory policies against Palestinians to be held at Caesars Club which, according to the Mets, “sits directly on top of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda,” which was named “in honor of Jackie Robinson, the… great American who broke baseball's color barrier.” The Mets and Major League Baseball promote Robinson’s legacy, including Robinson’s value of “Justice: Treating all people fairly, no matter who they are.”
On the Hebron Fund webpage, clicking on the symbol which says “Give to Hebron” leads to a donations page on the website for the Jewish Community of Hebron which says, among other things, “keep Hebron Jewish for the Jewish people.” In a report on Hebron, the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and ACRI have labeled the demands of Hebron’s settlers as “racist.” Hebron settlement leader Moshe Levinger, praised in a Hebron Fund dinner video, has been quoted saying,“The Arabs know to behave like good boys around us.” Hebron Fund Executive Director Yossi Baumol also made very derogatory comments about Arabs in a 2007 interview.
Mets owner Fred Wilpon has explained in the past that, as a 16 year-old, meeting Jackie Robinson was an experience that never left him. “As a kid, a nothing, he treated me with all of that dignity that he treated everyone else in his life.”
All Israeli settlements violate international law, according to a broad international consensus. The Hebron Fund’s dinner invitation says, “Join us in support of Hebron and in protest of today’s building freeze in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].” In a September, 2008 radio interview, the Hebron Fund’s Yossi Baumol explained, “There are real facts on the ground that are created by people helping the Hebron Fund and coming to our dinners.” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius recently highlighted the Hebron Fund and noted that, “A search of IRS records identified 28 U.S. charitable groups that made a total of $33.4 million in tax-exempt contributions to settlements and related organizations between 2004 and 2007.”
