Posted: 2/28/2006 11:06:00 PM
Author: Elie Wise
Source: http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/2834/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
Anti-Israel Librarians
I applaud The Jewish Press for publishing George Baker's article about the increasing support of librarians for anti-Israel propaganda ("Librarians Against Israel: The Outrage Continues," Jan. 30). I have been a professional librarian for almost three decades and have been doing much research into the increase of such propaganda and its availability. The Duke University website is the symptom but the real disease is the website of the American Library
Association.
Take a short trip to www.ala.org, click Our Association, then Round Tables, then SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round table), then International Responsibilities, and, finally,
Alternative Resources on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. There you will see four pages of the most vitriolic anti-Israel locations on the planet. You will even find the biased ALA
resolution concerning Palestinian libraries. Is it really necessary for a professional organization to have such a complete resource on one subject?
Perhaps such an exhaustive presentation is agenda driven. As a professional librarian, I know it would suffice to present one page to enable a researcher to investigate the issue. Even
at that, one page is out of proportion and four pages on such a subject with a slant in one direction is outrageous.
In our Internet-based world it is relatively easy to promote and spread hate. Many people give great credence to what they find on the net. In the interest of bibliographic integrity and
fairness, this skewed resource needs to be exposed and dealt with. It is also important to know that the ALA does not speak or represent the views of all professionals. Librarians as a
whole may not be anti-Israel, but the American Library Association certainly is..
Once again, I praise The Jewish Press for its doing its duty as a newspaper.
Eliezer M. Wise
Library Director
Tuttleman Library of Gratz College
Melrose Park, Pa.
