Last week, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston helped lead a community coalition to a great victory for the Boston Jewish community – and for Israel, when Somerville aldermen rejected efforts to divest in Israel.
Ironically, at the same time that the JCRC was busy trying to mobilize citizens to attend the Somerville meeting, its’ offices were flooded with hundreds of angry e-mails, questioning why the organization was “honoring” a Palestinian terrorist?

What sparked this vitriolic outburst? A letter from Israeli parents whose son had been killed in a suicide bombing was sent out to a number of listservs.

The letter had been solicited from journalist David Bedein – he called the parents, asked them to write it and provided them with information – to support his op-ed in last weeks Advocate. It was initially sent to The Advocate as a letter-to-the-editor; because it arrived after deadline it was not published.

How the letter then ended up on numerous listservs is not known.

Here are the facts: Three leading organizations in Boston – the New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, the regional office of the American Jewish Committee, and the JCRC – organized a brown-bag lunch with Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian who is a visiting scholar at Harvard University.

Nusseibeh is viewed by many Israelis as a “moderate”; he has publicly denounced suicide bombings. Nusseibeh has also worked with former Shin Bet chief, Ami Ayalon, attempting to build grassroots support for reconciliation with Israel.

Bedein offered The Jewish Advocate a story promising to detail the fact that Nusseibeh was no moderate. We asked for – and received – an op-ed detailing Bedeins assertions.

In his op-ed, Bedein claimed that Nusseibeh appeared together with the mother of a suicide bomber on Al Jazeera TV. Nusseibeh is then quoted by Bedein as making a statement that appears to be in support of suicide bombing.

Yes, Nusseibeh did appear on Al Jazeera TV. However, according to Nusseibeh, it was to make a statement opposed to suicide bombing. The network aired the mother of the suicide bomber in front of him – with no advance notice. According to Nusseibeh, he tried to create a transition from the very emotional statement by the mother to his own message against suicide bombing. A translator who viewed the transcripts has reportedly confirmed Nusseibeh’s version.

If that is the case, then Bedein took Nusseibeh’s Al Jazeera quotes completely out of context – and then presented this misconstrued quote as “fact” to the Israeli parents.

It’s easy to understand how someone, without the benefit of facts, would be moved to anger by the letter from the Israeli parents.

It’s also a scary testament to the power of the internet and the ability to manipulate public opinion through a campaign of inaccuracies, exploiting the heartfelt pain of terror victims.

The targeting of Jewish Boston organizations amounts to an irresponsible and nasty political smear campaign.

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