E/CN.4/1995/78/Add.1
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74. In a nationwide survey of college newspaper editors, it was revealed that
on 7 out of every 10 campuses there is at least one incident of racial
violence every school year. There are close to 3,000 colleges and
universities in the United States. 46/
75. In the State of Texas, a skinhead activist was tried and convicted of
murdering an elderly Black man but was only sentenced to 10 years’ probation
by a White jury; in Florida, a Black tourist was kidnapped on New Year’s Eve
1992 by three White men shouting racial slurs, who then doused him with gas,
set him afire and left him for dead; in Georgia, Mexican Americans were
targeted by the Ku Klux Klan; the constant intimidation and harassment caused
a number of families to move out of the State; in the State of Washington, an
Ethiopian immigrant was beaten to death by neo-Nazis and skinhead activists;
in North Carolina, a Native American political activist was murdered under
mysterious circumstances after he exposed corruption among local officials; in
Maryland, two women of colour were chased by Whites, doused with kerosene and
would have been set on fire, except for the intervention of neighbours; in
California and Washington State, the local offices of the National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) were bombed in the same week; a
few years earlier the organization’s southern regional office and
Jacksonville, Florida branch offices had received letter bombs. An NAACP
attorney was killed by a letter bomb that same year.
I.
Antisemitism
76.
Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States; it is associated with
anti-zionism and the denial of the Jewish holocaust. Its most virulent
expressions are to be found in the political activities of prominent leaders
such as Patrick Buchanan and David Duke, a former candidate in the 1992
presidential elections. Jewish organizations also attribute antisemitic
tendencies to the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and speak of
an alliance between the Black Caucus - the group of Black Congressmen - and
this organization. 47/ It is worth mentioning that relations between the
African American and Jewish communities, which were extremely close during the
civil rights struggle (1950-1960), gradually deteriorated into mutual mistrust
and wrangling. 48/ In recent years, African Americans have rekindled old
animosity about the involvement of Jewish shipowners and merchants in the
slave trade and denounced Jewish opposition to affirmative action programmes,
etc. In turn, the Jews have complained of collusion between African American
leaders and the Nation of Islam and the support given by its leader,
Louis Farrakhan, to antisemitic arguments. Efforts are under way to bring the
two communities together - both of them being faced with racism
themselves. 49/
77.
Antisemitism is not just propagated by political leaders, but also by the
extreme right-wing and neo-nazi movements and organizations referred to in the
previous section. Mention should also be made of the Liberty Lobby, the most
important antisemitic propaganda organization in the United States, according
to the Institute of Jewish Affairs. The Lobby, which was founded in 1958 by
Willis A. Carto, publishes a newspaper, Spotlight, for 800,000 readers and
also owns a radio station, Free America, relayed by 300 other radio stations