Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up

The Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up was set up in 1999 as the think-tank of the League of Arab States, an association of 22 Arab nations, with the endorsement of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Organization of African Unity. It was principally funded by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). His son, H.H. Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime-minister of the UAE, was the founder and became its first chairman.

Based in Abu Dhabi, the center hosted lectures by Western heads of state and diplomats, including former president Jimmy Carter, former vice-president Al Gore, and former secretary of state James Baker, as well as Third World leaders such as Somali President Abdul Qadir Salad. According to the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), it also provided a platform for speakers promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views. The center was closed down in August 2003 on the orders of the government of the UAE.

Criticism of the Zayed Center by the ADL

The ADL alleges that the center regularly published anti-Semitic and conspiracy-theory literature, and promulgated anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism through its speakers and official publications.

According to the ADL website, speakers at the center have described Jews as "enemies of all nations" and "cheaters whose greed knows no bounds." The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous anti-Semitic forgery created in the 19th century to vilify Jews, was held up as a factual account of a Jewish plan to "control the world." Speakers accused Israel of trying to sterilize Palestinian children by lacing the water "used by some Palestinian schools" with chemicals. Some Zayed speakers engaged in attempts to deny the Holocaust.

Speakers included Mr. Rami Tahbob, advisor to Al Quds' File on Arab Affairs, who claimed that Israel was trying to control the Palestinian population through the use of "chemical drugs," according to the Zayed Center website; Michael Collins Piper, a Washington-based writer regarded by the ADL as an anti-Semite, who claimed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are "not a theory but a real fact," that Israel is developing an ethnic bomb that will kill only Arabs. and that the Mossad was responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Watergate scandal and the Monica Lewinsky affair; and Lyndon LaRouche, who spoke about global finance and his proposal for a transcontinental highway. [http://larouchein2004.net/pages/speeches/2002/020602abudhabi.htm] The ADL reports that LaRouche also said that the September 11, 2001 attacks could not have happened without the "connivance" of highly placed U.S. officials, that Osama bin Laden "could never have" organized the attacks, and that the foreign policy of the U.S. has been purchased by "Jewish gangsters" and "Christian Zionists." [http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/zayed_center.asp] LaRouche opposed its closing down. [http://www.larouchepub.com/pr_lar/2003/030831defend_zayed.html]

External links

* [http://www.arabdecision.com/show_func_3_12_22_1_3_7872.htm Article on the Center from the Arab Decision Makers project]
* [http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/zayed_center.asp ADL Backgrounder: The Zayed Center]
* [http://www.moralitynotmoney.com/ Students for an Ethical Divinity School] contains links to further articles
* [http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR01603 Dossier on the Zayed Centre by The Middle East Media Research Institute - MEMRI] Dossier in three parts