LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Organizers of the Occupy Los Angeles movement distanced themselves Friday from a protester who said Jews have hijacked the nation's monetary system and should be expelled from the U.S.
At the site of an Occupy Los Angeles protest Oct. 12, Patricia McAllister told an interviewer from the website Reason.tv, "I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government — they need to be run out of this country
In subsequent remarks, McAllister condemned Jews without including the Zionist qualifier.
"Jews have been run out of 109 countries throughout history, and we need to run them out of this one," she told Fox11 Tuesday.
McAllister's comments prompted Amanda Susskind, the Anti-Defamation League's Los Angeles regional director, to call on those "more directly affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy LA movements" to "denounce any expressions of anti-Semitism during the protests."
Unsigned comments posted Thursday on its website, OccupyLosAngeles.org, said "Ms. McAllister in no way reflects the thinking of anyone I've spoken to since the beginning of this experiment in direct democracy. If someone with similar views makes themselves known, they will be asked to find another venue."
"If there are people who have used the Occupation Movement as a vehicle to make inappropriate remarks elsewhere, especially over the Internet, we can only denounce them and their message. Consider this a formal denouncement," the website also added.
McAllister was fired as a Los Angeles Unified School District substitute teacher on Tuesday — before she made her comments to Fox11.
Superintendent John Deasy acknowledged McAllister's free-speech rights, but condemned her remarks, saying "We will never stand for behavior that is disrespectful, intolerant or discriminatory."
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
'Occupy LA' Organizers Denounce Protester's Anti-'Zionist' Comments
/ CBS LA
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Organizers of the Occupy Los Angeles movement distanced themselves Friday from a protester who said Jews have hijacked the nation's monetary system and should be expelled from the U.S.
At the site of an Occupy Los Angeles protest Oct. 12, Patricia McAllister told an interviewer from the website Reason.tv, "I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government — they need to be run out of this country
In subsequent remarks, McAllister condemned Jews without including the Zionist qualifier.
"Jews have been run out of 109 countries throughout history, and we need to run them out of this one," she told Fox11 Tuesday.
McAllister's comments prompted Amanda Susskind, the Anti-Defamation League's Los Angeles regional director, to call on those "more directly affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy LA movements" to "denounce any expressions of anti-Semitism during the protests."
Unsigned comments posted Thursday on its website, OccupyLosAngeles.org, said "Ms. McAllister in no way reflects the thinking of anyone I've spoken to since the beginning of this experiment in direct democracy. If someone with similar views makes themselves known, they will be asked to find another venue."
"If there are people who have used the Occupation Movement as a vehicle to make inappropriate remarks elsewhere, especially over the Internet, we can only denounce them and their message. Consider this a formal denouncement," the website also added.
McAllister was fired as a Los Angeles Unified School District substitute teacher on Tuesday — before she made her comments to Fox11.
Superintendent John Deasy acknowledged McAllister's free-speech rights, but condemned her remarks, saying "We will never stand for behavior that is disrespectful, intolerant or discriminatory."
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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