The detestable anti-Zionist rhetoric can no longer be found on the Web site of San Francisco Women Against Rape.
It is obvious that the reason they removed the anti-Zionist language is simply because the city of San Francisco and the state are looking into the workings of the organization. SFWAR receives more than $600,000 in annual allocations from the city and state.
We applaud city and state officials for whatever pressure they can exert. But officials need to scrutinize what really goes on at SFWAR.
It is clear that SFWAR still has a political agenda. As we reported last week, the application form for potential volunteers and interns asked if they were willing to take a “stance against Zionism” and other political issues.
On Tuesday the language about Zionism had been removed and replaced by some vague verbage which suggested that applicants should oppose “all forms of oppression and human rights violations.” By Wednesday the entire application was gone with a note that people who are interested in volunteering or being an intern should call SFWAR.
Does this mean that the management of SFWAR is no longer anti-Zionist? Does this mean that SFWAR will no longer require interns and volunteers to voice their opposition to Israel?
We doubt that.
Why, in the first place, does SFWAR have to deal in political issues outside the Bay Area? While SFWAR’s staff, volunteers and interns certainly have a right to hold personal views on political issues, why must those views seep into the operation of the agency?
As a beneficiary of public funds, what right did SFWAR have in insisting that its volunteers and interns participate in political discussions?
When you visit www.sfwar.org the first sentence on the Web site is: “San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR) was established in 1973 to support survivors of rape and sexual assault, their friends and family members, and to use education and community organizing as tools of prevention.”
Certainly that is a noble cause, and one we should all support.
But anything beyond that — especially a requirement that interns and volunteers engage in political discussion — does not belong at an agency whose main purpose is to help rape victims.
Removing such language from their Web site is pure trickery. We bet that nothing there has changed.