By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Former San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman declares that people should “loudly, quickly and publicly call out hate in all its forms.” She faults the San Diego Union-Tribune for remaining silent for a week about an antisemitic cartoon posted by Lallia Allali on her Facebook page that pictured a Jewish Star operating as a buzz saw to slice through the bodies of babies.
Up to the time that Allali republished that horrific image, she had been identified as a former member of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board as well as a current contributor to that newspaper of commentary columns. Her columns dealt with the Muslim community in San Diego, of which she and her husband, Imam Taha Hassane of the Islamic Center of San Diego, are members.
On Saturday, Nov. 4, in a column titled “To Our Readers: Board Member Resigns” the Union-Tribune reported that Allali “had reposted a graphic and deplorable antisemitic image” and that various national organizations since had called for her removal from various positions including those with the U-T. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles was among those organizations.
“Once we had the opportunity to confirm that Allali had reposted it, we accepted her resignation and removed her from the list of board members and contributors on our website,” the newspaper reported, although her biography and a list of her commentaries remained on the website as of Saturday, Nov. 4.
Zimmerman said that she was glad the Union-Tribune finally had said something about the situation, after more than a week or prompting. The former police chief said that she wrote to the U-T on Sunday, Oct. 29, to ask the newspaper to address the issue, and was told on Tuesday, Oct. 31, that there was no response because the news broke over the weekend when people were off duty. Thereafter, said Zimmerman, she expected to see an article but Wednesday and Thursday editions made no mention of the incident. So, on Thursday, she sent to the U-T an Op-Ed, which it rejected but which we print below.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Nov. 1, Ken Stone of the Times of San Diego published a piece about Allali being removed from various positions, including teaching a class at the University of San Diego. That article was reposted on Friday by this publication which has a reciprocal news sharing agreement with Times of San Diego.
Zimmerman noted that when Stone asked U-T editor Lora Cicalo to explain why Allali was removed from her positions, Cicalo didn’t respond. “Why wouldn’t they respond to another reporter?” Zimmerman demanded.
Last May, Zimmerman accompanied some 220 members of the Jewish Federation of San Diego on a mission to Israel, which included a short stay in Sha’ar Hanegev, the Federation’s sister community located in Israel adjacent to the Gaza border.
Her hosts at a luncheon in Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim within the Sha’ar Hanegev municipality, were Ram and Lila Itamari. They showed Zimmerman and others the “safe” room in their house to which they would retreat when sirens announced rockets from Gaza might strike within 15 seconds. There were similar shelters throughout the kibbutz. Zimmerman said she asked the Itamari family how they could live in a situation where rockets might explode on their homes at any minute. “Look around,” they replied. “What do you see?”
Zimmerman said that she saw a beautiful kibbutz. “Exactly,” her hosts responded. “We live in beauty 90 percent of the time and 10 percent of the time we live in terror.”
Early on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 7, it wasn’t rockets, but Hamas gunmen who stormed the kibbutz, murdering anyone they encountered, including the Itamari family, Zimmerman said.
The cartoon that Allali republished accused Israelis of committing the kind of atrocities that Hamas terrorists gleefully perpetrated and publicized on social media on that fateful day – brutal murders of civilians ranging from infancy to old age.
Below is the OpEd that Zimmerman wrote, which the Union-Tribune decided not to run. We are proud as journalists to be able to place it on the public record.
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By Shelley Zimmerman
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Given our current political climate, and unprecedented level of antisemitism circulating in our community and around the world, these words are particularly relevant, and poignant today.
Media outlets play a pivotal role in forming the foundation of the public dialogue. This foundation, ostensibly laid on the bedrock of truth, ethical integrity, value systems, and moral clarity, is tested when the tremors of hate and bigotry infect and toxify the discourse. Such an event has taken place within the corridors of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the paper’s public response (or lack thereof) has cast a disconcerting shadow on its commitment to stand up against hate.
A deeply unsettling and antisemitic incident recently sent shockwaves through our community and around the world. A Union-Tribune Community Advisory Board Member and Community Voices contributor used her platform to unfurl a banner of hate on her Facebook account, featuring the grotesque imagery of ‘blood libel’ – a historical falsehood used for centuries to incite violence against the Jewish community. More than an affront to a community that put members of that community at risk during intensely tenuous times, it was a scathing attack against the universal ideals of harmony, respect, and shared humanity.
It has been less than a month since the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,400 Israeli civilians, including Ofir Libstein, the mayor of Sha’ar HaNegev – San Diego’s sister city. I joined 220 San Diegans and visited with Ofir and members of our sister city just this past May during our community trip to Israel. Tragically, many of our hosts from different Kibbutzim were also murdered. Others still don’t know the fate of their hosts or the children who met us when we arrived, or we visited with at their school.
When the antisemitic image first appeared, calls echoed for the U-T to remove the individual as a trusted board member and contributor, along with a request for a public explanation why she was removed. When the image went viral, the contributor removed her social media accounts. Days went by with no response from the U-T. The belated explanation: it was the weekend. And the individual resigned both as a board member and a community voices contributor.
The U-T is going through another difficult reorganization and has a greatly diminished staff. Even so, I hope the editors understand the importance of this issue and act swiftly to reassure readers of their dedication to combating hate speech and antisemitism.
I commend the U-T for parting ways with her. But there is another unanswered question: Why have they taken this action silently? Why not put out a statement to stand behind their clearly justifiable decision to part ways with an individual who so clearly demonstrates values and beliefs that are so incongruent with those of the paper? And to call for her removal from any academic, human rights or ethnic studies organizations in our community.
In a July editorial on an antisemitic incident at the San Diego County Human Relations Commission, the U-T rightly called for increased vetting and training for human relations commissioners, otherwise, as the editorial said, “What’s the point of it?”
U-T editorials have called attention to wrongdoing at other entities. The U-T should hold itself to the same standard of accountability and transparency, which would go a long way to build trust with San Diego communities who are suffering right now and wondering where the U-T stands.
So, to the U-T, I say: Take your own advice. Have the courage to loudly and publicly call out hate in all of its forms, even when it makes you uncomfortable because it came from a person with a U-T platform. Show San Diego unequivocally that you will not allow anyone who represents the U-T to spew hate. You say you advocate for “accuracy, fairness, and civility.” If this is not a time for it, then I don’t know what possibly could be.
In the words of Rabbi Hillel: If Not Now, When? I call on U-T employees, both on the news staff and opinion section, to make it clear where they stand on the actions of their former colleague. To this day, I have not seen this in print, which is why I have dedicated this editorial to the subject.
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Zimmerman is the former police chief of San Diego. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World.
Thanks somuch for Zimmerman’s OpEd article which the Union-Tribune declined to publish. Antisemitisim and hate of all types must always be called out. The refusal of the U-T to do so will only diminish whatever credibility and respect its readers may have for the paper, which I suspect is very little.
Thank you, Don. Keep it up.
Truly inspirational letter by Chief Zimmerman and it is a shame the UT chose not to publish it. There is no place for hate in any civilized society regardless of the person or organization that spews it. This has nothing to do with politics, religion or communalism. Hate is a human wrong and must not be tolerated or encouraged. Those who support such actions or words are as guilty as those who perpetuate such behavior.
You have our highest respect and support, Shelly. May your tribe increase.
Shelley Zimmerman is a widely respected member of the community. Her message is important and I appreciate San Diego Jewish World covering what the Union Tribune did not. In the wake of the horrific attacks on October 7, I have heard personally from Shelley about her tireless efforts to learn the fates of her hosts in Sha’ar HaNegev and her devastation at learning that these lovely people, whom she had invited to visit her in San Diego, had been brutally murdered by the Hamas barbarians. Hate has no place in the San Diego community. Every media organization has a responsibility to call it out.