Arab American Group Claims Congressional Candidate with Nazi Past Used its Logo in Campaign Ad
Arthur Jones, the Holocaust-denying Republican nominee for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, spars with a protester before a Palos Township meeting on Aug. 13, 2018. (Campaign to Take on Hate)SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BY: ZAK KOESKE
An Arab American nonprofit has condemned a Republican Congressional candidate with a Nazi past for allegedly using the name and logo of its voter mobilization campaign without permission in an ad he placed this month in a local Arab American newspaper.
The top of Arthur Jones’ ad, which appeared in the Oct. 15 edition of The Future News, contains the name and logo of YallaVote, the Arab American Institute Foundation’s voter outreach and education arm. A line of Arabic characters next to the logo translates to “Elect Arthur Jones to Congress,” AAIF president James Zogby said.
In a statement Wednesday, the Arab American Institute Foundation said Jones had misappropriated the group’s YallaVote logo — Yalla is an Arabic colloquialism that means “hurry up” — and demanded he stop immediately.
“The attempt to co-opt a decades-old, inclusive civic empowerment campaign by a white nationalist who seeks to institutionalize hatred, bigotry, and anti-Semitism is deeply offensive and must not be allowed,” said Ryan Suto, AAIF’s government relations manager, who sent Jones’ campaign a cease and desist letter Tuesday.
Jones, who is running against incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski in the 3rd Congressional District, denied using the group’s logo in his ad, which lists his positions critical of Israel that he said he believes appeals to Arab voters.
Jones claimed the newspaper’s publisher had appended the YallaVote logo and Arabic language endorsement of his candidacy above his ad.
“I had nothing to do with that,” he said. “All that other Arabic stuff, that was put in by the Arabic newspaper, encouraging people to vote…I don’t speak Arabic . . .”
When reached for comment about Jones’ claim, the Future News’ publisher declined comment. Zogby, however, said the publisher told AAIF Wednesday that he did not add the YallaVote logo or Arabic endorsement of Jones atop the ad, but simply received the ad from the printer and ran it as is.
Zogby said he was concerned the institute’s image and its historically non-partisan YallaVote campaign might be sullied by its connection to Jones, who has attempted to court Arab voters with anti-Israel rhetoric.
“Jones is attempting to usurp our community’s real interests and civic empowerment initiatives as a cover for his hateful ideologies and we won’t tolerate it,” he said in a statement. “In using the YallaVote logo in campaign materials only weeks from the election, Jones implies Arab American voters might be receptive to his hateful bigotry. Nothing could be further from the truth. We unequivocally reject him and his hate-filled campaign.”
Zogby said AAIF is still deciding whether to file suit over the alleged trademark infringement, but that the organization’s lawyers believe it has a case against Jones, the Future News’ publisher, or both, depending on who was responsible for misappropriating the YallaVote name and logo.
“Our lawyers will determine whether or not a suit is in our interest to do,” he said. “If (Jones) is soundly defeated and thrown on the trash heap of history, where people with that politics deserve to be, there’s probably no reason to go any further. But we needed to make the point now, before the election, that this was just unacceptable.”
When asked whether he intended to comply with the Arab American Institute’s cease and desist order, Jones called it an overreaction and said he thought Arabs should be supporting his campaign, not attacking it.
Zogby, who said he learned of the Jones’ ad from a Chicago area partner organization, said the Arab American Institute had written all known Arabic newspapers in the area to inquire whether they also had received ads from Jones, and if so, to insist they not run them.
“Simply because he’s saying a couple things critical of Israel should not in any way be used to gain legitimacy for his patently, clearly anti-Semitic, homophobic, nationalist views that are just disgraceful,” Zogby said.