Terrorism and The Other Religions

Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.

As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.

I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than a 2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 and the Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which Europeans bear some blame.

Compare that to the Christian European tally of, oh, lets say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WW II– though some of those were attributable to Buddhists in Asia– and millions more in colonial wars.)

Belgium– yes, the Belgium of strawberry beer and quaint Gravensteen castle– conquered the Congo and is estimated to have killed off half of its inhabitants over time, some 8 million people at least.

Or, between 1916-1930 Tsarist Russian and then Soviet forces — facing the revolt of Central Asians trying to throw off Christian (and then Marxist), European rule — Russian forces killed an estimated 1.5 million people. Two boys brought up in or born in one of those territories (Kyrgyzstan) just killed 4 people and wounded others critically. That is horrible, but no one, whether in Russia or in Europe or in North America has the slightest idea that Central Asians were mass-murdered during WW I and before and after, and looted of much of their wealth. Russia when it brutally conquered and ruled the Caucasus and Central Asia was an Eastern Orthodox, Christian empire (and seems to be reemerging as one!).

Then, between half a million and a million Algerians died in that country’s war of independence from France, 1954-1962, at a time when the population was only 11 million!

I could go on and on. Everywhere you dig in European colonialism in Afro-Asia, there are bodies. Lots of bodies.

Now that I think of it, maybe 100 million people killed by people of European Christian heritage in the twentieth century is an underestimate.

As for religious terrorism, that too is universal. Admittedly, some groups deploy terrorism as a tactic more at some times than others. Zionists in British Mandate Palestine were active terrorists in the 1940s, from a British point of view, and in the period 1965-1980, the FBI considered the Jewish Defense League among the most active US terrorist groups. (Members at one point plotted to assassinate Rep. Dareell Issa (R-CA) because of his Lebanese heritage.) Now that Jewish nationalsts are largely getting their way, terrorism has declined among them. But it would likely reemerge if they stopped getting their way. In fact, one of the arguments Israeli politicians give for allowing Israeli squatters to keep the Palestinian land in the West Bank that they have usurped is that attempting to move them back out would produce violence. I.e., the settlers not only actually terrorize the Palestinians, but they form a terrorism threat for Israel proper (as the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin discovered).

Even more recently, it is difficult for me to see much of a difference between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Hebron massacre.

Or there was the cold-blooded bombing of the Ajmer shrine in India by Bhavesh Patel and a gang of Hindu nationalists. Chillingly, they were disturbed when a second bomb they had set did not go off, so that they did not wreak as much havoc as they would have liked. Ajmer is an ecumenical Sufi shrine also visited by Hindus, and these bigots wanted to stop such open-minded sharing of spiritual spaces because they hate Muslims.

Buddhists have committed a lot of terrorism and other violence as well. Many in the Zen orders in Japan supported militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, for which their leaders later apologized. And, you had Inoue Shiro’s assassination campaign in 1930s Japan. Nowadays militant Buddhist monks in Burma/ Myanmar are urging on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

As for Christianity, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda initiated hostilitiesthat displaced two million people. Although it is an African cult, it is Christian in origin and the result of Western Christian missionaries preaching in Africa. If Saudi Wahhabi preachers can be in part blamed for the Taliban, why do Christian missionaries skate when we consider the blowback from their pupils?

Despite the very large number of European Muslims, in 2007-2009 less than 1 percent of terrorist acts in that continent were committed by people from that community.

Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.

It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice” and Muslims and inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll I mentioned above. Human beings are human beings and the species is too young and too interconnected to have differentiated much from group to group. People resort to violence out of ambition or grievance, and the more powerful they are, the more violence they seem to commit. The good news is that the number of wars is declining over time, and World War II, the biggest charnel house in history, hasn’t been repeated.

By Juan Cole

The Invasion Of America

How The U.S. Took Over An Eighth Of The World 

See the rapid disappearance of Native American lands with this interactive map from eHistory.org.

In treaty discussions, US troops often intimidated the negotiators, federal agents misrepresented the terms of agreement, and land speculators bribed participants. In desperate times, Indians signed away their homes in order to feed themselves and their families. In the 1850s, US presidents began using a second legal instrument to secure land, the executive order, and this prerogative grew in importance after 1871, when the federal government unilaterally stopped making treaties with native peoples. The power of the president to seize land by executive order may appear contrary to the sanctity of private property, one of the great legacies of the American Revolution, but white Americans never set Indian land title on the same footing as their own. Nor did they recognize the irony of their presumptions.

Myanmar Plans To Eradicate Rohingya Identity

Authorities sealed off villages in Myanmar's only Muslim-majority region and in some cases beat and arrested people who refused to register with immigration officials, in what may be the most aggressive effort yet to force Rohingya to indicate they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Immigration officials, border guards and members of the illegal-alien task force in the northern tip of Rakhine state — home to 90 percent of the country's 1.3 million Rohingya — this year, in addition to questions about marriages, deaths and births, people were classified by ethnicity.

Residents said those who refused to take part suffered the consequences.

"We are trapped," Khin Maung Win said last week. He said authorities started setting up police checkpoints outside his village, Kyee Kan Pyin, in mid-September, preventing people from leaving even to shop for food in local markets, work in surrounding paddies or take children to school.

"If we don't have letters and paperwork showing we took part — that we are Bengali — we can't leave," he said.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which has been advocating on behalf of the Rohingya for more than a decade, said residents reported incidents of violence and abuse in at least 30 village tracts from June to late September. 

Most worrying to many, the government has largely stood by as Buddhist extremists have targeted Rohingya, sometimes with machetes and bamboo clubs, saying they pose a threat to the country's culture and traditions.

Denied citizenship by national law, members of the religious minority are effectively stateless. They feel they are being systematically erased.

Almost all Rohingya were excluded from a U.N.-funded nationwide census earlier this year, the first in three decades, because they did not want to register as Bengalis. And Thein Sein is considering a "Rakhine Action Plan" that would make people who identify themselves as Rohingya not only ineligible for citizenship but candidates for detainment and possible deportation.

Most Rohingya have lived under apartheid-like conditions in northern Rakhine for decades, with limited access to adequate health care, education and jobs, as well as restrictions on travel and the right to practice their faith.

In 2012, Buddhist extremists killed up to 280 people and displaced tens of thousands of others. About 140,000 people of those forced from their homes continue to languish in crowded displacement camps further south, outside Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital.

Many villages were placed under lockdown, with police checkpoints set up to make sure only those who have cooperated could leave, more than a dozen residents confirmed in telephone interviews with The Associated Press.

In other villages, the names of influential residents were posted on community boards with verbal warnings that they face up to two years in jail if they fail to convince others to take part in the registration process, Lewa said. Other Rohingya say officials forced them to sign the papers at gunpoint, or threatened that they would end up in camps like those outside Sittwe if they didn't comply, she said. In some cases residents say authorities have shown up after midnight and broken down doors to catch residents by surprise and pressure them to hand over family lists.

Villagers also have been kicked and beaten with clubs and arrested for refusing to take part, according to Lewa and residents interviewed by the AP.

Rohingya said they didn't want to register family members because they worry the information might be used to deny them citizenship.

As international pressure mounts to end abuses against Rohingya, the government has agreed to provide citizenship to anyone who qualifies. But many Rohingya say they cannot meet the requirements, which include submitting documents proving that their families have been in Myanmar for at least three generations. And under the plan Thein Sein is considering, even that would not be enough for people who insist on calling themselves Rohingya rather than Bengali.

Marlon Brando Speaks Truth On The Treatment of American Indians

Legendary Marlon Brando was interviewed on The Dick Cavett Show 6/12/1973 after he refused to accept the Oscar at 45th Academy Awards, 1973 to protest the treatment of American Indians.

Three months after not accepting the best actor award at the Academy Awards, Marlon Brando appeared on The Dick Cavett Show with members of the Pauite, Cheyenne and Lummi tribes. Brando had refused his Oscar for The Godfather in protest of Hollywood’s depiction of Native Americans on film.

At the 1973 Academy Awards ceremony, Brando refused to accept the Oscar for his performance in The Godfather. Sacheen Littlefeather represented him at the ceremony. She appeared in full Apache attire and stated that owing to the "poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry", Brando would not accept the award.

At this time, the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee occurred, causing rising tensions between the government and Native American activists. The event grabbed the attention of the US and the world media. This was considered a major event and victory for the movement by its supporters and participants.

Brando is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. He has earned great respect among critics and theater experts for his memorable performances and charismatic screen presence.

Video and summary via White Wolf Pack.

Muslims Of The Central African Republic

This man is from Central Africa. Whenever his mosque gets attacked, he would gather all the Quran pages to save them.

He was killed by a mob armed with knives earlier this year, simply for being Muslim. May Allah give him Jannah.

Please pray for the Muslims in the Central African Republic. 

For those of you who are interested in keeping abreast of the crimes against humanity that is being perpetrated against our Muslim brothers and sisters in the Central African Republic (CAR) >>>

This is their FaceBook page: Cries Of CAR

This is their twitter account: Cries Of CAR

لأولئك الذين يرغبون في مواكبة الجرائم ضد الإنسانية التي ترتكب ضد إخواننا وأخواتنا المسلمين في جمهورية أفريقيا الوسطى (CAR)

هذه هي صفحة الفيسبوك الخاصة بهم
Cries Of CAR

هذا هو حساب على تويتر 
Cries Of CAR

Partners In Extermination

US-Israeli Regional Hegemony

Alliance systems can be a perfidious or at least unscrupulous thing, entered into by the parties, whether two or more, in the hope of maximizing each’s national self-interest covering a multitude of purposes–military, political, ideological, defensive, offensive, in character, addressed to power, the expansion of political economy, spheres of influence, financial-commercial penetration, frequently all of the above, and intensified under conditions of wartime—particularly perfidious or unscrupulous when the parties are unevenly matched in power, dominance by one often (but not always!) resulting to the detriment of the other(s). In the 20th century the US-British “special relationship” or, serving both in two world wars and postwar reconstruction after the second, the Anglo-American Entente, illustrates convenience in the quest for HEGEMONY, America benefiting from British military cooperation and, beyond, a world trading structure facilitating open markets, the reduction of tariff barriers, and a stable international monetary system, as meanwhile, despite this seemingly close embrace, the US, during and following the war, made steady progress in weakening then dismantling the Imperial Preference System and consequently eroded the power of the British Empire (America’s chief competitor in world trade, and a main obstacle to its leadership of capitalism as a global system). No holds barred, where power and political economy are conjoined, at which point ideology comes into play in the effort to redefine the world order, i.e., the Cold War, the Free World, American Exceptionalism in full bloom as exemplar, protagonist, vehicle for achieving Democracy in the face of the threat posed by modern day Bolshevism, Russia to the West and China to the East.

The 20th century mindset remains with us, outfitted in new clothing, yet with surprisingly little changes as viewed from the American perspective, Russia and China still demonized for purposes of maintaining the military foundations of the American polity (in spite of the capitalist inroads made into the societies and cultures of each), US hegemonic aspirations based on unilateralism still ever popular and intact, yet now facing grave obstacles, perhaps greater than at any time since the 1960s, because the world power system is becoming decentralized, manifested not only in the obvious quarters, Russia, China, the EU as a concert of powers, and the industrialization of the Third World, but also conflicting currents within the preceding and a ripening of discontent affecting the world order, which, as it shakes down, can yield any number of possible outcomes, as for example, military dictatorships, popular awakenings and overthrow of despotic regimes, the regrouping of international relations (chiefly, a rapprochement between Russia and China overcoming historical mistrust over decades, brought together through American policies and actions—most recent, Ukraine and NATO/Pacific-first strategy and TPP–directed against both), together suggesting a world in tension at knife’s point. One further constant from the American perspective is its close relationship to Israel, every way germane—more so than ever, given the reshaping of the world structure—to the attempted perpetuation of US global hegemony.

Perfidiousness still holds, on both sides, despite which, the alliance because of mutual convenience and underlying ideological propinquity, remains rock-solid, as each pursues comparable policies of military and/or political-economic conquest generally not in each other’s way (and if anything, complementing one the other). For each, the world becoming, as brought on by their actions, more menacing, has the result of creating a siege mentality elevated to matter-of-fact desensitization through colossal arrogance toward the commission of war crimes against others, increasingly taking on the proportions of genocide. America and Israel alike, one the supplier of funds, arms-and-ammunition, and diplomatic cover at the UN, the other the faithful executioner of disproportionate often overwhelming force as though in the service of a Higher Being, yet pursuant to concrete purposes of domination, exploitation, and territory, have together staked out the Middle East as a crucial sphere of influence, America piggy-backing over Israel to enlarge the sphere as in its own right making possible the exercise of control covering an arc from Southern and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and North Africa, while for Israel itself the immediate region and neutralizing prospective power-blocs will do. A perfect match-up on the altar of POWER reified to the extent of impunity in its exercise—with extermination the end point on a continuum consonant with and created for the purpose of expansion and subjugation, humans standing in the way no more than fly specks.

Domination, in its geopolitical, geostrategic, and, not usually recognized, geopsychological, form, is on a slippery slope, extermination–an outcome not predetermined, arising from historical circumstances and structural context—being the product of authoritarian values rooted in the society’s political culture and its ideological expression, in America, the hierarchical-class overlay on nominal equalitarianism, in which both wealth and power have been disguised as democratic, lending credence to and legitimating upper-groups’ superior position and right to rule, while in Israel, the formulaic hierarchy resides in a religious-sourced chosen-people doctrine overlaid on a militaristic underpinning anything but nominal, applied to the Outsider, and internally, a political-military leadership system to a large extent acting independent of, though in the name of, civil and religious institutions. In both cases, the US and Israel, counter-forces to the exercise of military power are weak to nonexistent (still retaining formalistic democracy in order, consciously or not, to hide hegemonic purpose, internal social discipline, and boundaries of dissent, as needed to ensure popular approval and/or complicity in a course of permanent war, the preparation for war, or the status of recognized command wherever its military reach extends).

For the US, as if the world could be flattened and neatly demarcated into territorial squares of varying size, control has always meant a process of as near TOTAL the coverage of these separable spheres of influence, the more secure—by definition—America would be, lest eruption, or worse, omission, in one place, lead to the toppling of predominance elsewhere. “Prestige,” that seemingly silly justification for war readiness, military budgets, enforced patriotism, is actually code for the pragmatic realization that domination, as Americans see it, is a zero-sum game, interlaced with an extreme fear of societal decline, in which the falling-domino effect is integral to the quest for hegemony, particularly its unilateral form. Thus, every square to be covered, accounted for, the Middle East especially attractive and necessary for obvious reasons, OIL, and less obvious ones, the geopolitical-geostrategic framework alluded to in that regional context, not only the territorial access from Spain to Turkey and the upper portion of Africa, but also slightly distanced pressure points on Russia and China. If for no other reason, Israel would then be seen as indispensable in completing the military paradigm of critical spheres of influences also matched elsewhere throughout the world.

But in fact there are other if not as compelling reasons for championing the cause of Israel, concretized in the near-integration of their respective military, intelligence, and planning/think tank communities. Israel behaves toward its neighbors the way America does to the world, waving an ideological banner of repression and force that gives courage, reinforcement, consolation, and legitimacy to America doing the same thing. Mossad’s skill at assassination is the envy of Washington, creating a pathway for CIA and Special Ops to act similarly; likewise, raising “collateral damage” to a high art through terrorizing civilian populations (for the US, drone warfare, even beyond casualties the constant buzzing overhead, those below not knowing where and when the sudden strike) and carpet-bombing/shelling—an uncanny accuracy in Gaza for hitting UN schools serving as shelters for a large, helpless population, a back-and-forth saga of military cruelty and destruction, first, America taking the lead, then Israel, each learning from the other and all the while improving lethality and psych ops. In this light, the US needs Israel as instructor par excellence in the ways of warfare and hegemony, a shining ideological example by which to  toughen up the American spirit, all of this in addition to furnishing a beacon of light in the ways of domination per se: how to treat those below (no coincidence that the Ferguson, MO., police had sent one of its officers to Israel for special training), a process of social control beginning seemingly to find disfavor in America, so that Israel’s own methods of crowd control, population displacement, and use of heavy-handed instruments of persuasion undoubtedly have provided a boost, a sense of psychological well-being, to those beginning to lose confidence in the majesty of force.

America has been on that slippery slope before, scorched-earth policies and programs in Vietnam perhaps compensating in full to Israelis, a quid pro quo of brutality, for the lessons they have taught, evening the scale of indebtedness so that both could proceed in friendly competition to determine who best is the practitioner of violence, each thereby giving latitude to the other in filling out the grounds of permissible torture and deprivation. How doubt, even for a moment, the benefits of such an alliance, except that each simultaneously is in pursuit of its own agenda. Although Obama and Netanyahu may be interchangeable, as for political slickness raised to the highest power (Bush and Sharon, for example, still prekindergarten by comparison), their levels of operational activity give the nod to Obama in the scope of genocide each can reasonably be expected to pursue and achieve. Presently, Israel is America in microcosm, content to create absolute devastation in Gaza (actually, not content, until every house is leveled, ditto, hospitals, infrastructure–the land vacated and rendered uninhabitable, the people, made to suffer), and America, Israel in magnification, content to bully its way back into unilateral domination of the world system, if need be, at the risk of war with Russia, China, or both, a risk that could see the planet returned to the beginning of time via nuclear annihilation.

That there is increasingly less reticence about extermination, Gaza, serving as a focal point, an emblem of human cowardice and cruelty, few in the world coming to the defense of its people, and with that as precedent for the future, America and Israel may enjoy still closer relations, vibrating as one, until the Awakening occurs, if it ever will, and social justice trumps domination. But today, nothing of the kind. I have before me Jodi Rudoren’s New York Times article, “In Torn Gaza, if Roof Stands, It’s Now Home,” (Aug. 18), which must be read with an understanding of how much America has aided Israel across the board, and here, where extermination, although not complete, has already left its dirty hands and choke hold of genocide. Her first sentence says it all: “Telltale signs of the displaced are everywhere in Gaza.” No running water, electricity; people crowded into tiny spaces, i.e., where roofs stand, and many, where they do not, 10-13 to a room. She reports: “Scores of families have hung sheets and scarves from every available tree and pole to create shady spaces on the grounds of Al Shifa Hospital; in the unauthorized camp, a 3-month-old slept one recent morning in a wire crib lined with cardboard.” “On Sunday [the 17th],” she continues, “more than 235,000 people were still crammed into 81 of the United Nations’ 156 schools, where classes are supposed to start next Sunday.” No chance of that. (As I wrote previously, these UN schools/shelters appear to be favorite targets of Israeli land, sea, and air power, with civilian casualties running high.) One mother of eight, Alia Kamal Elaf, stated, “’Our fate at the end will be in the street.’” Perhaps terms such as “extermination” and “genocide” should be applied to the living as well, when life itself becomes a living death.

No showers. Already the UN “is placing a nurse and health educator at each site in the hope of staving off outbreaks of meningitis, lice and scabies…. People at the schools complain of incessant flies and fetid bathrooms.” Elaf said, “she has but one mattress for her eight children, ages 8 to 16.” On the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Rudoren writes, “[c]onditions are worse… where neither food nor water is provided to the makeshift camp that sprawls outside the internal medicine building, next to the X-ray department, between the emergency room, the morgue and the maternity ward.” Abdullah Hamouda, in his tent: “’Here each day equals a year.’” And Adel al-Goula, who “has already pitched a tent of sorts, in front of the pile of debris that used to be the home where he lived from the age of 13…. [t]he date, grape, olive, fig, walnut and lemon trees…all gone,” put up a sign, “’Home of the al-Ghoula Family,’” and declared in the eloquent words of one who has seen suffering in the world, “’We must rent a place, but we should still come here every day and sit here. To receive people. To tell the world: We are rooted in our land, until death.’”

Norman Pollack has written on Populism. His interests are social theory and the structural analysis of capitalism and fascism. 

The Terror Rests On The Shoulders Of The Invader

If you were invaded...what would you do?

Love In The Time Of Genocide - الحب في زمن الإبادة

Performed by Haidar Eid

لا يزال الفسطينيون بشكلٍ عام، وسكان غزة بشكل خاص، يتعرضون لمجازر إبادية

منذ عام 1948. لم يعد هناك أي إمكانية للتفاوض على تحسين شروط إضطهادهم في
ظل هذا الظلم . فإما قائمة الحقوق الكاملة او لا شيء. وهذا يعني شيئاً و احداً فقط
( و هو نهاية الاحتلال و الفصل العنصري و الاستعمار. نقطة و أول السطر! ( 2014,حيدر عيد

In this video, the Palestinian intellectual and activist Haidar Eid, in Gaza, performs “Love in the Time of Genocide,” adapted from a poem by the late Egyptian poet Abdul Rahim Mansour.

The words are unadorned, but Eid’s performance is haunting, set against images from Israel’s most recent massacre in Gaza:

Between contractions and pain
We will be reborn

Between contractions and pain
Wisdom will be born
The song of freedom will be born

All that has passed and gone
Is still being born in your eyes

At the end of the video are these words from Eid himself:

The Palestinian people, and Gazans in particular, have been living an unending massacre since 1948. We can no longer negotiate about improving the conditions of oppression; it is either the full menu of rights, or nothing. And that means the end of occupation, apartheid and colonialism.

Ban Ki-Moon Worked With Israel To Undermine UN Report

The General Secretary of United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-Moon collaborated in secret with Israel and the United States to weaken the effects of a Board of Inquiry's report accusing Israel of human rights violations in Gaza in Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009.

Wikileaks released documents on Friday that revealed that Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account.

The report demonstrated that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) had a direct role in seven of the nine attacks against buildings of the UN in Gaza strip, and accused Israel of having breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises.

According to Wikileaks, Susan Rice, White House National Security Advisor, spoke at least four times with Ban Ki Moon “to discuss concerns over the Board of Inquiry's report on incidents at UN sites in December 2008 and January 2009".

The report's recommendations included the need for a deeper and impartial investigation into the recent “incidents”, and into the bombings of UN facilities.

According to Wikileaks, Rice first asked Ban not to include the recommendations in the final report's summary, supposed to be transmitted to the UN Security Council on May 5.

Ban responded that “he was constrained in what he could do since the Board of Inquiry is independent; it was their report and recommendations and he could not alter them”.

In the second conversation, “Rice urged the Secretary-General to make clear in his cover letter when he transmits the summary to the Security Council that those recommendations exceeded the scope of the terms of reference and no further action is needed."

Ban then replied that "his staff was working with an Israeli delegation on the text of the cover letter”.

He confirmed in the last phone call that “a satisfactory cover letter” had been completed. In the letter,

Jewish Survivors Of Nazi Genocide Condemn Massacre Of Palestinians

225 Jewish survivors and descendents of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide have signed on to this letter condemning Israel’s massacre on Gaza and calling for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people. In the letter, they also speak out against the abuse of their histories to promote the dehumanization of Palestinians advanced by Elie Wiesel among others in his recent ads placed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the Guardian. If you are a survivor of the genocide or a descendent of survivors, please click hereand scroll to the bottom to add your name to the letter. Please donate to help us place this letter with its signatories as an advertisement in the New York Times in order to convey the message that never again means NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

As Jewish survivors and descendents of survivors of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.

Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to promote blatant falsehoods used to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of nearly 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.

We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

Signed,

Survivors

1. Hajo Meyer, survivor of Auschwitz, The Netherlands.
2. Henri Wajnblum, survivor and son of a victim of Auschwitz from Lodz, Poland. Lives in Belgium.
3. Renate Bridenthal, child refugee from Hitler, granddaughter of Auschwitz victim, United States.
4. Marianka Ehrlich Ross, survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
5. Irena Klepfisz, child survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland. Now lives in United States.
6. Karen Pomer, granddaughter of member of Dutch resistance and survivor of Bergen Belsen. Now lives in the United States.
7. Hedy Epstein, her parents & other family members were deported to Camp de Gurs & subsequently all perished in Auschwitz. Now lives in United States.
8. Lillian Rosengarten, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
9. Suzanne Weiss, survived in hiding in France, and daughter of a mother who was murdered in Auschwitz. Now lives in Canada.
10. H. Richard Leuchtag, survivor, United States.
11. Ervin Somogyi, survivor and son of survivors, United States.
12. Ilse Hadda, survivor on Kindertransport to England. Now lives in United States.
13. Jacques Glaser, survivor, France.
14. Norbert Hirschhorn, refugee of Nazi genocide and grandson of three grandparents who died in the Shoah, London.
15. Eva Naylor, surivor, New Zealand.
16. Suzanne Ross, child refugee from Nazi occupation in Belgium, two thirds of family perished in the Lodz Ghetto, in Auschwitz, and other Camps, United States.
17. Bernard Swierszcz, Polish survivor, lost relatives in Majdanek concentration camp. Now lives in the United States.
18. Joseph Klinkov, hidden child in Poland, still lives in Poland.
19. Nicole Milner, survivor from Belgium. Now lives in United States.
20. Hedi Saraf, child survivor and daughter of survivor of Dachau, United States.
21. Michael Rice, child survivor and son and grandson of survivor, aunt died in Auschwitz and cousin in concentration camp, ALL 14 remaining Jewish children in my Dutch boarding school were murdered in concentration camps, United States.
22. Barbara Roose, survivor from Germany, half-sister killed in Auschwitz, United States.
23. Sonia Herzbrun, survivor of Nazi genocide, France.
24. Ivan Huber, survivor with my parents, but 3 of 4 grandparents murdered, United States.
25. Altman Janina, survivor of Janowski concentration camp, Lvov. Lives in Israel.
26. Leibu Strul Zalman, survivor from Vaslui Romania. Lives in Jerusalem, Palestine.
27. Miriam Almeleh, survivor, United States.
28. George Bartenieff, child survivor from Germany and son of survivors, United States.
29. Margarete Liebstaedter, survivor, hidden by Christian people in Holland. Lives in Belgium.
30. Edith Bell, survivor of Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Kurzbach. Lives in United States.
31. Janine Euvrard, survivor, France.
32. Harry Halbreich, survivor, German.
33. Ruth Kupferschmidt, survivor, spent five years hiding, The Netherlands.

Children of survivors

34. Liliana Kaczerginski, daughter of Vilna ghetto resistance fighter and granddaughter of murdered in Ponary woods, Lithuania. Now lives in France.
35. Jean-Claude Meyer, son of Marcel, shot as a hostage by the Nazis, whose sister and parents died in Auschwitz. Now lives in France.
36. Chava Finkler, daughter of survivor of Starachovice labour camp, Poland. Now lives in Canada.
37. Micah Bazant, child of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
38. Sylvia Schwarz, daughter and granddaughter of survivors and granddaughter of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
39. Margot Goldstein, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
40. Ellen Schwarz Wasfi, daughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
41. Lisa Kosowski, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of Auschwitz victims, United States.
42. Daniel Strum, son of a refugee from Vienna, who, with his parents were forced to flee in 1939, his maternal grand-parents were lost, United States.
43. Bruce Ballin, son of survivors, some relatives of parents died in camps, one relative beheaded for being in the Baum Resistance Group, United States.
44. Rachel Duell, daughter of survivors from Germany and Poland, United States.
45. Tom Mayer, son of survivor and grandson of victims, United States.
46. Alex Nissen, daughter of survivors who escaped but lost family in the Holocaust, United States.
47. Mark Aleshnick, son of survivor who lost most of her family in Nazi genocide, United States.
48. Prof. Haim Bresheeth, son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, London.
49. Todd Michael Edelman, son and grandson of survivors and great-grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, United States.
50. Tim Naylor, son of survivor, New Zealand.
51. Victor Nepomnyashchy, son and grandson of survivors and grandson and relative of many victims, United States.
52. Tanya Ury, daughter of parents who fled Nazi Germany, granddaughter, great granddaugher and niece of survivors and those who died in concentration camps, Germany.
53. Rachel Giora, daughter of Polish Jews who fled Poland, Israel.
54. Jane Hirschmann, daughter of survivors, United States.
55. Jenny Heinz, daughter of survivor, United States.
56. Jaap Hamburger, son of survivors and grandchild of 4 grandparents murdered in Auschwitz, The Netherlands.
57. Elsa Auerbach, daughter of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, United States.
58. Julian Clegg, son and grandson of Austrian refugees, relative of Austrian and Hungarian concentration camp victims, Taiwan.
59. David Mizner, son of a survivor, relative of people who died in the Holocaust, United States.
60. Jeffrey J. Westcott, son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Germany, United States.
61. Susan K. Jacoby, daughter of parents who were refugees from Nazi Germany, granddaughter of survivor of Buchenwald, United States.
62. Audrey Bomse, daughter of a survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, lives in United States.
63. Daniel Gottschalk, son and grandson of refugees from the Holocaust, relative to various family members who died in the Holocaust, United States.
64. Barbara Grossman, daughter of survivors, granddaughter of Holocaust victims, United States.
65. Abraham Weizfeld PhD, son of survivorswho escaped Warsaw (Jewish Bundist) and Lublin ghettos, Canada.
66. David Rohrlich, son of refugees from Vienna, grandson of victim, United States.
67. Walter Ballin, son of holocaust survivors, United States.
68. Fritzi Ross, daughter of survivor, granddaughter of Dachau survivor Hugo Rosenbaum, great-granddaughter and great-niece of victims, United States.
69. Reuben Roth, son of survivors who fled from Poland in 1939, Canada.
70. Tony Iltis, father fled from Czechoslovakia and grandmother murdered in Auschwitz, Australia.
71. Anne Hudes, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria, great-granddaughter of victims who perished in Auschwitz, United States.
72. Mateo Nube, son of survivor from Berlin, Germany. Lives in United States.
73. John Mifsud, son of survivors from Malta, United States.
74. Mike Okrent, son of two holocaust / concentration camp survivors, United States.
75. Susan Bailey, daughter of survivor and niece of victims, UK.
76. Brenda Lewis, child of Kindertransport survivor, parent’s family died in Auschwitz and Terezin. Lives in Canada.
77. Patricia Rincon-Mautner, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of survivor, Colombia.
78. Barak Michèle, daughter and grand-daughter of a survivor, many members of family were killed in Auschwitz or Bessarabia. Lives in Germany.
79. Jessica Blatt, daughter of child refugee survivor, both grandparents’ entire families killed in Poland. Lives in United States
80. Maia Ettinger, daughter & granddaughter of survivors, United States.
81. Ammiel Alcalay, child of survivors from then Yugoslavia. Lives in United States.
82. Julie Deborah Kosowski, daughter of hidden child survivor, grandparents did not return from Auschwitz, United States.
83. Julia Shpirt, daughter of survivor, United States.
84. Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, grandson and son of survivors, The Netherlands.
85. Victor Ginsburgh, son of survivors, Belgium.
86. Arianne Sved, daughter of a survivor and granddaughter of victim, Spain.
87. Rolf Verleger, son of survivors, father survived Auschwitz, mother survived deportation from Berlin to Estonia, other family did not survive. Lives in Germany.
88. Euvrard Janine, daughter of survivors, France.
89. H. Fleishon, daughter of survivors, United States.
90. Barbara Meyer, daughter of survivor in Polish concentration camps. Lives in Italy.
91. Susan Heuman, child of survivors and granddaughter of two grandparents murdered in a forest in Minsk. Lives in United States.
92. Rami Heled, son of survivors, all grandparents and family killed by the Germans in Treblinka, Oswiecim and Russia. Lives in Israel.
93. Eitan Altman, son of survivor, France.
94. Jorge Sved, son of survivor and grandson of victim, United Kingdom
95. Maria Kruczkowska, daughter of Lea Horowicz who survived the holocaust in Poland. Lives in Poland.
96. Sarah Lanzman, daughter of survivor of Auschwitz, United States.
97. Cheryl W, daughter, granddaughter and nieces of survivors, grandfather was a member of the Dutch Underground (Eindhoven). Lives in Australia.
98. Chris Holmquist, son of survivor, UK.
99. Beverly Stuart, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Romania and Poland. Lives in United States.
100. Peter Truskier, son and grandson of survivors, United States.
101. Karen Bermann, daughter of a child refugee from Vienna. Lives in United States.
102. Rebecca Weston, daughter and granddaughter of survivor, Spain.
103. Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky, daughter of Holocaust survivors, London, UK.
104. Marion Geller, daughter and granddaughter of those who escaped, great-granddaughter and relative of many who died in the camps, UK.
105. Susan Slyomovics, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of Auschwitz, Plaszow, Markleeberg and Ghetto Mateszalka, United States.
106. Helga Fischer Mankovitz, daughter, niece and cousin of refugees who fled from Austria, niece of victim who perished, Canada.
107. Steinberg, daughter of survivors and grand daughter of victim killed in Auschwitz as well as all his family of Poland, France.
108. Michael Wischnia, son of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
109. Arthur Graaff, son of decorated Dutch resistance member and nazi victim, The Netherlands.
110. Johanna Haan, daughter and granddaughter of victims in the Netherlands. Lives in the Netherlands.
111. Aron Ben Miriam, son of and nephew of survivors from Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Salzwedel, Lodz ghetto. Lives in United States.

Grandchildren of survivors

112. Raphael Cohen, grandson of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
113. Emma Rubin, granddaughter of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
114. Alex Safron, grandson of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
115. Danielle Feris, grandchild of a Polish grandmother whose whole family died in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
116. Jesse Strauss, grandson of Polish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
117. Anna Baltzer, granddaughter of survivors whose family members perished in Auschwitz (others were members of the Belgian Resistance), United States.
118. Abigail Harms, granddaughter of Holocaust survivor from Austria, Now lives in United States.
119. Tessa Strauss, granddaughter of Polish Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
120. Caroline Picker, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
121. Amalle Dublon, grandchild and great-grandchild of survivors of the Nazi holocaust, United States.
122. Antonie Kaufmann Churg, 3rd cousin of Ann Frank and grand-daughter of NON-survivors, United States.
123. Aliza Shvarts, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
124. Linda Mamoun, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
125. Abby Okrent, granddaughter of survivors of the Auschwitz, Dachau, Stuttgart, and the Lodz Ghetto, United States.
126. Ted Auerbach, grandson of survivor whose whole family died in the Holocaust, United States.
127. Beth Bruch, grandchild of German Jews who fled to US and great-grandchild of Nazi holocaust survivor, United States.
128. Bob Wilson, grandson of a survivor, United States.
129. Katharine Wallerstein, granddaughter of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
130. Sylvia Finzi, granddaughter and niece of Holocaust victims murdered in Auschwitz, London and Berlin. Now lives in London.
131. Esteban Schmelz, grandson of KZ-Theresienstadt victim, Mexico City.
132. Françoise Basch, grand daughter of Victor and Ilona Basch murdered by the Gestapo and the French Milice, France.
133. Gabriel Alkon, grandson of Holocaust survivors, Untied States.
134. Nirit Ben-Ari, grandchild of Polish grandparents from both sides whose entire family was killed in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
135. Heike Schotten, granddaughter of refugees from Nazi Germany who escaped the genocide, United States.
136. Ike af Carlstèn, grandson of survivor, Norway.
137. Elias Lazarus, grandson of Holocaust refugees from Dresden, United States and Australia.
138. Laura Mandelberg, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, United States.
139. Josh Ruebner, grandson of Nazi Holocaust survivors, United States.
140. Shirley Feldman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
141. Nuno Cesar Ferreira, grandson of survivor, Brazil.
142. Andrea Land, granddaugher of survivors who fled programs in Poland, all European relatives died in German and Polish concentration camps, United States.
143. Sarah Goldman, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
144. Baruch Wolski, grandson of survivors, Austria.
145. Frank Amahran, grandson of survivor, United States.
146. Eve Spangler, granddaughter of Holocaust NON-survivor, United States.
147. Gil Medovoy, grandchild of Fela Hornstein who lost her enitre family in Poland during the Nazi genocide, United States.
148. Michael Hoffman, grandson of survivors, rest of family killed in Poland during Holocaust, live in El Salvador.
149. Sarah Hogarth, granddaughter of a survivor whose entire family was killed at Auschwitz, United States.
150. Tibby Brooks, granddaughter, niece, and cousin of victims of Nazis in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
151. Dan Berger, grandson of survivor, United States.
152. Dani Baurer, granddaughter of Baruch Pollack, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in United States.
153. Talia Baurer, granddaughter of a survivor, United States.
154. Evan Cofsky, grandson of survivor, UK.
155. Annie Sicherman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
156. Anna Heyman, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
157. Maya Ober, granddaughter of survivor and relative of deceased in Teresienstadt and Auschwitz, Tel Aviv.
158. Anne Haan, granddaughter of Joseph Slagter, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in The Netherlands.
159. Oliver Ginsberg, grandson of victim, Germany.
160. Alexia Zdral, granddaughter of Polish survivors, United States.
161. Mitchel Bollag, grandson of Stanislaus Eisner, who was living in Czechoslovakia before being sent to a concentration camp. United States.
162. Vivienne Porzsolt, granddaughter of victims of Nazi genocide, Australia.
163. Lisa Nessan, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
164. Kally Alexandrou, granddaughter of survivors, Australia.
165. Laura Ostrow, granddaughter of survivors, United States
166. Anette Jacobson, granddaughter of relatives killed, town of Kamen Kashirsk, Poland. Lives in United States.
167. Tamar Yaron (Teresa Werner), granddaughter and niece of victims of the Nazi genocide in Poland, Israel.
168. Antonio Roman-Alcalá, grandson of survivor, United States.
169. Jeremy Luban, grandson of survivor, United States.
170. Heather West, granddaughter of survivors and relative of other victims, United States.
171. Jeff Ethan Au Green, grandson of survivor who escaped from a Nazi work camp and hid in the Polish-Ukranian forest, United States.
172. Noa Shaindlinger, granddaughter of four holocaust survivors, Canada.
173. Merilyn Moos, granddaughter, cousin and niece murdered victims, UK.
174. Ruth Tenne, granddaughter and relative of those who perished in Warsaw Ghetto, London.
175. Craig Berman, grandson of Holocaust survivors, UK.
176. Nell Hirschmann-Levy, granddaughter of survivors from Germany. Lives in United States.
177. Osha Neumann, grandson of Gertrud Neumann who died in Theresienstadt. Lives in United States.
178. Georg Frankl, Grandson of survivor Ernst-Immo Frankl who survived German work camp. Lives in Germany.
179. Julian Drix, grandson of two survivors from Poland, including survivor and escapee from liquidated Janowska concentration camp in Lwow, Poland. Lives in United States.
180. Katrina Mayer, grandson and relative of victims, UK.
181. Avigail Abarbanel, granddaughter of survivors, Scotland.
182. Denni Turp, granddaughter of Michael Prooth, survivor, UK.
183. Fenya Fischler, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
184. Yakira Teitel, granddaughter of German Jewish refugees, great-granddaughter of survivor, United States.
185. Sarah, granddaughter of survivor, the Netherlands.
186. Susan Koppelman, granddaughter of survivor, United States
187. Hana Umeda, granddaughter of survivor, Warsaw.
188. Jordan Silverstein, grandson of two survivors, Canada.
189. Daniela Petuchowski, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
190. Aaron Lerner, grandson of survivors, United States.
191. Judith Bernstein, granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Auschwitz, Germany.
192. Samantha Wischnia, granddaughter and great niece of survivors from Poland, United States.
193. Elizabeth Wischnia, granddaughter and grand niece of three holocaust survivors, great aunt worked for Schindler, United States.
194. Daniel Waterman, grandson of survivor, The Netherlands.
195. Elana Baurer, granddaughter of survivor, United States.
196. Pablo Roman-Alcala, grandson of participant in the kindertransport and survivor, Germany.

Great grandchildren of survivors

197. Natalie Rothman, great granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Warsaw. Now lives in Canada.
198. Yotam Amit, great-grandson of Polish Jew who fled Poland, United States.
199. Daniel Boyarin, great grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
200. Maria Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors of the Holocaust, United States.
201. Mimi Erlich, great-granddaughter of Holocaust victim, United States.
202. Olivia Kraus, great-grandaughter of victims, granddaughter and daughter of family that fled Austria and Czechoslovakia. Lives in United States.
203. Emily (Chisefsky) Alma, great granddaughter and great grandniece of victims in Bialystok, Poland, United States.
204. Inbal Amin, great-granddaughter of a mother and son that escaped and related to plenty that didn’t, United States.
205. Matteo Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors, United States.
206. Saira Weiner, greatgranddaughter and niece of those murdered in the Holocaust, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
207. Andrea Isaak, great-granddaughter of survivor, Canada.

Other relatives of survivors

208. Terri Ginsberg, niece of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
209. Nathan Pollack, relative of Holocaust survivors and victims, United States.
210. Marcy Winograd, relative of victims, United States.
211. Rabbi Borukh Goldberg, relative of many victims, United States.
212. Martin Davidson, great-nephew of victims who lived in the Netherlands, Spain.
213. Miriam Pickens, relative of survivors, United States.
214. Dorothy Werner, spouse of survivor, United States.
215. Hyman and Hazel Rochman, relatives of Holocaust victims, United States.
216. Rich Siegel, cousin of victims who were rounded up and shot in town square of Czestochowa, Poland. Lives in United States.
217. Ignacio Israel Cruz-Lara, relative of survivor, Mexico.
218. Debra Stuckgold, relative of survivors, United States.
219. Joel Kovel, relatives killed at Babi Yar, United States.
220. Carol Krauthamer Smith, niece of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
221. Chandra Ahuva Hauptman, relatives from grandfather’s family died in Lodz ghetto, one survivor cousin and many deceased from Auschwitz, United States.
222. Shelly Weiss, relative of Holocaust victims, United States.
223. Carol Sanders, niece and cousin of victims of Holocaust in Poland, United States.
224. Sandra Rosen, great-niece and cousin of survivors, United States.
225. Raquel Hiller, relative of victims in Poland. Now lives in Mexico.
226. Alex Kantrowitz, most of father’s family murdered Nesvizh, Belarus 1941. Lives in United States.
227. Michael Steven Smith, many relatives were killed in Hungary. Lives in United States.
228. Linda Moore, relative of survivors and victims, United States.
229. Juliet VanEenwyk, niece and cousin of Hungarian survivors, United States.
230. Anya Achtenberg, grand niece, niece, cousin of victims tortured and murdered in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
231. Betsy Wolf-Graves, great niece of uncle who shot himself as he was about to be arrested by Nazis, United States.
232. Abecassis Pierre, grand-uncle died in concentration camp, France.
233. Robert Rosenthal, great-nephew and cousin of survivors from Poland. Lives in United States.
234. Régine Bohar, relative of victims sent to Auschwitz, Canada.
235. Denise Rickles, relative of survivors and victims in Poland. Lives in United States.
236. Louis Hirsch, relative of victims, United States.
237. Concepción Marcos, relative of victim, Spain.
238. George Sved, relative of victim, Spain.
239. Judith Berlowitz, relative of victims and survivors, United States.
240. Rebecca Sturgeon, descendant of Holocaust survivor from Amsterdam. Lives in UK.
241. Justin Levy, relative of victims and survivors, Ireland.
242. Sam Semoff, relative of survivors and victims, UK.
243. Leah Brown Klein, daughter-in-law of survivors Miki and Etu Fixler Klein, United States
244. Karen Malpede, spouse of hidden child who then fled Germany. Lives in United States
245. Michel Euvrard, husband of survivor, France.
246. Walter Ebmeyer, grandnephew of three Auschwitz victims and one survivor now living in Jerusalem, United States.
247. Garrett Wright, relative of victims and survivors, United States.

© 2014 IJAN.