As a Jewish people, we are all too familiar with genocide. When we say “never again” it not only means standing up for ourselves, but for people of other faiths or nationalities who are being systematically persecuted and killed. Today, that means speaking out on behalf of Christians in parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as religious minorities in northern Iraq who are being murdered by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). As such, our Federation’s Board of Rabbis is a proud signatory of this letter to President Obama, drafted by Jewish World Watch. Below is the text of the letter he received:
Dear President Obama,
We join with JWW and leaders of faith communities who are watching the escalating crisis in northern Iraq with mounting alarm. The Islamic State poses a serious genocidal threat to religious minorities in northern Iraq as well as Sunni and Shia Muslims that reject the Islamic State’s barbaric killings and violation of Islamic beliefs. Territorial gains by the Islamic State have been followed swiftly by its deeply rooted exclusionary ideology – and a policy requiring non-Muslim civilians to “convert or die” and Sunni and Shia Muslims to “submit or die” that has resulted in brutal massacres.
We are deeply troubled by the immediate crisis facing tens of thousands of Yazidi civilians in this region, who face threat of extermination by the Islamic State simply because of their religious beliefs. We commend your Administration’s decision to defend the Yazidis, and strongly support your authorization of food drops for the Yazidi population and airstrikes against the Islamic State forces holding them under siege. These actions provided a small window for thousands of Yazidi civilians to escape the siege on Mt. Sinjar, where they had remained trapped without food or water and in dire conditions.
While your Administration has acted admirably in response to this threat against civilian life, the danger posed by the Islamic State is far from over and much more remains to be done. In particular, we note that the report by an assessment team sent by your Administration that the siege on Mt. Sinjar is effectively over has been fiercely contradicted by Yazidi leaders, relief agencies and UN officials. These groups claim that tens of thousands of Yazidi lives still hang precariously in the balance on the southern flank of the mountain, missed by your assessment team.
On Sunday, August 17, at least 80 Yazidi men were executed by the Islamic State for refusing to convert to Islam. More than 1.000 women and girls were kidnapped by Islamic State forces, ostensibly with the intent of forcing conversion and “marrying” them to Islamic State fighters and sympathizers.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State executed 700 Sunni members of the al-Sheitat tribe in Syria over the past two weeks because of their refusal to accept Islamic State rule. In June, virtually all Christian families in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were forced to flee after the Islamic State threatened to exterminate them, marking all Christian households with red paint. ISIS has also killed hundreds of Christians in both Iraq and Syria, with reports of beheadings and crucifixions.
We ask you to continue and strengthen your actions in defense of Yazidi, Christians, religious minorities and oppressed Sunni and Shia Muslims in northern Iraq.
We also note that the immediate threat to Yazidis, Christians, religious minorities and oppressed Muslims is taking place in a larger context of instability in Iraq and the region. Other recent attacks have displaced over 200,000 people bringing the total number of internally displaced persons in Iraq to 1.4 million in 2014. As you have noted, these broader challenges will require long term approaches.
We welcomed the launch of a massive UN relief mission and the unified position of the UN Security Council in adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2170 introducing sanctions aimed to stem financing of the Islamic State and other groups causing instability in the region. We urge you to continue to work with the Iraqi government and multilaterally with the United Nations to address these broader challenges, even as you remain prepared to act to protect civilians from immediate mass slaughter.
We strongly believe in the protection of civilians of any faith from mass slaughter based on their beliefs. We have seen your willingness to act swiftly and with compassion to protect religious minorities under threat in northern Iraq. As we join together, we urge you to join with world leaders to continue to protect those in Iraq who remain at risk of atrocities.
