As Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented.”
THE U.S. Holocaust Museum revoked the Elie Wiesel Award from aung san suu kyi because, as they correctly determined, she no longer represents the ideals of the award and has failed to even attempt to stop the ethnic cleansing of Rhohinga in Burma / Myanmar. My question to the directors of the Holocaust Museum is this, who in Israeli politics, the Israeli military and among Israeli religious and society leadership represents those ideals in regards to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank? Before any Palestinians get too smug, the same can be asked of Palestinian politics, military and religious and society leadership. Israelis and Palestinians both tolerate political, military, religious and societal leadership that promotes violence, hatred, ignorance and intolerance among Christians, Jews and Muslims. Why? I used to think the majority of people on both sides wanted peace, but more and more I doubt they do, and that is sad. Sad mostly because they are raising their children to know nothing but hate, violence, and war. What would Elie Wiesel say and do? From the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum / USHMM, Aljazeera and the Times Of Israel.....
Museum Rescinds Award to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
March 6, 2018
State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
via H.E. Ambassador Aung Lynn
Embassy of Myanmar
2300 S Street, NW
Washington, DC, 20008
Dear State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
As a living memorial to the Holocaust, the Museum’s mission is to inspire citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Preventing genocide is at the core of our work every day. Based on inspiration that you created for millions around the world, with your long resistance to military dictatorship, and your advocacy for freedom and human rights for all the people of Myanmar, we were honored to present you with the first Elie Wiesel Award in 2012. It is with great regret that we are now rescinding that award. We did not take this decision lightly.
In recent years, the Museum has been closely monitoring the military’s campaign against the Rohingya and your response to it. In November 2013, we held a public event at the Museum to call attention to our growing concerns, titled: “Our Walls Bear Witness: The Plight of Burma’s Rohingya.” Since that time, we have undertaken numerous visits to Myanmar and Bangladesh to obtain firsthand evidence so that we can fully understand the extent of the persecution and crimes committed, as well as the motivations and actions of all the responsible parties.
In May 2015, we published “They Want Us All to Go Away,” which documented the early warning signs of genocide. Last November, we released detailed findings based on research on the ground documenting crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and what we termed “mounting evidence of genocide” committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya civilians since October 2016. Regrettably over the last five years the situation has become progressively worse and today seems untenable for the Rohingya population.
As the military’s attacks against the Rohingya unfolded in 2016 and 2017, we had hoped that you—as someone we and many others have celebrated for your commitment to human dignity and universal human rights—would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population.
The National League for Democracy, under your leadership, has instead refused to cooperate with United Nations investigators, promulgated hateful rhetoric against the Rohingya community, and denied access to and cracked down on journalists trying to uncover the scope of the crimes in Rakhine State.
We understand the difficult situation you must face in confronting decades of military misrule and violence in your country and that institution’s still powerful constitutional role. However, the military’s orchestration of the crimes against Rohingya and the severity of the atrocities in recent months demand that you use your moral authority to address this situation. While Myanmar has taken important first steps on the road to democracy, any transition that does not protect the country’s most vulnerable communities will be deeply flawed.
As we have said in the past, we urge you to use your unique standing and your official role as State Counsellor and Foreign Minister to cooperate with international efforts, such as the Fact-Finding Mission mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the work of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, to establish the truth about the atrocities committed in Rakhine State and secure accountability for perpetrators.
We also urge you to lead an effort to review and amend the 1982 Citizenship Law, which has rendered most Rohingya stateless, so that it is aligned with international standards and allows equal access to full citizenship rights regardless of ethnicity. You can expand access for both local and international aid workers to administer life-saving assistance. Finally, we urge you to condemn the hateful, dehumanizing language directed toward the Rohingya.
As a living memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, the Museum stands in solidarity with victims of genocide and atrocity crimes and attempts to do for victims today what was not done for the Jews of Europe. As Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented.”
Sincerely,
Sara J. Bloomfield
Israeli troops enter Burin to 'confiscate' more land
Israeli troops have used tear gas to disperse dozens of Palestinian villagers, including several schoolchildren, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, according to a local official.
Israeli forces have also arrested 16 Palestinians in overnight raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the army said in a Monday statement.
Translation: Israeli occupation forces throw tear gas canisters near school students in the village of Burin, southwest of Nablus.
Burin land confiscations
Yahia Kadous, head of Burin village's municipal council, told Anadolu news agency that Israeli forces entered the village, with a view of informing the council of an Israeli decision to confiscate a parcel of land owned by a local secondary school.
According to Kadous, however, council members refused to meet Israeli army personnel or receive any notifications.
"Afterwards, soldiers started firing tear gas canisters at the school, terrifying students," he said, adding that the army sought to confiscate Palestinian land in the village on the pretext of "maintaining security".
In recent years, Kadous asserted, the Israeli authorities had seized roughly 1,000 square meters of the school's property and now sought to confiscate more.
Surrounded by three, Jewish-only, illegal settlements, Burin is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli troops and Jewish settlers, who occasionally attack the school and Palestinian homes in the village.
Overnight raids
Israeli forces have arrested 16 Palestinians in overnight raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the army said in a Monday statement.
According to Palestinian figures, roughly 6,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including dozens of women and 300 minors.
Some 450 of these are under what Israel calls "administrative detention" where they face no trial or charge. Twelve members of the Palestinian Legislative Council also remain in Israeli custody.
The Israeli army frequently carries out arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank under the pretext of searching for "wanted" Palestinians.
US Holocaust Museum withdraws award to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi
Memorial says recognition no longer fitting in light of former human rights icon's failure to stop ethnic cleansing of Rohingya
7 March 2018, 6:54 pm
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a national address in Naypyidaw on September 19, 2017. (AFP/Ye Aung Thu)
The United States Holocaust Museum has withdrawn the human rights award it gave to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi over her failure to stop or even recognize the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country.
“We did not take this decision lightly,” the museum wrote in a letter dated Tuesday and posted on its website Wednesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi became a human rights icon during her 15 years of house arrest under Myanmar’s former military dictators. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — just one of many prestigious honors.
She was the second person to receive the Holocaust Museum’s award, after the late Holocaust survivor, author and museum co-founder Elie Wiesel, for whom the award is named.
The Elie Wiesel Award is given annually “to an internationally prominent individual whose actions have advanced the Museum’s vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide and promote human dignity.”
But, the museum said, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was no longer living up to that ideal.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum Honors Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma VOA Burmese
“We had hoped that you — as someone we and many others have celebrated for your commitment to human dignity and universal human rights — would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population,” the letter read.
Instead, her National League for Democracy had “promulgated hateful rhetoric against the Rohingya community,” refused to cooperate with the UN and blocked access to journalists, the letter said.
The museum acknowledged “the difficult situation you must face in confronting decades of military misrule,” but urged her to cooperate with United Nations investigators and to help bring those responsible to justice as well as to amend a 1982 law that stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship.
The letter ended by quoting from Elie Wiesel: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Some 700,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar to Bangladesh since late August, when Myanmar security forces began sweeps through Rakhine after attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group. There are credible accounts of widespread human rights abuses, including rape, the torching of homes and killings, carried out against the Rohingya, leading to accusations that Myanmar is guilty of “ethnic cleansing,” or even genocide.
Rohingya Muslim refugees carry food distributed by the Bangladeshi army at the Balukhali refugee camp near Gumdhum on September 26, 2017. (AFP/Dominique Faget)
On Tuesday, the senior UN official for human rights said it is impossible to safely send Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh back to Myanmar because widespread and systematic violence appeared to be continuing against them in Myanmar, amounting to “ethnic cleansing.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said in a statement that during a four-day visit to Bangladesh, refugees told him “credible accounts of continued killings, rape, torture and abductions, as well as forced starvation” in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine.
Myanmar’s government denies such abuses and announced in January that it was ready to accept the refugees back.
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