To the Green Party of Germany:
An Appeal from American Jews
We are Jewish Americans who are deeply concerned that the memory and tragedy
of the Holocaust is being invoked in order to justify an unjust bombing
campaign against the civilian population of Yugoslavia. Many of us have
friends who lost family members in the Holocaust, or have lost relatives
ourselves. We are deeply aware of our own history and the need for the world
community to intervene in situations where there is a threat of genocide, in
order to prevent it.
However, this is clearly not what is happening in Yugoslavia
today. We do not believe that our government‘s war against Yugoslavia is
motivated by humanitarian concerns. This is evidenced by their refusal
to airlift food and water to desperate refugees within Kosovo, as well
as the paltry sums allocated for refugee relief as compared to the
billions of dollars spent on the bombing. The Clinton Administration‘s
great reluctance to pursue a negotiated solution to the conflict also
indicates that this intervention is mainly about power: showing the
world that the United States (and NATO, which it largely controls) is
the self-appointed international policeman, and stands above
international law and the United Nations.
They are waging their war against civilians, destroying the
Yugoslav economy and killing hundreds of innocent people, in order to
demonstrate and consolidate their power. Many supporters of the bombing
have drawn analogies to the Holocaust, arguing that the world cannot
simply stand by in the face of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. But the
bombing has greatly worsened the situation of the Kosovar Albanians, as
is now universally recognized. It has also destroyed the pro-democracy
movement within Yugoslavia, and is destabilizing neighboring countries.
We urge you to reject these false and exaggerated analogies to
the Holocaust and World War II, which are being used to garner support
for a bombing campaign that is intensifying the suffering of all
nationalities in Yugoslavia. We appeal to the Green Party of Germany to
oppose this war, and to support a negotiated solution of the conflict.
- Noam Chomsky Institute Professor of Linguistics Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
- Edward S. Herman Professor Emeritus, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania
- Mark Weisbrot Research Director, Preamble Center
- Dean Baker Senior Research Fellow, Preamble Center
- Robert Naiman Research Associate, Preamble Center
(Organizations listed for identification only).
Note: The above letter could make a difference in helping to
stop the bombing of Yugoslavia. We have just 6 days to gather signatures
and deliver it to the Green Party of Germany, which is meeting on
Thursday, May 13. Many Green Party members are very angry about their
party‘s support of bombing, and if the conference votes to oppose the
bombing, the ruling Social Democratic-Green Party alliance will be under
tremendous pressure to change its policies or risk the collapse of its
coalition government. We are circulating this letter from American Jews
because in Germany (as in the US), many liberal and progressive people
are being told that those who oppose the bombing of Yugoslavia are
committing the same mistake as those who failed to intervene in the
events leading up to the Holocaust. We disagree strongly, as explained
below. Please circulate this letter as widely and rapidly as you can,
especially through e-mail and web sites. To sign on, simply return your
name, and any title or organizational affiliation (it will be made clear
that this is for identification only) to:
naimanr@preamble.org.
haGalil onLine - Dienstag 11-05-99 |