Israel Matzav

Will Samantha Power speak out?

Behind a paywall at Boston's Jewish Advocate, Elihu Richter calls on new 'atrocities board' chief Samantha Power to speak out against verbal genocide. The call is likely in vain (Hat Tip: Ricky G).

Rwanda served as a reminder that words kill. It was a lesson we previously learned at the Nuremberg Trials, where Julius Streicher, the editor of the viciously anti-Semitic newspaper Der Sturmer, was executed for incitement. In February 2006, the International Association of Genocide Scholars endorsed a resolution calling on the world to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide, Holocaust denial, human rights abuses and pursuit of nuclear weapons. The US House of Representatives passed its own resolution backing that of the association.

In July 2007, I wrote Power – then a professor at Harvard – asking her to lobby the US government to take executive action. I followed up by calling her research assistant.

Power never answered.

At the time, then-Senator Joseph Biden – chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee – personally blocked introduction of the House resolution in the Senate, according to the Jerusalem Post. As Barack Obama marched to the White House, the soon-to-be victorious Democrats embraced “engagement with Iran” – which in retrospect bore disturbing parallels to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler.

To date, despite economic sanctions, Iran continues to incite genocide with its propaganda, invite Armageddon with its nuclear program, and promote terror with its support of Hezbollah and Syria’s suppression of rebels.

I call upon Power to push for a doctrine of Zero Tolerance for Incitement. That means:

• Applying existing international laws to deter and punish hate language and incitement by Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and all other powers in the region;

• Using the lever of US aid to set tough ground rules against incitement for the Islamist regimes who have taken over in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in Pakistan;

• Using the lever of US aid to stop Palestinian incitement, such as President Mahmoud Abbas’ glorification of terrorists who intentionally kill civilians; and

• Mobilizing international pressure to protect and guarantee the human rights of all threatened minorities, including

Copts in post-revolution Egypt; Armenians, Christians and Assyrians in Turkey and Iraq; Baha’i and Kurds in Iran; and Christians and Jews in territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

If Power’s Prevention Board is to live up to its name, it must respond to the warning signs of atrocities, not sit back until the slaughter begins.

Don't hold your breath.

Labels: genocide, Samantha Power

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:34 AM