|
| |
The Blood of your Neighbor
Jewish tradition teaches us, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your
neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16). Conservative Jews worldwide have a moral obligation
to help end the bloodshed in Sudan and ease the humanitarian crisis.
Arab militias (known as Janjaweed) are conducting a violent campaign of ethnic
cleansing against the black African population in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Currently, 2.3 million people in Darfur require emergency assistance. An
estimated 3,000 will die there every day for the next 120 days – of which about
75% will be children under age five.
The Conservative Movement strongly condemns the ongoing violence and the
Sudanese government’s failure to end it. We urge the following actions:
- We strongly encourage all Conservative Jews to contribute funds to help
alleviate the suffering of the Darfur refugees through the Jewish Coalition
for Sudan Relief (see www.uscj.org for
more information on how to contribute);
- We call upon the United States government and its citizens to provide
greater resources to help alleviate the human suffering in Darfur;
- We praise the US Administration for its continuing efforts to pressure
the Sudanese government to end the violence and ease the humanitarian
crisis, and we praise the recent high-profile visits by U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, which have helped
to bring more international attention to this crisis;
- We strongly urge the US Administration to work to persuade the United
Nations Security Council to take effective action that will halt these
continued atrocities; and
- We call upon all Conservative Jews around the world to contact their
respective government leaders to denounce the killings in Darfur and to
advocate for an effective international solution to the crisis (information
on effective strategies for political advocacy can be found at
www.uscj.org).
|
