World Union of Progressive Judaism
Joint statement with the International Humanist and Ethical Union and
Association for World Education

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: 10th Session (2– 24 March 2009) Item 3, General Debate
Speaker: IHEU representative, David Cornut: Monday (am) 16 March 2009

The Prevention of Genocide

Thank you, Mr President.

We welcome the report of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide [A/HRC/10/30] and note that in February 2009, he urged

“that any decision by the International Criminal Court regarding the request for indictment of Pres. Omar al-Bashir should under no circumstances lead to reprisals that would expose civilians in Darfur or in any other part of the country to even greater levels of violence, including the risk of genocide.”

Yet this is exactly what has happened.

This Council, the African Union, the Arab League, and the OIC can no longer afford to remain silent in the face of possible genocide.

The part played by the media in creating the genocidal atmosphere in both Nazi Germany and in Rwanda are now well understood. In this connection we wish to draw the attention of the Council to two broadcasts made recently on the Egyptian TV channel Al-Rahma (Mercy) TV.

On 6 January 2009 in an interview, the Egyptian cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar called for a jihad against the Jews. He said:

“I am absolutely calling to wage jihad against the Jews who are devils in human form”. [1]

The second broadcast was made on 26 Jan. 2009 on the same channel by Egyptian Cleric Amin Al-Ansari to mark Holocaust Day. Commenting on footage of extermination camp inmates, Ansari says:

“These are Jews who are being prepared to be burnt. Look, these are Jews dying of hunger or by gas. Look how they round them up and put them on trucks…. Allah be praised. 'Abasement and humiliation were brought down upon them, and they became deserving of Allah’s wrath’.

“Look what starvation [the Germans] inflicted upon them…. These are people being buried alive. Does this look like a human being? He is placed in a ditch to be buried alive. This is a pile of bodies … Allah Be Praised... These are bodies of the Jews being loaded like animals... This is what we hope will happen, but, Allah willing, at the hand of the Muslims.” [2]

Sir, these broadcasts are in clear breach of the limits to freedom of expression set out in articles 19 & 20 of the ICCPR. They are precisely the kind of incitement to hatred that has in the past led to genocide – and could do so again. We call on the Council, the OIC and the Egyptian government to condemn this, and all similar incitements to genocide, without equivocation, and to take steps to ban all such incitement from their media. [In this context, we refer to our written statement A/HRC/10/NGO/29: Defamation of Judaism and Jews by ISESCO (OIC): 60th UDHR Anniversary at the UN: and our joint oral statement under item 2 (6 March, a.m.)]

Thank you Mr. President

1 www.memritv.org/clip/en/2033.htm
2 MEMRI Special Dispatch 2215