News Release
February 16, 2015
Washington, D.C. – Eighty-two leading Holocaust and genocide scholars from around the world have sent a letter to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, protesting his embrace
of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his central role in the Darfur genocide.
In a photograph distributed worldwide by Reuters, Abbas was shown embracing Bashir at at the African Union summit in Ethiopia on January 30.
The letter of protest was organized by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C. It is the latest in a series of Wyman Institute initiatives seeking U.S. action to stop the Darfur atrocities and bring Bashir to justice.
“The first step in ending the genocide and other atrocities in Darfur, and in deterring future genocides, is for the international community to treat the perpetrators of genocide as pariahs, not as respected leaders. We urge you to reconsider your support for Bashir and his regime,” the letter argues.
The letter emphasizes that the atrocities in Darfur are continuing, pointing to the February 12 report in the New York Timesthat Bashir’s soldiers recently carried out the mass rape of more than 200 women and girls in Darfur.
The 82 signatories on the letter, who come from the United States, Canada, Israel, Belgium, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Panama, South Africa, and Hong Kong, include many of the most distinguished figures in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies. The signatories include:
* Prof. David S. Wyman, author of the best-selling The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945.
* Prof. Walter Reich, former executive director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
* Prof. Michael Berenbaum, former research director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
* Dr. Gemma Del Duca, director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.
The complete text of the letter, with all the signatories, follows below.
* * *
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
February 16, 2015
Hon. Mahmoud Abbas
President of the Palestinian Authority
Ramallah
Dear President Abbas,
As scholars who have written about the Holocaust or other genocides, we are writing to express our dismay at your embrace of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir at the African Union summit in Ethiopia on January 30, 2015.
President Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, for sponsoring the Arab militias, or janjaweed, that have carried out the slaughter of more than 300,000 members of non-Arab tribes in the Darfur region of Sudan. The ICC indicted him for “intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing, and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property.” According to the Save Darfur Coalition, the atrocities are continuing.
Just last week, the New York Times reported (Feb. 12, 2015) that Bashir’s soldiers recently carried out the mass rape of more than 200 women and girls in Darfur.
The first step in ending the genocide and other atrocities in Darfur, and in deterring future genocides, is for the international community to treat the perpetrators of genocide as pariahs, not as respected leaders. We urge you to reconsider your support for Bashir and his regime.
Sincerely,
Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi
Gautam Buddha University, India
Prof. Irving Abella
York University, Toronto
Prof. Marie L. Baird
Duquesne University
Prof. Paul Bartrop
Florida Gulf University
Dr. Harold Brackman
Simon Wisenthal Center
Prof. Michael Berenbaum
American Jewish University
Prof. Paul Bookbinder
University of Massachusetts-Boston
Sara E. Brown
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Prof. Daniel Burston
Duquesne University
Prof. Israel Charny
Institute on the Holocaust & Genocide
Eric Cohen
Chairperson, Investors Against Genocide
Dr. Menachem Daum
Documentary Filmmaker, Brooklyn NY
Dr. Thierry De Win
College du Sacre-Coeur, Brussels
Gemma Del Duca, S.C., Ph.D.
National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
Seton Hill University (emer.)
Prof. Michael Dobkowski
Hobart & William Smith Colleges
Prof. Deborah Dwork
Clark University
Dr. Helen Fein
Institute for the Study of Genocide
Prof. Jonathan C. Finkelstein (emer.)
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Prof. Zev Garber
Los Angeles Valley College (emer.)
Prof. Jay Geller
Vanderbilt Divinity School
Prof. Myrna Goldenberg
Montgomery College, MD (emer.)
Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem
Dr. Henry Gonshak
Montana Tech
Prof. Gershon Greenberg
American University
Dr. Elvira Groezinger
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, German Section
Dr. Alex Grobman
Prof. Sara R. Horowitz
York University, Toronto
Prof. Susannah Heschel
Dartmouth College
Prof. Robert K. Hitchcock
University of New Mexico
Prof. Steven L. Jacobs
University of Alabama
Janice Kamenir-Reznik
Co-Founder & President, Jewish World Watch
Prof. Katharina von Kellenbach
St. Mary’s College
Dr. Nili Keren
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Dr. Mark D. Kielsgard
City University Hong Kong
Hon. David Kilgour, J.D.
Former Secretary of State for Canada, Africa
Ottawa
Prof. Gerd Korman
Cornell University (emer.)
Dr. Neil Kressel
William Paterson University
The Reverend Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J.
Coordinator, Hiatt Holocaust Collection
College of the Holy Cross
Prof. Kevin Lewis
University of South Carolina
Islamic University of Gaza (1999)
Prof. Selma Leydesdorff
Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prof. Richard Libowitz
Temple University
Prof. Marcia Sachs Littell
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (emer.)
Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
Dr. Rafael Medoff
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Prof. Rochelle Millen
Wittenberg University (emer.)
Tali Nates
Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre
Prof. Stephen H. Norwood
University of Oklahoma
Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, Ph.D.
Catholic Theological Union
Prof. Michele Osherow
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Prof. Zsuzsanna Ozsvath
University of Texas at Dallas
Prof. Natalie Pavlik
Fundación Nunca Olvidar, Panamá (Never Forget)
Prof. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Ph.D.
Catholic Theological Union
Prof. Eunice G. Pollack
University of North Texas
Prof. Walter Reich
George Washington University
Dr. Carol Rittner, RSM
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Prof. Hedwig C. Rose
Visiting Fellow, Stanford University
Prof. Peter I. Rose
Visiting Fellow, Stanford University
Prof. Thane Rosenbaum
New York University
Prof. Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Indiana University
Prof. John K. Roth
Claremont McKenna College (emer.)
Prof. Richard L. Rubenstein
Florida State University
President Emeritus, University of Bridgeport
Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel
Director, Remember the Women Institute
Prof. Jonathan Sarna
Brandeis University
Prof. Victoria Sanford
Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies
Lehman College, City University of New York
Prof. Robert Moses Shapiro
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Prof. Robert Skloot (ret.)
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Prof. Leon Stein
Roosevelt University (emer.)
Dr. Oren Baruch Stier
Florida International University
Prof. Gisela Striker
Harvard University
Prof. Norton S. Taichman
University of Pennsylvania (emer.)
Prof. Peter Tarjan
University of Miami (emer.)
Prof. Gil Troy
McGill University
Prof. John H. Weiss
Cornell University
Prof. Sonja Schoepf Wentling
Concordia College
Prof. Linda M. Woolf
Webster University
Prof. David S. Wyman
University of Massachusetts-Amherst (emer.)
Prof. Randall C. Zachman
University of Notre Dame
Prof. John C. Zimmerman
University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Dr. Bat-Ami Zucker
Bar Ilan University
Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Director, Simon Wiesenthal Center – Israel Office
(Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)