Darfur: A Jewish Response - Pears Foundation

www.pearsfoundation.org.uk 

Registered Charity No: 1009195 

© The Pears Foundation 2007 

Darfur 

A Jewish Response 

Produced by The Pears Foundation 

With a Foreword from Henry Grunwald QC 

President, The Board of Deputies of British Jews

Compiled by Hannah Weisfeld 

Edited by Alex Singer and Charles Keidan 

Design and layout by Glen Powell, The Aegis Trust Media Studio 

Front Cover photograph shows a burning village in Darfur and is reprinted courtesy of Brian Steidle 

Contents 

Foreword 3 

Introduction 4 

Background to the Genocide 5 

A Jewish Response 11 

Action you can take 

What you can do in your 

17 

synagogue 19 

What you can do in your School 

What you can do in your youth 

24 

movement or Jewish society 25 

Films, books, articles 27 

Useful contacts 29 

Appendices 

Programming ideas 31 

Resources 34 

Testimonies 41 

Sample letter 43 

Maps 44 

Timeline of events 45 

Acknowledgements 48 

The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pears Foundation

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Darfur: A Jewish Response 

FOREWORD 

“NEITHER A PERPETRATOR 

NOR A BYSTANDER BE” 

The Jewish communities of Europe know all too well how genocide can occur 

and what its effects can be. We still suffer from the loss of one third of the 

world’s Jewish population in the Holocaust. We are all too aware of what 

happens when good people do not stand up against prejudice and persecution. 

Even as Nazi persecution grew in the 1930s, the warning signs were ignored. 

The world stood by. 

Today, seventy years on, the world again stands by as the horrors of Darfur take 

place before its eyes. 

As Jews, we have a duty, not only to our fellow Jews, but also to the wider world. 

This booklet reminds us of that duty and of our responsibility to our fellow 

human beings. Even more significantly, it tells us how we can make a 

difference; and, make no mistake, each one of us can and must make a 

difference. 

It is too late for the hundreds of thousands who have already died. There is still 

time for the millions at risk, but only if the world acts. 

There is no excuse for standing by and doing nothing. 

I commend The Pears Foundation for the publication of this booklet, and, in 

advance, I commend you, the reader, for what you will do, when you have read 

it, to ensure that both the Jewish and the wider community wake up before it is 

too late. 

Henry Grunwald QC 

President, Board of Deputies of British Jews 

INTRODUCTION 

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? 

If I am only for myself, what am I?… 

Since 2003, a Government backed militia called the ‘Janjaweed’ 

has waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide 

against black African tribes in Darfur, western Sudan. 

Up to four hundred thousand men, women and children have 

died. A further two million people have fled their homes, with 

200,000 living in refugee camps in Chad and the remaining 

languishing in camps for internally displaced persons in Darfur. 

The aim of this booklet is to give Jewish communities in Europe 

the tools to understand and respond to this grave situation. 

In so doing, contributors are both drawing upon, and reinforcing, 

Jewish traditions of social responsibility, universal human rights 

and the striving to create a more just world for all its inhabitants 

regardless of race, religion or nationality. 

The opening chapter provides the background and context to the 

crisis; this is followed by ‘Jewish responses’, a set of Jewish 

sources and interpretations on our imperative to fight injustice. 

Other sections focus on specific action that you can take, 

whether in your synagogue, your school or youth movement, and 

through various campaign organisations. 

Surely it is time to restore meaning to the pledge ‘Never Again’? 

Trevor Pears 

Executive Chair, The Pears Foundation 

…And if not now, when?” 

(Hillel) 

4

© Aegis Trust 

5 


BACKGROUND TO THE GENOCIDE 

DARFUR, SUDAN 

Darfur, a region roughly two-thirds the size of France, is located 

in the west of Africa’s largest country, Sudan. The 34 million 

inhabitants of Sudan span multiple religious, ethnic and socioeconomic 

divides; an estimated 70% are Muslim, while 25% are 

Animist and 5% Christian, 

of African or Arab origin, 

living nomadic or 

sedentary lives. 

The six million citizens of 

Darfur, whilst being 

members of one of the 

estimated 36 different 

ethnic tribes in the area, 

are almost all Muslim of 

either African or Arab 

origin. Sudan was ruled 

as an Anglo-Egyptian 

Condominium from 1899 

until it gained 

independence in 1956, 

since when weak and 

unstable governance has 

characterised the country, according to the British Foreign Office. 

There is a history of peaceful coexistence between the African 

and Arab peoples in the Darfur region. Human Rights Watch 

describes how disputes were traditionally settled through 

mediation by their leaders, and how intermarriage between 

ethnic groups was common. However, the United Nations 

reports that since the 1970s Darfur has experienced localised 

violence caused partially by competition over scarce resources 

and severe underdevelopment and exacerbated by ethnic, 

economic and political marginalisation by the government. 

NORTH – SOUTH CIVIL WAR AND 

COMPREHENSIVE PEACE AGREEMENT, 

1983 - 2005 

Sudan’s longest conflict, between the Government and the 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the main 

rebel movement in the south, ended in 2005. According to the 

United Nations, at least 2 million people were killed and a further 

4 million were displaced during the war over resources, power, 

the role of religion in the state, and self-determination. The 

present government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir came 

to power in a military coup in 1989 and, ruling by decree, 

immediately banned all political parties except his own National 

Islamic Front.* Although the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 

of January 2005 formally ended the fighting, International Crisis 

Group reports that it is hampered by the continued lack of 

broader support throughout the country, particularly in the North. 

It believes that the current equation for peace in Sudan is a 

worrying one: the Government has the capacity to implement the 

agreement but lacks the political will, whereas the SPLM/A has 

the commitment but is weak and disorganised. 

* Renamed the National Congress Party in 1998 

Source: Aegis Trust 

THE CURRENT CONFLICT IN DARFUR 

The current crisis in Darfur began in April 2003. The indigenous 

farming population of Darfur has been at the centre of a brutal 

civil conflict between the Sudanese 

government and their proxy-forces, 

and rebel groups drawn from the Fur, 

Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups. 

Claiming years of political, economic 

and social exclusion in Darfur, and 

frustrated by a lack of investment, 

underdevelopment, neglect, poverty 

and racial discrimination, two 


separate groups of Darfuris emerged 

and rose up against the Khartoum government of President al- 

Bashir. 

Janjaweed militia moving through village, December 2004. Source Human Rights Watch 

THE REBEL GROUPS 

The mainly African-origin sedentary farmers from the Fur, 

Massaleet and Zagawa communities make up the Sudanese 

Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and 

Equality Movement (JEM). Whilst having very different ideologies 

they coordinated attacks on government targets. The April 2003 

attack on the al-Fashir airport killed some seventy members of 

the Sudanese army and destroyed several planes. 

JANJAWEED MILITIAS 

The government responded by launching air strikes and arming 

the Janjaweed. This combination of air and ground attacks has 

become a signature of the conflict in Darfur. 

The British Government acknowledges that the Government of 

Sudan is arming and mobilising nomadic Arab militias known as 

the ‘Janjaweed’. It is widely documented by humanitarian aid 

organisations and monitoring agencies working on the ground 

that the Janjaweed - armed nomadic Arab men on horses or 

camels - is conducting a ‘scorched earth’ policy in Darfur. 

Reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 

the Aegis Trust illustrate the ‘systematic use of indiscriminate 

aerial bombardment’ of villages [by Sudanese government 

aircraft], and the subsequent surrounding and burning of the 

villages by Janjaweed militiamen who loot, slaughter and rape. 

© Mia Farrow 

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CIVILIANS ATTACKED 

Although numbers are unclear, the United Nations estimates that 

the crisis has, since 2003, claimed over 200,000 lives, although 

aid agencies believe as many as 400,000 people could have 

been killed. Another two million civilians have been displaced 

and are living in refugee camps. 

A Sudanese helicopter gunship attacks the village of Labado in Darfur 

© Brian Steidle 

There is abundant evidence - testimonies collected from 

witnesses, survivors and refugees by aid agencies, human rights 

organisations, and journalists - detailing sightings of government 

aircraft bombing villages, and describing armed men on 

horseback or camelback burning down entire villages, and using 

murder, rape, abduction, looting and destroying food stocks as 

weapons to instil fear and displace the civilian population. 

According to a 2005 report by the United Nations International 

Commission of Inquiry, there have been ‘serious violations of 

international human rights law and international humanitarian law, 

including crimes against humanity or war crimes’ perpetrated by 

the Government of Sudan, the Arab militias and the rebels. 

DARFUR PEACE AGREEMENT – MAY 2006 

A peace agreement was signed in May 2006 between the 

Sudanese government and the main faction of the rebel Sudan 

Liberation Army led by Minni Minawi. Two other rebel 

movements including JEM refused to sign however, claiming it 

failed to sufficiently address key issues, putting the DPA on 

uncertain ground from the outset. Few of the agreement’s 

deadlines have been met, and fighting has increased since the 

Agreement was signed, including a surge in fighting between 

and within the rebel factions. 

IS IT A GENOCIDE? 

The term ‘genocide’ was coined in the early 1930s by a Jewish- 

Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, who, inspired partly by the crimes 

committed against the Armenians in the First World War, 

combined the Greek word ‘genos’ (race or tribe) with the Latin 

word ‘cide’ (to kill). After witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust 

- in which every member of his family except his brother and 

himself was killed - Dr Lemkin campaigned to have genocide 

recognised as a crime under international law. His efforts led to 

the adoption of the UN Convention on Genocide in December 

1948, which came 

into effect in 

January 1951. 

Article Two of the 

convention defines 

genocide as ‘any of 

the following acts 

committed with the 

intent to destroy, in 

whole or in part, a 

national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: 

(a) Killing members of the group; 

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of 

the group; 

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life 

calculated to bring about its physical destruction in 

whole or in part; 


(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the 

group; 

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another 

group’ 

THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE 

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY 

On 9th September 2004 Secretary of State Colin Powell 

declared, on behalf of the US Administration, that ‘genocide has 

been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and 

the Janjaweed bear responsibility’. All signatories to the 1948 

Genocide Convention are obligated to ‘commit to preventing and 

punishing genocide’. 

The United Nations has shied away from labelling the events in 

Darfur as ‘genocide’ but stated in its 2005 International 

Commission of Inquiry that ‘crimes against humanity and war 

crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less 

serious and heinous than genocide’. 


In 2005 the UN adopted the Responsibility to Protect meaning that 

if a country cannot or will not protect its citizens from genocide, 

war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, then it 

must accept support or assistance from other nations to end the 

violence. When peaceful means are exhausted and leaders of a 

UN member state are ‘manifestly failing to protect their 

populations’, then other states have the responsibility to take 

collective action through the Security Council. 

The British government ‘continues to be gravely concerned’ 

about the ‘intolerable situation’ in Darfur yet does not refer to it as 

genocide. Speaking on 27th March 2007, Tony Blair stated, “We 

need to consider a no-fly zone to prevent the use of Sudanese 

air power against refugees and displaced people”. However the 

8

9 


British Government’s messages are mixed, with the deportation 

of Darfuris from the UK back to Khartoum, along with the refusal 

of many asylum claims, despite the UN High Commissioner for 

Refugees stating it is too dangerous for them to return and 

despite new evidence obtained by Aegis Trust of the torture of 

Darfuris returned to Khartoum. 

The Sudanese government variously describes the conflict as 

‘tribal clashes’, accuses journalists and human rights groups of 

‘fabricating’ the situation, and denies having any control over the 

Janjaweed militias, despite considerable evidence collated by 

human rights organisations showing that militia continue to be 

‘paid, armed, organised and directed by army military intelligence 

and other officers, with assistance from civilian state and 

national officials’ (Human Rights Watch, 2007). 

THE AFRICAN UNION MISSION IN SUDAN 

(AMIS) 

The African Union mediated a ceasefire in April 2004 between 

the Khartoum government and Darfur rebel groups and 

deployed a small monitoring team. In 2005 this mandate was 

extended to protecting 

aid convoys and civilians 

under ‘imminent threat’. 

The approximately 7,000 

AU troops and police 

officers are constrained 

by a weak mandate and 

limited capacity, 

preventing them from 

proactively stopping 

attacks on civilians. Insufficient troop numbers, limited 

equipment, poor training and logistics all limit the mission’s 

effectiveness in protecting the civilian population. 


THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE 

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT 

The UN already has a peacekeeping mandate for southern 

Sudan as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In 

August 2006 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1706 

authorising the deployment of up to 17,300 military personnel 

and 3,300 civilian police to Darfur, calling for rapid reinforcement 

of the AU mission and a Chapter VII mandate for civilian 

protection. President Bashir, equating the UN Resolution to 

‘Western invasion’, has resisted strong diplomatic pressure for 

the UN to take control of the AMIS mission, and in March 2007 

reneged on an agreement in November 2006 to allow UN 

peacekeepers into Darfur to protect civilians. China’s close 

oil-related relationship with Sudan has raised difficulties at the 

United Nations Security Council where it is a permanent member 

with the power of veto. 

The Security Council passed a resolution in April 2006 imposing 

sanctions against four Sudanese nationals accused of war 

crimes in Darfur, despite its own Commission of Inquiry 

recommending 17 individuals for targeted sanctions. 

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has indicted a 

government Minister and a Janjaweed official, accusing them of 

committing war crimes. 

REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED 

PERSONS (IDPS) 

With many of the two million displaced in Darfur and Chad, and 

high levels of violence and insecurity around the camps and the 

border areas, humanitarian and aid agencies are struggling to 

work effectively. The UN’s emergency relief coordinator Sir John 

Holms reported on 27th March 2007 that aid relief for Darfur’s 

displaced millions is ‘on the brink of collapse’. 

It is common for people who leave the camps in search of 

firewood to be attacked by the Janjaweed; women are often 

gang raped and men are beaten and killed. Many international 

aid workers are also being evacuated as the security situation 

deteriorates. 



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11 


A JEWISH RESPONSE 

Following in the footsteps of our tradition 

The Jewish people have a great tradition of human rights 

activism. For example, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish refugee who 

found himself in the USA during the Second World War, was the 

person who coined the term ‘genocide’ to explain actions that 

meant total annihilation and destruction of one specific group of 

people. He wrote the UN Convention on the Prevention and 

Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was formally 

adopted in 1948. 

René Cassin was one of the principal drafters of the Universal 

Declaration of Human Rights. He was Chairman or Vice- 

Chairman of the UN Commission for Human Rights between 

1946 and 1959, President of the Court of Arbitration at The 

Hague from 1950 to 1960 and President of the European Court 

of Human Rights from 1965 to 1968. He was also a Nobel 

Peace Prize Winner in 1968. 

Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the most prominent Jewish 

theologians of the twentieth century, was famous for his 

friendship with Martin Luther King and his participation in the US 

civil rights movement. 

Elie Wiesel: On the Atrocities in Sudan 

Elie Wiesel is a renowned Shoah survivor whose memoirs were 

subsequently turned into a book, ‘Night’, which has been 

translated into over thirty different languages. He has been a 

campaigner and an outspoken critic of the lack of intervention by 

the international community in scenes of catastrophe and 

atrocity and most recently has spoken out at the UN on the lack 

of intervention in Sudan. 

The following remarks were delivered at the Darfur Emergency 

Summit, convened at the Graduate Centre of the City University 

of New York on 14th July 2004 by the American Jewish World 

Service and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and 

can be found online at: www.ajws.org. 

“Sudan has become today’s world capital of human pain, 

suffering and agony. There, one part of the population has been 

– and still is – subjected by another part, the dominating part, to 

humiliation, hunger and death. For a while, the so-called civilized 

world knew about it and preferred to look away. Now people 

know. And so they have no excuse for their passivity bordering 

on indifference. Those who, like you my friends, try to break the 

walls of their apathy deserve everyone’s support and everyone’s 

solidarity…. 

…As for myself, I have been involved in the efforts to help 

Sudanese victims for some years. It was a direct or indirect 

consequence of a millennium lecture I had given in the White 

House on the subject, “The Perils of Indifference”. After I 

concluded, a woman in the audience rose and said: “I am from 

Rwanda.” She asked me how I could explain the international 

community’s indifference to the Rwandan massacres. I turned to 

the President [Clinton] who sat at my right and said: “Mr. 

President, you better answer this question. You know as well as 

we do that the Rwanda tragedy, which cost from 600,000 to 

800,000 victims, innocent men, women and children, could have 

been averted. Why wasn’t it?” His answer was honest and 

sincere: “It is true, that tragedy could have been averted. That’s 

why I went there to apologize in my personal name and in the 

name of the American people. But I promise you: it will not 

happen again.” 

The next day I received a delegation from Sudan and friends of 

Sudan, headed by a Sudanese refugee bishop. They informed 

me that two million Sudanese had already died. 

They said, “You are now the custodian of the President’s pledge. 

Let him keep it by helping stop the genocide in Sudan.” 

That brutal tragedy is still continuing, now in Sudan’s Darfur 

region. Now its horrors are shown on television screens and on 

front pages of influential publications. Congressional delegations, 

special envoys and humanitarian agencies send back or bring 

back horror-filled reports from the scene. A million human 

beings, young and old, have been uprooted, deported. Scores 

of women are being raped every day; children are dying of 

disease, hunger and violence. 

How can a citizen of a free country not pay attention? How can 

anyone, anywhere not feel outraged? How can a person, whether 

religious or secular, not be moved by compassion? And above 

all, how can anyone who remembers remain silent? 

As a Jew who does not compare any event to the Holocaust, 

I feel concerned and challenged by the Sudanese tragedy. 

We must be involved. How can we reproach the indifference of 

non-Jews to Jewish suffering if we remain indifferent to another 

people’s plight? 

It happened in Cambodia, then in former Yugoslavia, and in 

Rwanda, now in Sudan. Asia, Europe, Africa: Three continents 

have become prisons, killing fields and cemeteries for countless 

innocent, defenseless populations. Will the plague be allowed to 

spread? 

“Lo taamod al dam réakha” is a Biblical commandment. 

“Thou shall not stand idly by the shedding of the blood of thy 

fellow man.” The word is not “akhikha,” thy Jewish brother, but 

“réakha,” thy fellow human being, be he or she Jewish or not. 

All are entitled to live with dignity and hope. All are entitled to live 

without fear and pain. 

Not to assist Sudan’s victims today would for me be unworthy of 

what I have learned from my teachers, my ancestors and my 

friends, namely that God alone is alone: His creatures must not be. 

What pains and hurts me most now is the simultaneity of events. 

While we sit here and discuss how to behave morally, both 

individually and collectively, over there, in Darfur and elsewhere in 

Sudan, human beings kill and die. 

Should the Sudanese victims feel abandoned and neglected, it 

would be our fault – and perhaps our guilt. That’s why we must 

intervene. If we do, they and their children will be grateful for us. 

As will be, through them, our own”. 

12

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JEWISH TEXTS 

On saving lives 

You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour; I am God. 

Vayikra, 19:16 

Maimonides (Rambam), one of the great Jewish scholars and theologians expanded this further: 

Whenever a person can save another person’s life but fails to do so, he transgresses a negative commandment, as [Lev.19:16] states: “Do 

not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour.” Similarly, [this commandment applies] when a person sees a colleague drowning at sea or 

being attacked by robbers or a wild animal, and he can save him himself or can hire others to save him. Similarly, [it applies] when he 

hears [others] conspiring to harm a colleague or planning a snare for him, and he does not inform him and notify him [of the danger]. 

Rambam, Laws of the Murderer and Protecting Life, 1:14 

Rambam lists many different scenarios when we are obligated to save a life. 

Is this applicable to our responsibility to the people of Darfur? 

Whose lives are we responsible for? 

Traditionally, our sense of involvement with the fate of others has been in inverse proportion to the distance separating us and them. What 

has changed is that television and the Internet have effectively abolished distance. They have brought images of suffering in far-off lands 

into our immediate experience. Our sense of compassion for the victims of poverty, war and famine, runs ahead of our capacity to act. Our 

moral sense is simultaneously activated and frustrated. We feel that something should be done, but what, how, and by whom? 

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, (2006), p30 

Noting Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ comments, how might the biblical phrase “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your 

neighbour” apply to us today as Jews living in the era of global media and communication? Who counts today as our 

‘neighbour’? 

Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:12 (according to the Kaufmann mishnah) 

For this reason the first human was created to teach that anyone who destroys a single soul is considered as though he had destroyed the 

entire world. Anyone who saves a single soul, is considered as though he has saved an entire universe. 

What does this suggest our responsibility is to others? 

Bear in mind the following text which seems to imply that all human beings are of infinite value. 

- 

And God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

What are we responsible for? 

Bereishit; 1:27 

Whoever can prevent his household from committing a sin but does not, is responsible for the sins of his household; if he can prevent the 

people of his city, he is responsible for the sins of his fellow citizens; if the whole world, he is responsible for the sins of the whole world. 

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b 

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? 

If I am only for myself what am I? 

If not now, when? 

This Text page has been adapted from a joint publication between Yeshiva University and American Jewish World Service and can be 

found online at www.ajws.org/uploaded_documents 

Hillel 

Pirkei Avot, 1:14 

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WILL ANYTHING I DO MAKE ANY 

DIFFERENCE? 

The story of Rosenstrasse 

‘Until February 1943 Jews in mixed families had escaped 

deportation to death camps. Many, instead, had been 

sent to forced labour camps, and wives were pressured 

to divorce such husbands. Some did, but others 

remained loyal. In 1943, as part of the Nazis “Final 

Roundup” of over 60,000 Berlin Jews, they rounded up 

some 2500 Jewish men and boys, the husbands and 

sons of non-Jewish women, and imprisoned them at 

Rosenstrasse 2-4, the Jewish Community Centre. 

The Nazis wanted to keep the Rosenstrasse detention 

place secret, but the women found out where the men had 

been taken and converged there. The first day there were 

600 women. A solidarity emerged, and a spontaneous 

demonstration erupted as they shouted, “Give us our 

husbands back.” Other family members joined them. 

It was the first time there had been a public 

demonstration against the Nazis. The protests grew to 

include as many as 6,000 people over the week. 

The police dispersed them, warning they would shoot, 

but the women regrouped, without leaders or weapons. 

The guards pointed machine guns at them and 

threatened to open fire. The women held their ground 

and shouted, “Murderer, murderer, murderer!” 

After a week, propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who 

indicated in his diary that he was worried about the 

protest’s public relations impact in Germany and abroad, 

ordered that the Jews with Aryan spouses or parents be 

released. Twenty-five of those who were freed had 

already been sent to Auschwitz. And then the event 

seemed to vanish from history.’ 

If the most brutal genocidal regime can been influenced by the 

power of public protest and opinion then this is proof that 

individuals are able to effect change. 

The indictments at the International Criminal Court provide some 

evidence that pressure is working. 

It is not your duty to finish the work, but you are not at liberty to 

neglect it. 

Pirkei Avot, 2: 21 

EXAMPLES OF INTERNATIONAL JEWISH 

CAMPAIGN GROUPS 

THE USA 

The American Jewish community has been instrumental in the 

creation and running of the Save Darfur Coalition in America. 

Organisations such as the American Jewish World Service 

(AJWS), an international development organisation, and the 

Religious Action Centre of the Reform Movement are on the 

executive committee of the coalition with many others that are 

national members. AJWS is also supporting those living in 

refugee and IDP camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad. 

Hillel, which represents Jewish students on university campuses, 

has been encouraging Jewish students to be involved in 

campaigning at university, and many of the central synagogue 

movements and rabbinical bodies are promoting campaigning, 

advocating and fundraising within their constituent member 

communities. In Canada, Ve’ahavta, another Jewish 

development organisation is a member of the coalition 

Canadians For Action in Darfur, and has supported a relief 

program run by Israeli Humanitarian Agencies in Chad working 

with refugees from Darfur. 

ISRAEL 

Over 300 Darfuris have found their way to Israel and several 

different organisations/groups have been established to 

campaign on their behalf. A Knesset Lobby for Darfur 

Refugees has been set up by a group of MKs from across the 

political spectrum. The Committee for Advancement of 

Refugees from Darfur (CARD) is a coalition of nine NGOs that 

deal mainly with immigrant and workers rights, as well as 

individuals who are concerned about the situation of Darfuri 

refugees in Israel. CARD campaigns for the release of all Darfuri 

citizens who are currently detained within Israel and for them to 

be issued with identity documents and extended stay visas. 

Hatzilu et Amei Darfur (HAeD) has been established by a 

group of students in Israel from round the world studying in 

Yeshivot and on other gap year programmes in Israel. They 

campaign both for the rights of Darfuris living in Israel and for an 

end to the genocide. Israel for Darfur campaigns along similar 

lines as HAeD. 

EUROPE AND THE REST OF THE WORLD 

The Union of Jewish Students in the UK has been involved in 

mobilising its students on Darfur, and many of the dedicated 

Darfur campaign groups on university campuses have been set 

up by Jewish students. The European Union of Jewish 

Students, following a visit of EUJS representatives to Rwanda in 

2006, now works to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur 

amongst Jewish students in Europe, and campaigns for action 

at the United Nations and European Union. It is a member of 

the Globe for Darfur coalition of organisations, and is currently 

preparing a seminar on Genocide Denial for 2008. The 

Australasian Union of Jewish Students has been 

encouraging Jewish students to raise the issue of Darfur in 

universities in Australia and New Zealand. 

The Berlin Jewish Museum in conjunction with Human Rights 

Watch, in March 2007 ran a week a campaign week on Darfur, 

aiming to raise the levels of awareness of the situation. The 

Jewish Museum in Cape Town, in conjunction with the Aegis 

Trust held an exhibition on the situation in Darfur. The Pears 

Foundation helped the Aegis Trust to establish the ‘Protect 

Darfur’ campaign in 2005. It is now educating and mobilising 

the British Jewish community through the production of ‘Darfur - 

A Jewish Response’, campaigning for high-level action, and 

supporting the work of Alliance Darc, Crisis Action, the Union of 

Jewish Students, the Aegis Trust and other NGOs. 

The contact details for organisations listed above can be 

found on the ‘Contacts Page’ of this booklet. 

16


ACTION YOU CAN TAKE 

Demonstrate 


17 

“If every member of the House of Representatives and 

Senate had received 100 letters from people back 

home saying we have to do something about 

Rwanda… I think the response would have been 

different.” 

“It felt like my feet 

were praying.” 

…said Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 

one of the great Jewish theologians of the 

twentieth century, describing his 

experience of marching from Selma to 

Montgomery with Martin Luther King in 

1964 as part of the American Civil rights 

movement. 

Global Day for Darfur is held all over 

the globe to highlight the situation in 

Late Illinois Senator (D), Paul Simon 

Darfur and to pressure the international community to respond. 

See www.globefordarfur.org for up-to-date details of events. 

Write letters 

Write regularly to your MP and to the Secretary of State for 

Foreign Affairs or even the Prime Minister. 

You can write to your MP on www.writetothem.com or by 

sending it for their attention at the address below. You could 

also write to a representative in the House of Lords. A sample 

letter can be found in the Appendix. 

House of Commons, House of Lords, 

London, London, 

SW1A 0AA SW1A 0PW 

International campaign organisations and humanitarian groups 

suggest the following issues should be addressed in any letters 

to politicians: 

• The implementation by the United Nations of a ‘no fly 

zone’ over western Sudan to stop government air strikes 

on civilians in Darfur 

• The implementation of additional sanctions by the 

European Union and the United Nations against all of 

the seventeen individuals identified by the United 

Nations International Commission of Inquiry to prevent 

them from travelling, and from sustaining and benefiting 

from the ongoing conflict by freezing their assets 

• The deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Chad, 

to prevent voilence spilling over from Darfur and to 

stabilise the border areas 

• The deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping 

force to strengthen the existing African Union mission in 

Sudan 

• The removal by the British government of Darfuris in 

Britain back to Sudan 

Letters could also be written to the Chinese Embassy in London 

asking them to acknowledge at the United Nations the gravity of 

the situation in Darfur: 

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United 

Kingdom, 49 Portland Place, London, W1B 1JL 

Divestment Campaigning 

The genocide is expensive: as well as the significant 

costs of using its army and air force to commit genocide 

on the people of Darfur, Human Rights Watch has also put 

forward significant evidence to show that the Sudanese 

government is increasingly treating the Janjaweed like a 

regular army. They show that Janjaweed fighters and 

officers are paid approximately double the wages of their 

regular army counterparts. 

The government of Sudan therefore needs money, 

and has no shortage of it: The economy in Sudan is 

thriving thanks to the intense involvement of foreign 

companies in the extraction of oil. Investment in oil rose 

from $128 million in 2000 to an estimated $2.3billion in 

2006 and growth is almost hitting double figures. Much of 

Sudanese oil revenue is spent on the Sudanese military; 

increasing Khartoum’s capability to wage its genocidal 

counter-insurgency campaign. 

Sudan Divestment UK organises and coordinates the 

divestment campaign in the UK. Its model targets companies 

that meet the following criteria: 

• Contribute to government revenue or government 

sponsored project; 

• Impart minimal benefit to the country’s people; and 

• Have demonstrated no substantial corporate 

governance policy regarding the Darfur situation. 

Targeted divestment means that companies that benefit the 

people of Sudan are not affected by a divestment campaign. 

See www.sudandivestment.org.uk for a step-by-step guide on 

how to divest. 

Raise funds for Darfur 

Raise funds, alongside educating your community, to support 

the efforts of campaign organisations or humanitarian assistance 

agencies working for Darfur. 

Fundraising ideas: 

• Sponsored events 

• Supper quiz 

• Film screening: hire out a local cinema or hall and sell 

tickets to raise money and awareness. You could show 

films about the Rwandan genocide or Darfur, such as 

Shooting Dogs or Hotel Rwanda, or The Devil Came on 

Horseback (see Films, Books & Articles section for more 

ideas) 

• Football tournament 

with players wearing 

Protect Darfur t-shirts 

and wristbands 


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WHAT YOU CAN DO IN YOUR SYNAGOGUE 

‘Religious leaders should never seek power, but neither may they 

abdicate their task of being a counter-voice in the conversation of 

mankind’ 

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference 

Traditionally a synagogue is referred to as a Bet haTefillah – 

– House of Prayer, a Bet haMidrash – 

– House of Study and a Bet haKnesset – 

– House of Meeting. There are many 

different ways that synagogues can be involved in the 

Darfur campaign, through praying, learning about the 

issue, and acting on it. Rabbis and teachers have a 

captive audience with whom this issue can be raised. This 

section provides some ideas and examples of how to 

bring the genocide in Darfur into the forefront of the minds 

of your congregation. 

PRAY FOR DARFUR 

On Sunday 17th September 2006 an International Day for Darfur 

was organised with public events staged in prominent places 

around the world. This included prayers for Darfur from 

community leaders from many different religions. Both Chief 

Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and Rabbi Janet Burden wrote prayers 

that were used in this event and which are published as 

examples below. A prayer is also included from the 

Reconstructionist Siddur in America. These prayers can be used 

and adapted within your communities. 

Prayer for the people of Darfur by Chief 

Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks 

O God of Peace, 

Who commands us to seek peace, 

Send peace to the people of Darfur. 

O God of compassion, 

Who hears the cry of the afflicted, 

Hear the cry of the victims, 

The bereaved, the injured, 

And all those who live their days in fear. 

Rouse the hearts of the leaders of the world 

To put an end to the bloodshed, the violence, 

The rape, the starvation, and the terror, 

That has ravaged and endangered an entire population. 

Be with those who are working for peace, 

Or tending the sick, 

Or bringing food to the hungry, 

Or shelter to the homeless, 

O God of justice and love, 

Let us not be indifferent 

To the cry of the persecuted 

And the tears of those who have seen 

Their homes, their families and their communities destroyed. 

And may their plea and their plight 

Reach the ears and hearts of those who have it in their power 

To bring peace to a troubled region 

And aid to a devastated people. 

Oseh shalom bimromav: 

May You who makes peace in Your high places 

Help us make peace down here on earth. 

Amen. 

Prayer for the people of Darfur by Rabbi 

Janet Burden, West Central Liberal 

Synagogue and the South Bucks Jewish 

Community 

Av Ha-rachamim, Source of Compassion, You have created all 

your children in the Divine image. We are called upon to 

recognise Your essence in our fellow human beings and to hold 

their lives as sacred. 

Your Torah teaches that we must not stand idly by the blood of 

our neighbours, nor turn away from their suffering. We are 

commanded to seek peace and pursue it – not just for 

ourselves, but also for all peoples. And so we pray: 

Eternal God of truth and justice, grant wisdom to the powerful, 

that they may use their power to protect those who live in fear for 

their lives. Help those who govern remain ever mindful of the 

plight of the vulnerable. Give them the courage to act justly. 

O God, You support the falling and who lift up those who are 

bowed down. You are ever present in the healing powers that 

You have implanted within Your creatures. Help those who 

remain in either physical or emotional pain, and may the 

sufferings of the afflicted soon be ended. 

Prayer for Peace, Shlomit, Age 13, 

Jerusalem, From Shabbat Vehagim, 

Reconstructionist Press 

What shall I ask You for, God? I have everything. 

There’s nothing I lack. I ask only for one thing and 

not for myself alone; It’s for many mothers, children 

and fathers - Not just in this land, but in many lands 

hostile to each other. I’d like to ask for Peace. Yes, 

its Peace I want, And You, You won’t deny the 

single wish of a child. You created the Land of 

Peace, Where stands the City of Peace, Where 

stood the Temple of Peace, But where there is still 

no Peace... What shall I ask for God? I have 

everything. Peace is what I ask for, Only Peace. 

GIVE A SERMON ON DARFUR 

Rabbinical sermons provide a prime opportunity to both educate 

a community as well as provide suggestions and ideas for 

action. Printed below are some examples of sermons that have 

been written by Rabbis. 

Extracts from a sermon at The Hampstead 

Synagogue (United Synagogue) by Rabbi 

Dr. Michael J. Harris 

First day Rosh Hashana 5767, 23rd 

September 2006 

Although Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, it is not just 

about the Jewish people but about everyone, about the whole 

world. Hayom harat olam – today is the birthday of the world, 

according to tradition the anniversary of the creation of the 

human race on the sixth day of creation. Hayom ya’amid 

bamishpat kol yetsurei olamim – the whole world is judged, not 

just the Jewish people. The Mishna in Rosh HaShana (1:2) says 

quite explicitly BeRosh HaShanah kol ba’ei ha’olam ovrin lefanav. 

There is a very strong universalist thrust to Rosh HaShanah and 

indeed to the High Holydays overall. We acknowledge God as 

melech al kol ha’aretz, King of the entire world, and ask that His 

sovereignty manifest itself over the world as a whole. 

With this universalist dimension of Rosh Hashanah in mind, I 

want to talk today about the Jewish relationship to the wider 

world, the non-Jewish world that is as relevant to the Yamim 

Noraim as the Jewish one. What is the moral attitude that 

traditional Judaism expects Jews to adopt towards non-Jews? 

Maimonides spells out the answer very clearly. Compassion 

towards everyone, not just Jews, is an integral part of the 

mitzvah of imitatio Dei, imitating God’s attributes, walking in His 

ways. The words he quotes in this context, from Psalm 130, are 

“God’s mercies extend to all His creatures”. We are to try our 

best to be compassionate people, because we are commanded 

to emulate the qualities of God, Who is compassionate. And if 

we are compassionate people, if we have a compassionate 

nature, then we will be compassionate not just to our own, not 

just to other Jews, but to everybody. 

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What Maimonides is interested in here is the kind of people we 

are. Philosophers make a distinction between act-morality and 

agent-morality. Act-morality means my acts are right, I do the 

right thing. Agent-morality is a superior moral level – I don’t just 

do the right thing, I’m the kind of person whose good nature is 

such that I naturally do the right thing. I don’t need to force 

myself or look in a book to know what the right thing to do is. 

Maimonides is interested in agent morality. He says we have to 

strive to be the kind of people who naturally act in a 

compassionate way. That, he says, is what Judaism requires. 

And once we are that kind of person, there will automatically be 

no restrictions on the breadth of our reach. A naturally 

compassionate person can’t help being compassionate towards 

all, and so a naturally compassionate Jew will be incapable of 

limiting compassion based on ethnic or religious divisions and 

will reach out to non-Jews just as he or she does to Jews. 

It is not difficult to find concrete examples to which this noble 

Jewish ideal urgently needs to be applied in these very days. For 

any Jewish person of conscience, Darfur is a major concern this 

Rosh Hashanah. Terrible atrocities have already taken place there, 

and without an ongoing international presence things could God 

forbid become much worse. The lives of millions of people are at 

stake. Decent people said ‘Never Again’ after the Shoah and 

much more recently after Rwanda. This time action must match 

the words. All good people and governments must do everything 

they can to prevent further tragedy, and the Jewish community in 

particular must continue to help keep this issue in the public eye… 

‘Sudan and Our Response’ 

by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, Valley Beth 

Shalom, California, 26th August 2005 

(reprinted courtesy of AJWS) 

What have we to do with a people we do not know, in a land we 

have not visited? What have we to do with people of another 

faith, another culture, another civilization? Have we Jews not 

sufficient burdens of our own? Is the struggle against anti- 

Semitism not enough for us? Are we so numerous that we can 

take on the suffering of others not our kinsmen? 

We Jews see with ancient eyes. We have seen the torture, the 

starvation, the death by disease, the rapes, the abandonment by 

the civilized world before. We Jews possess a terrible 

knowledge, an awesome wisdom we gained not out of books, 

but out of our own bodies. A knowledge out of the testimony of 

numbers seared into the skin of living human beings and the 

stench of burned flesh. We see with ancient eyes: We are eye 

witnesses to the consequences of the callousness of lethal 

silence. We offer testimony to the morbid symptoms of apathy, 

the moral laryngitis that strangles the voice of protest. 

We see with ancient eyes: Embassies shut down, visa denied, 

borders sealed off, refugee ships returned to the ports that 

transported the persecuted into the furnaces of hell. And we know 

what happens when churches are complicit with the killers of the 

dream. With ancient eyes we see Darfur with a shock of 

recognition. We experience a collective deja vu even as we speak. 

More than two million frightened souls fleeing homes in Darfur, 

400,000 helpless people murdered, the terror of the Janjaweed, 

which in Arabic is derived from “jan” – which means “evil”, and 

“jawed” – which means “horsemen,” soldiers on horses with 

swords, whips and truncheons, beating down a people and 

trampling them. We heard before the treacherous excuses, the 

lying alibis, the rationalizations from church and state and international 

bodies. 

We count six million alibis. They said: What can we do? We are 

too few, too weak, too exhausted, the enemy too implacable. Do 

we not have a prior responsibility to our own church, to our own 

parish, to our own congregants? 

Are these reports really genocide or just propaganda? We Jews 

remember what we expected sixty years ago. We prayed and 

hoped for a cry, a protest from out of the basilica, from out of the 

nave, from out of the cathedral, some proclamation of a fast, 

some decision to march in public, some demonstration on to the 

streets and marketplaces, some sob of conscience that could 

pierce the hardness of the heart: Can we do less? Like the 

Psalmist we cry to God into the ears of man: “Rouse Yourself – 

why do You sleep? Awaken – why do You hide Your face and 

ignore our affliction?” 

‘Praying, Reflecting… and Being Watched’, 

Parshat Balak, by Rabbi Kenneth Chasen, 

Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, 

15th July 2005 (reprinted courtesy of AJWS) 

Many of you already know, from the email message that I sent 

out yesterday to our entire congregation, that legislation was 

recently introduced onto the floor of the United States Senate to 

make this weekend a National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection 

for Darfur, where genocide has been taking place for nearly two 

years. A national weekend of prayer and reflection about 

genocide. So, almost instantly, I entered into prayer and 

reflection. “O God,” I prayed, “let Congress stop passing 

legislation asking us to pray and reflect… for while we pray, 

hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned Darfurians are being 

systematically murdered, raped, displaced and starved. God, 

inspire Congress to provide massive humanitarian relief that will 

fight the spread of disease and hunger, and to use economic 

and military means if necessary to stop the genocide.” And then 

I moved from prayer to reflection. I reflected upon Congress’ 

failure to take this kind of action. I reflected upon the failure of 

Congress’ constituents… you and me… to make enough noise 

to force Congress to stop the killing. And then it seemed like 

time to stop praying and reflecting. 

The truth, of course, is that it was time to stop praying and 

reflecting – and time to start acting – almost two years ago, 

when this crisis began. Or, at minimum, perhaps a year ago 

would have been a reasonable time to stop praying and 

reflecting... We’ll pray and reflect – but I trust that when we’re 

done, we’ll be ready to make their sleep less restful. For as 

Abraham Joshua Heschel once taught, while only “some may be 

guilty, all are responsible.” 

… I’ve spoken with so many of our Temple members who look 

upon the situation in Darfur with such hopelessness. “It’s so far 

away,” they say, “and so systemic and beyond our control – how 

can we even hope to make a difference?” The best answer 

comes from the late Illinois Senator, Paul Simon, who said, “If 

every member of the House of Representatives and Senate had 

received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to 

do something about Rwanda … I think the response would have 

been different.” 

There can be no denying that the paralysis of the status quo in 

Washington is built upon a foundation of our silence. That is to 

say, elected officials will always be careful students of their 

constituents’ will. When large numbers of voters demand action, 

they act. When we say and do nothing, so do they. 

Congressional staffers literally count the phone calls and letters 

they receive on various issues. So who, then, is chiefly 

responsible for Congress’ failure to stop the genocide? 

…We have to stop the onslaught. And believe it or not, the 

mechanisms exist to do it. The UN’s Genocide Convention has 

all the necessary provisions to prevent the killings… if only we 

would demand their implementation. The folks on Capitol Hill 

might prefer it if we were content just to pray and reflect here 

tonight. It makes life easier on them. But our job is to make life 

easier on the victims, the targets of this atrocity. Will we earn 

blessing or curse for how we meet this moment? 

…The legendary founder of Chasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, 

made the following observation about Balaam’s ancient blessing 

over the Israelites. Remembering that our patriarch Jacob is 

renamed Israel only when he reaches a more exalted spiritual 

state, the Baal Shem Tov noticed an important nuance in the 

words of Balaam’s blessing: “How goodly are your tents, O 

Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.” Our tents – our external 

appearance, said the Baal Shem Tov – is that of Jacob… a lower 

level. But our dwelling places – the real content, the interior, the 

kishkes – they belong to Israel, and reflect a higher level. 

Praying and reflecting about genocide is all well and good, but our 

prayers are just the tents – the outer package, the appearance of 

our concern. To stop at praying and reflecting is to remain just 

Jacob. Acting to end the genocide of a people who look different 

than us, live differently than us, and suffer in places so far away as 

to be almost unreal to us? That’s where our inner determination 

shows – where we are lifted up to become Israel. May those who 

are watching us see Israel, and not Jacob – for when the slaughter 

is over, and the hundreds of thousands are never to return, we will 

surely want not to be remembered for curse. 

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TEACHING & EDUCATING IN YOUR COMMUNITY 

Adult education sessions and cheder are ideal opportunities to 

alert members of your congregation to the situation in Darfur. 

There are countless resources online to aid you with the planning 

of sessions. Please see the contacts page for relevant websites 

and contact details. 

Suggestions for educational programmes: 

• Textual study session on the Jewish responsibility to act 

in times of distress 

• Use Yom Hashoah as a time to learn about genocide 

and the Jewish responsibility to respond 

• Use some of the programming ideas at the back of this 

booklet to educate members of the community 

• Arrange for your community to attend Day for Darfur 

events. Further details can be found on-line at 

www.globefordarfur.org 

• Arrange for a Darfuri survivor to come and speak to your 

community about their experiences 

Bar/Bat Mitzvah/Chayil project 

‘At 13 one is ready to observe the mitzvot.’ 

Judah ben Teima, Pirkei Avot 5:24 

‘Bar or Bat Mitzvah literally translates as ‘son or daughter of 

the commandment’ - or even better, as someone who is old 

enough to be responsible for the mitzvot…Bar or Bat Mitzvah 

tells the community that you are no longer just a child but a 

mature Jew who is ready to take on religious responsibilities’ 

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, ‘Putting God on your guest list; How to 

claim the spiritual meaning of your Bar/Bat Mitzvah’/Chayil 

In every community there are rites of passage where a child 

enters into the Jewish religion as an adult. In preparation they 

begin to explore what it means to take on the responsibilities of 

Judaism and to understand more fully the obligations of the 

Jewish people including the role of Judaism in the wider world. 

Preparation for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah/Chayil is a good opportunity 

to look at global issues from a Jewish perspective. 

Ideas… 

• The genocide in Darfur could be the Tikkun 

Olam/Tsedakah project of the class. This allows the 

class to learn about the situation and also to raise 

money. If it is an ongoing project over the course of 

someone’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah/ Chayil preparation then it 

takes on a new meaning as a part of a journey to Jewish 

adulthood. 

• As a class visit the Imperial War Museum Holocaust 

Exhibition or Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Museum 

in Nottinghamshire. Here they can learn about the 

tragedy that befell the Jewish people and about the 

current situation in Darfur. 

• In the USA a Bar Mitzvah boy learned about the situation 

in Darfur and decided to use his Bar Mitzvah as an 

opportunity to educate his friends and family who were 

invited to share his special day. Inside every invitation 

was a postcard which he asked them to post to 

President George W. Bush asking the USA to help 

protect the civilian population of Darfur. This story can 

be found in full on www.babaganewz.com 

• Use one of the programming ideas in the back of this 

booklet with a Bar/Bat Mitzvah/Chayil class and discuss 

whether, as Jewish adults, they feel that they have an 

obligation to act. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO IN YOUR SCHOOL 

Run an assembly on Darfur 

If you are a teacher or a student arrange to run an assembly on 

Darfur to educate the students and the teachers about the 

situation. This could be either a one-off assembly or a series of 

assemblies. For example: 

• Assembly 1: What is happening in Darfur? 

• Assembly 2: Run an assembly on refugees and asylum 

seekers. This will help students to understand the 

differences between these terms and also why people 

end up being refugees 

• Assembly 3: Invite a Darfuri asylum seeker/refugee to 

come and speak in assembly 

• Assembly 4: Invite a representative from one of the 

campaigning organisation listed in the Contacts Page to 

meet with the students 

Run a school-wide educational campaign on Darfur 

Ask each subject teacher to give over one of their lessons to 

educating about Darfur. For example: 

• Geography: The human and physical geography of the 

region 

• History: The history of the conflict in Darfur 

• Jewish Studies: The Jewish obligation to respond to 

people in need 

• Art: Create wall displays or visual images of Darfur to 

use in the school 

• PSHE: What can you do? Use this class to look at the 

different ways that people can get involved in the 

campaign to Save and Protect Darfur 

Use any of the programming ideas at the back of this booklet to 

help you with your lesson planning 

Run school wide fundraising campaign for Darfur 


• Raise funds, alongside educating your schoo,l to 

support the efforts campaign organisations or 

humanitarian assistance agencies working on the 

Darfur Campaign. 

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WHAT YOU CAN DO IN YOUR YOUTH 

MOVEMENT OR JEWISH SOCIETY 

Youth movements and Jewish societies are the perfect way to 

get the youth of the Jewish community mobilised on issues. 

Social Action Campaigns 

Many youth movements choose one social action issue that they 

take on as a youth movement for the year. Why not take on 

Darfur and put it into as many different aspects of your 

movement programming as possible. For example you could 

incorporate it into weekly meetings, camps and involve your 

students on their campuses. 

Run a one-off activity 


If your time is limited it is possible to run a one-off activity on 

Darfur and at the end of the activity for your members 

(chanichim) and leaders (madrichim) to partake in a small piece 

of activism. Use any of the programming ideas at the back of 

this booklet to help you with this. 

Programme Darfur into your 

summer or winter camps 

(machanot) 

Why not dedicate part or all of a 

camp to Darfur? You may well 

have a set theme to your camp 

already which is part of a 

broader movement educational 

process. You could incorporate 

Darfur into this by having one 

day on your camp that is set 

aside for social action or for a 

movement wide campaign that 

every member is participating in 

over the summer or winter. You can run activities on many 

different aspects of the genocide in Darfur. For example: 

1. What is the situation in Darfur? 

2. What does it have to do with us as Jews – from a 

historical perspective and from the perspective of Jewish 

responsibility 

3. What happens to those who survive? Looking at the 

plight of refugees and how they are treated round the 

world and in the UK 

4. What can you do? How to get involved in the campaign 

to Protect Darfur 

5. Arrange for a Darfuri survivor to visit your camp 

Get your students involved in Darfur 


There are numerous ways to involve students in campaigning on 

Darfur and many student unions have societies dedicated to 

campaigning on Darfur. Here are some tips from the Aegis Trust 

for how to get involved as a student: 

• Email, telephone or write to your constituency MP about 

the situation in Darfur. Lobbying your MP really does 

make a difference and they will reply to you. Be persistent 

& repeat fortnightly or monthly 

• Email or write to the Secretary of State for International 

Development and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 

• Keep genocide in the public consciousness: write an 

article on Darfur for your student newspaper. Derby Aegis 

Society received 2 media awards for its submissions to 

‘Dusted’ on Darfur 


• Contact mainstream national media asking them to 

provide more detailed coverage of Darfur 

• Start a Student Society if there isn’t one at your university, 

or get actively involved in an existing one 

• Print off fifty copies of each Protect Darfur Campaign 

Poster and stick them up around campus! An extremely 

cheap and effective way to raise awareness of genocide 

in Darfur 

• Organise or join an existing rally, a Global Day for Darfur, 

or publicity-generating event such as a public 

demonstration or ‘die-in’ 

• Consider a divestment campaign in your university 

© Aegis Trust / David Parry 

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FILMS, BOOKS, ARTICLES 

FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES 

BOOKS 

• 100 Days (2004) 

• Behind Enemy Lines (2001) 

• Chronicle Of A Genocide Foretold (1996) 

• Darfur Diaries (2006) 

• Hotel Rwanda (2004) 

• Itsembatsemba: Rwanda One Genocide Later (1996) 

• Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo 

Dallaire (2004) 

• Shooting Dogs (2005) 

• Sometimes in April (2005) 

• The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) 

• The Last Just Man (2002) 

• Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) 

Barnett, Michael (2003) Eye Witness to a Genocide: The 

United Nations and Rwanda, Cornell University Press 

Burg, Steven L. and Shoup, Paul S. (1999) The War in 

Bosnia: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention, 

M.E. Sharpe 

Caputo, Philip (2005) Acts of Faith, Knopf Publishing 

Group 

Courtemanche, Gil (2004) A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, 

Cannongate Books 

Dallaire, General Romeo (2005) Shake Hands with the 

Devil, Arrow 

De Waal, Alex and Flint, Julie (2005) Darfur: a short 

history of a long war, Zed Books 

Eggers, David (2006) What is the What?, McSweeney’s 

Gourevitch, Philip (2000) We wish to inform you that 

tomorrow we will be killed with our families, Picador 

Hatzfeld, Jean (2006) Machete Season: The Killers in 

Rwanda Speak, Picador 

Hecht, Joan (2005) The Journey of the Lost Boys: A 

Story of Courage, Faith and the Sheer Determination to 

Survive by a Group of Young Boys Called ‘The Lost Boys 

of Sudan’, Allswell Press 

Judah, Tim (1997) The Serbs: History, Myth and the 

Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press 

Keane, Fergal (1996) Letter to Daniel: Dispatches from 

the Heart, Penguin Books 

Keane, Fergal (1999) Letters Home, Penguin Books 

Keane, Fergal (1996) Season of Blood: Rwandan 

Journey, Penguin Books 

Koff, Clea (2005) The Bone Woman: Among the Dead in 

Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, Atlantic Books 

Lebor, Adam (2006) ‘Complicity with Evil’: The United 

Nations in the Age of Modern Genocide, Yale University 

Press 

Marlowe, Jen, Bain, Aisha and Shapiro, Adam (2006) 

The Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival, Nation Books 

Melvern, Linda (2006) Conspiracy to Murder: The 

Rwandan Genocide, Verso Books 

Prunier, Gerard (2005) Darfur: the Ambiguous Genocide, 

Cornell University Press 

Prunier, Gerard (1995) The Rwanda Crisis: History of a 

Genocide, Columbia University Press 

Reeves, Eric (2007) A Long Day’s Dying: Critical 

Moments in the Darfur Genocide, The Key Publishing 

House 

Rohde, David (1997) Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of 

Srebrenica, Europe’s Worst Massacre since World War II, 

Farrar, Straus and Girou 

Steidle, Brian and Steidle Wallace, Gretchen (2007) The 

Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the 

Genocide in Darfur, PublicAffairs 

Suljagic, Emir (2005) Postcards from the Grave, Saqi 

Books 

ARTICLES AND IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS ABOUT 

DARFUR 

• Amnesty International Report on the spread of the 

Janjaweed into eastern Chard: ‘Chad: Civilians Under 

Attack’ (1 March 2007), http://web.amnesty.org/library 

• Documents from the International Criminal Court (ICC), 

including Prosecutor’s Application for the first Darfurrelated 

indictments, (27 February 2007) 

http://www.icc-cpi.int/cases/Darfur.html 

• ‘How John Q. Citizen Can Affect Darfur’, Colin Thomas- 

Jensen, Fort Worth Star Telegram (9th January 2007), 

www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4605&l=1 

• Human Rights Watch Report on Darfur, 

http://hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=darfur 

• Report on the International Committee on Intervention 

and State Sovereignty, ‘Responsibility to Protect’ 

document, www.iciss.ca/report-en.asp 

• Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement – Key 

Provisions, (9 January 2005) 

www.iss.co.za/AF/profiles/Sudan/darfur/cpaprov.htm 

• United Nations Report of the High-Level on the situation 

of human rights in Darfur pursuant to Human Rights 

Council decision S-4/1010, www.ohchr.org/English 

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USEFUL CONTACTS 

Aegis Trust: www.aegistrust.org UK’s leading Genocide 

Prevention Organisation, also see www.protectdarfur.org 

American Jewish World Service: www.ajws.org Jewish 

International Development Organisation 

Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org.uk International 

human rights organisation 

Beth Shalom: www.bethshalom.com Holocaust Memorial and 

education centre in Nottinghamshire 

CARD: www.hotline.org.il/english/news/2006/Hotline122306.htm 

The Committee for Advancement of Refugees from Darfur, 

based in Israel 

Crisis Action: www.crisisaction.org Independent, non-profit 

organisation which aims to help avert conflicts, prevent human 

rights abuses and ensure governments fulfill their obligations to 

protect civilians 

Darfur Divestment Worldwide: www.darfurdivestment.org 

International campgaign dedicated to divestment from Sudan 

Genocide Intervention Network: 

www.genocideintervention.net US-based organisation dedicated 

to ending genocide 

HAeDarfur: www.haedarfur.org Israel-based organisation 

campaigning on the genocide and for the rights of Sudanese 

refugees in Israel 

Holocaust Educational Trust: www.het.org.uk 

Hands Up for Darfur: www.handsupfordarfur.co.uk 

Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org 

Israel for Darfur: www.israelfordarfur.org Israel-based 

organisation campaigning on the genocide and for the rights of 

Sudanese refugees in Israel 

IsraAid: www.israaid.org.il Coordinating body of Israel-based 

international development organisations 

The Jewish Council for Racial Equality: www.jcore.org.uk 

Jewish organisation involved in race equality in the UK and 

refugee/asylum seeker campaigns 

Make Poverty History Jewish Coalition: www.eljc.org/mph 

Coalition of Jewish organisations, movements and synagogue 

bodies in the UK tackling poverty-related and social justice 

issues together 

RenéCassin: www.renecassin.org Jewish human rights group 

based in the UK 

Refugee Council: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk 

Save Darfur: www.savedarfur.org US-based organisation 

campaigning for Darfur 

Sudan Divestment UK: www.sudandivestment.org.uk 

Organisation dedicated to running a Sudan Divestment 

Campaign in the UK 

TheyWorkforYou.com: www.theyworkforyou.com Website 

where you can find out who your MP is and what they have said 

about Sudan in Parliament 

Tzedek: www.tzedek.org.uk Jewish international development 

and educational charity based in the UK 

WriteToThem.Com: www.writetothem.com Website you can 

use to write directly to your MP 

World Jewish Relief: www.worldjewishrelief.org.uk Charity 

providing emergency and development aid to those in need 

throughout the world. You can send money to Darfur through 

WJR. 

Ve’ahavta www.veahavta.org Canadian based Jewish 

international development organisation 

APPENDICES 

Contents 

I Programming ideas for young people 31 

II Resources for Activities 34 

Newspaper headlines: Quotes about 

immigrants 34 

Important definitions 35 

Myths and Facts 36 

UN Convention on the Prevention and 

Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 38 

Jewish Sources 39 

Quotes from survivor testimonies 41 

IV Sample letter 43 

V Maps 44 

VI Timeline of events 45 

VII Acknowledgements 48 

30

31 


I PROGRAMMING IDEAS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

Programme 1: Genocide – what should 

the Jewish response be? 

Aims: 

• To understand what genocide is 

• To think about and discuss whether we have a particular 

responsibility to respond to genocide as Jews who 

ourselves have experienced a genocide 

• To think about what the phrase ‘Never Again’ means 

and whether this applies only to the Jewish people 

You will need: 

Trigger: 

Large paper 

A copy of the ‘Genocide Convention’ 

Copies of the ‘Testimonies’ page 

Letter writing material including sample letters and 

addresses (this can be found in the ‘Action You Can 

Take’ section in this booklet) 

Brainstorm: Stick a large sheet of paper on the wall. Ask the 

group to try and define what a genocide is and write it up on the 

sheet of paper. 

Method: 

Divide your participants into small groups. Give each group a 

copy of the ‘Quotes from Testimonies’ page with each quote on 

separate pieces of paper cut up. Ask each group to decide 

what they think the phrases are describing. 

When they have guessed, tell them that they are quotes about 

four different genocides – The Holocaust, the genocide in 

Bosnia, Rwanda and the genocide in Sudan. Ask them to try 

and separate them into three different piles according to what 

they are describing. 

When they have completed this exercise ask one of the 

participants to read the Genocide Convention out to the rest of 

the group so everyone is clear on the accepted definition of 

genocide. It is a long document so if you feel it is too long read 

Articles 1,2,3 as these explain what constitutes genocide in 

international law. It is important to explain that the convention 

came into effect to ensure that no crime as great as the 

Holocaust would ever be committed again. Note the date of its 

adoption – 1948, 3 years after the end of the Second World War. 

Conclusion: 

Stick 4 envelopes around the room with the following statements 

on them and ask each participant to write their response to each 

statement on a small piece of paper and to put it inside the 

envelope. When they have done this for each envelope they 

should sit in small groups or as one large group and read the 

responses to each statement and discuss them. 

1. The genocide in Darfur is not something that is a 

concern of people living in the UK 

2. As the Jewish people, who know first-hand what it 

means to live through genocide, we have a special 

responsibility to help protect the civilians of Darfur 

3. I feel that it is a Jewish obligation to help those that are 

suffering 

4. The UK government has a responsibility to look after 

those that are fleeing from Sudan and arriving in Britain 

as asylum seekers 

5. ‘We always hear the words ‘Never again’ – are we taking 

that literally?’ (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) What is your 

opinion? 

Programme 2: Raising awareness about 


Aims: 

• To raise awareness about the situation in Darfur 

• To explore what happens to those who are affected by 

the genocide 

• To understand how to get involved in the campaign and 

how you can make a difference 


Trigger: 

A copy of the ‘Eye Witness Accounts’ sheet 

Copies of ‘Map of Darfur’ 

A copy of the film ‘Tomorrow is too late’ which can be 

obtained from the Aegis Trust or can be found on-line 

at: www.protectdarfur.org/Multimedia.htm 

Copies of the ‘Background to Darfur’ section of this 

booklet 

The time-line with each event written on a separate 

sheet of paper but without the dates 

A blank time-line stuck to the wall 

Ask the group to brainstorm the word genocide; what they think it 

means and who is affected by it. If Darfur is not mentioned 

explain to them that there is a genocide taking place in Darfur and 

that the aim of the session is to learn more about the situation. 

Method: 

Play the ‘Tomorrow is Too Late’ film (4 minutes) 

Hand out the maps of Sudan and explain exactly where Darfur is 

in relation to the rest of the country. It may be helpful for you to 

put a map of Africa on the wall so that participants can see 

where Sudan is in relation to the rest of the continent. 

Read some of the ‘Eye-Witness Accounts’ 

Build a time line of the conflict in Sudan: Put out on the ground 

sheets of paper (each sheet should have written on it one of the 

events in the timeline but with no date). You can choose which 

parts of the time line you think are relevant i.e. you do not have 

to include every detail. Give each person a copy of the 

‘Background to the genocide’ and together the group has to 

construct the chronology of events that have taken place in 

Sudan by sticking each event in order on the blank time line on 

the wall. Whoever is running the activity should explain the 

events as they are put on the wall. 

N.B if the group is too big this activity can be done in several 

smaller groups 

Conclusion: 

What can you do? This part of the session should be used for 

action. E.g. Ensure you have all the names of the relevant MPs 

etc and each person can write to their MP or plan a Divestment 

campaign or fundraiser. See the ‘Action You Can Take’ section 

for more ideas. 

Programme 3: What is a refugee? 

Aim: 

The aim of this programme is to explore what refugees and 

asylum seekers are and to understand the differences between 

them. There are approximately 1500 Darfuri refugees and 

asylum seekers in the UK and understanding the terms on which 

they are here and the status they are given is very important. 


Copies of the ‘Important Definitions Sheet’ 

Copies of the ‘Myths and Facts Sheet’ 

32

33 


Trigger: 

Copies of ‘Jewish texts about refugees’ 

Copy of the ‘newspaper headlines’ 

Large paper and pens 

(5mins) Ask the group to move around the room and stand in 

correspondence to what they think about the following 

statements. One end of the room should be labelled ‘strongly 

agree’ and the other end of the room should be labelled 

‘strongly disagree’: 

1. Most asylum seekers are illegal and should be sent 

home 

2. If there were fewer asylum seekers there would be more 

spaces in hospitals 

3. People from other countries make the UK a more 

interesting place to be 

4. The UK should stop letting so many immigrants in 

5. Most asylum seekers and refugees should stay in the 

country because they deserve to be here 

Ask them to write down where they stood for each one so the 

activity can be repeated at the end and their answers can be 

compared. 

Method: 

(5mins) Brainstorm all the different reasons that people might 

come to the country to live 

(15min) Split into smaller groups and ask them to draw around a 

person and turn the drawing into what they think is a stereotypical 

refugee. When they have completed this they should 

come back together and feedback to each other what they 

thought. 

(10mins) What is an asylum seeker? What is a refugee? 

In small groups give out copies of the ‘important definitions’ with 

the definition headings separately. Ask them to match each 

definition to each heading. Come back together and go through 

all the definitions and check that they are correct. 

(10min) Split the group into pairs and give each pair the sheet on 

‘Jewish Sources and Refugees’ and ask them to read them and 

discuss briefly the contents. Get feedback from the pairs what 

their reactions are to these texts. 

(30min) Using the ‘Newspaper headlines’ sheet lay out all of the 

quotes on the floor with the dates removed and ask everyone to 

read them all and pick one which they agree/disagree with. Ask 

each person to say which one they picked and why. Ask them 

to guess when each one was written and then tell them (some of 

the headlines are contemporary and others are about Jews 

written in the early 20th century) 

Conclusion: 

(10min) Repeat exercise in the trigger so each person can see 

whether their opinions have changed. If there is more time 

and/or the group would like to discuss it further you can look at 

the myths/fact sheet in this booklet. 

II RESOURCES FOR ACTIVITIES 

Newspaper headlines: Quotes about 

Immigrants 

They are overrunning the country. They are trying to enter the 

medical profession in great numbers (Sunday Express, June 

1938) 

…are pouring in from every port of this country (Daily Mail 1938) 

The most cautious estimate is 50,000 bogus asylum seekers and 

illegals a year slipping into Britain (The Sun, 29 September 2003) 

…so-called asylum seekers who, in reality, seek no more than 

access to our welfare system (Leader comment, Sunday 

Express, 2 May 2004) 

One in five flock here; asylum: we’re too damn soft (Daily Star, 23 

January 2004) 

And they will stop bogus asylum seekers from getting NHS care, 

saving £1billion of taxpayers’ cash (The Sun, 31 July 2003) 

The ‘scum of the earth’ (Dover Express, 1938) 

The ‘flood is sinking Britain’ (Daily Star, 1938) 

East of Aldgate one walks into a foreign town (Major Evans 

Gordon, MP for Stepney, 1887) 

…under the constant danger of being driven from my home, 

pushed out into the streets, not by the natural increase of our own 

population but by the off-scum of Europe (Major Evans Gordon, 

MP for Stepney, 1887) 

Britain Is The Asylum Capital Of The World (The Express, 23 

March 2005) 

Kick Out This Scum (Daily Star, 2 March 2003) 

Refugees get jobs; Britons get dole (Sunday Pictorial, 1938) 

They will find these places literally infested with aliens (politician 

Sir Ernest Wild in 1919) 

...That the dirty, destitute, diseased, verminous and criminal 

foreigner who dumps himself on our soil and rates simultaneously, 

shall be forbidden to land. (An editorial in the Manchester 

Evening Chronicle in 1905) 

34

35 


IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS Courtesy of JCORE MYTHS AND FACTS Courtesy of the Refugee Council 

A refugee is: 

• Someone who has fled their home and country because 

of fear or persecution. 

• They are people who have not been protected by their 

own government. 

• Refugees have been given refugee status by the 

government of a new country. This means they are 

allowed to stay indefinitely and have the same rights as 

any other citizens. 

An asylum seeker is: 

• Someone who has formally applied for asylum (a place 

of safety) in a new country. 

• Asylum seekers want to be recognised as refugees but 

are waiting for a government to decide on their 

application. 

Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are: 

• Children and young people under 18 years who have 

been separated from both parents and are not being 

cared for by an adult. 

An Internally displaced person: 

• Has had to leave their home but has not crossed an 

international border 

Indefinite leave to remain 

• Status given when you have been granted leave to 

remain in the UK but are not subject under immigration 

law to any conditions or restrictions on your period of 

stay. 

National Asylum Support Service (NASS) 

• Part of the Home Office, set up in 1999. It provides 

support to destitute asylum seekers and administers the 

asylum support system. 

Section 4 Support 

• An asylum seeker whose asylum claim has finally been 

refused and has no means of support, may be eligible 

for shelter and food vouchers, on condition that he/she 

agrees to return “voluntarily”, even if his/her country of 

origin is not safe. This may be granted if: 

- the individual is unable to travel out of the UK 

(because they are ill or pregnant) 

- the individual has been given permission to take out 

a Judicial Review of the asylum claim 

- the individual has already applied for travel documents 

- the Home Office claims there is no safe route of 

return to individual’s country 

- there are exceptional circumstances 

Asylum Support 

• Accommodation and financial help provided for asylum 

seekers whilst their claim is being considered by the UK 

government. If further enquiries are made as to the 

individual’s application, he/she has five working days to 

provide the required information. Failure to do so 

results in withdrawal of state provision. 

Limited leave to remain 

• The application is made in respect of a person who, at 

the time of making the application, has limited leave to 

enter or stay in the United Kingdom which was granted 

outside the provisions of the immigration rules on the 

rejection of his asylum claim, and needs to stay in the 

United Kingdom outside the provisions of the 

immigration rules. 

Appeal 

• A legal proceeding in which the individual resorts to a 

higher court for the purpose of obtaining a review of a 

lower court decision and a reversal of the lower court’s 

judgment or the granting of a new trial. 

Here are some examples of myths that have been printed in 

British newspapers: 

“ILLEGAL REFUGEES TARGETED ON 

TUBE” 

The Facts 

(The Observer, 11 July 2004) 

A refugee is someone who has applied for asylum and has by 

law been granted refugee status. ‘Illegal refugees’ do not exist, 

neither do ‘illegal asylum seekers’, another variation of this 

commonly used mistake. The fact that an asylum seeker may 

have entered the country illegally does not mean their case lacks 

credibility: the reverse is often true. It is virtually impossible for 

people fleeing persecution to reach Britain without resorting to 

the use of false documents. 

“…SO-CALLED ASYLUM SEEKERS WHO, 

IN REALITY, SEEK NO MORE THAN 

ACCESS TO OUR WELFARE SYSTEM” 

The Facts 

(Sunday Express, 2 May 2004) 

Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream welfare benefits. 

If destitute, they can apply to the National Asylum Support 

Service (NASS), the Government department responsible for 

destitute asylum applicants, for basic food and shelter. A single 

adult is eligible for £38.96 a week, equivalent to 70% of basic 

income support. In December 2003, around 80,000 asylum 

seekers were receiving Home Office support, compared with 

15.5 million Britons on benefits (excluding retirement pensions), 

meaning that 0.5% of those claiming government support were 

asylum seekers. 

“AND THEY WILL STOP BOGUS ASYLUM 

SEEKERS FROM GETTING NHS CARE, 

SAVING £1 BILLION OF TAXPAYERS’ 

CASH” 

The Facts 

(The Sun, 31 July 2003) 

A Home Office report shows that people born outside the UK, 

including asylum seekers, contribute 10% more to the economy 

in taxes and national insurance than they consume in benefits 

and public services - equivalent to a boost to the economy of 

£2.6 billion in 1998/99. 

Refugees bring with them a wealth of skills and experience. 

According to a recent research commissioned by the Department 

for Work and Pensions, 53% of refugees have academic 

qualifications. The NHS already relies heavily on foreign labour: 

according to the Greater London Authority, 23% of doctors and 

47% of nurses working within the NHS were born outside the UK. 

Since July 2002, asylum seekers have been barred from working 

until they receive a positive decision on their claim. Although 

demonised for draining UK public services, asylum seekers are 

forced to depend on government support – they cannot 

contribute to the UK taxation system and are barred from using 

the wealth of skills and experience they bring to the UK. 

“ASYLUM CRISIS AS AMNESTY DEAL FOR 

15,000 TURNS INTO STAMPEDE” 

The Facts 

Daily Mail, 28 December 2005 

There was no crisis. Applications for the amnesty are made in 

writing - no-one was stampeding anywhere. Since the amnesty 

was announced in October 2003, the Home Office has found 

that more families are eligible for leave to remain than they had 

originally expected, some having been in the UK awaiting an 

asylum decision for over three years. 

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The Facts 

“ASYLUM SEEKERS SENT TO MORE 

AFFLUENT AREAS” 

Daily Mail, 23 December 2005 

The reality is that most asylum seekers’ accommodation is in 

crowded and deprived urban areas. They are housed in poor 

quality accommodation – often previously hard to let – 

sometimes in areas where research has shown they are more 

likely to face racial harassment. A Home Office report looking at 

the problems caused said there might be a case for changing 

the policy so that some asylum seekers would be sent to 

relatively less problematic areas. 

“BRITAIN IS THE ASYLUM CAPITAL OF THE 

WORLD” 

The Facts 

The Express, 23 March 2005 

The UK is home to just 3% of nearly 9.2 million refugees worldwide. 

Two thirds of the world’s refugees are living in developing 

countries, often in refugee camps. Africa and Asia between 

them host over 70% of the world’s refugees while Europe looks 

after just 22%. In 2005, the UK ranked 14th in the league table 

of EU countries for the number of asylum applications per head 

of population. 

The Facts 

“HALT THIS CROOKED TIDE” 

The News of the World, 30 January 2005 

A report by the Association of Chief Police Officers stated that 

the “vast majority of people seeking asylum are law abiding 

citizens.” In fact, asylum seekers are much more likely to be the 

victims of crime than the perpetrators. A study conducted by 

Refugee Action found that one in five of their clients had 

experienced some kind of harassment, while 83% of asylum 

seeking women do not go out at night for fear of being abused 

and harassed. 

“ASYLUM SEEKERS GIVEN VOTES TO GET 

LOANS” 

The Facts 

Mail on Sunday, 1 May 2005 

Asylum seekers are not allowed to vote in local or general 

elections in the UK, nor do they have any access to loans. 

People can only register on the electoral roll if they are British, 

Commonwealth, Irish or EU citizens. Far from getting extra help, 

asylum seekers receive just 70% of income support (£40 per 

week). They are not allowed work so are forced to live in 

poverty. In 2002, a joint Refugee Council/Oxfam report found that 

85% of organisations working with asylum seekers said their 

clients experienced hunger while 95% said they could not afford 

clothes or shoes. 

CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND 

PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE 

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General 

Assembly on 9 December 1948. 

Article 1 

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether 

committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under 

international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. 

Article 2 

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following 

acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a 

national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: 

Article 3 

• (a) Killing members of the group; 

• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members 

of the group; 

• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life 

calculated to bring about its physical destruction in 

whole or in part; 

• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within 

the group; 

• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another 

group. 

The following acts shall be punishable: 

• (a) Genocide; 

• (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; 

• (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; 

• (d) Attempt to commit genocide; 

• (e) Complicity in genocide. 

Article 4 

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts 

enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are 

constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private 

individuals. 

38

39 


JEWISH SOURCES 

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. 

If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the 

sword, and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans. 

Exodus 22:20–23 

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the 

land of Egypt: I the Lord, am your God. 

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself. I am the Lord. 

Leviticus 19:33–34 

Leviticus 19:18 

When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the 

fatherless, and the widow — in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat down the fruit of 

your olive trees, do not go over them again; that shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of 

your vineyard, do not pick it over again; that shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Always remember that you were a 

slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment. 

Some questions to ask about these texts: 

1. What do I think and feel about this text? 

2. What different ways can we read this text? 

3. What moral or ethical principles, values or lessons can be learnt? 

4. How does it relate to us and our world today? 

Deuteronomy 24:17–22 

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41 


QUOTES FROM SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES 

Nazi Germany 

‘When we arrived, the dead were not carried away any more, you 

stepped over them, you fell over them if you couldn’t walk. It was 

agonising...people begging for water’. 

‘Gi was executed…along with his brother and 18 other resistance 

fighters. He was 20 years old’. 

‘Thomas was tortured and condemned to death…at the age of 

20, he was executed by a…firing squad.’ 

‘My mother died slowly of hunger.’ 

‘state-sponsored racism produced…economic boycotts…and 

the violence…all of which aimed to systematically isolate…and 

drive them out of the country’ 

‘was characterized by the efficient and systematic attempt on an 

industrial scale to assemble and kill as many people as possible, 

using all of the resources and technology available to the…state.’ 

‘The…machinery was dedicated to 

eradicating millions of people it deemed 

undesirable’ 

‘They knew and did nothing, … did everything in their power to 

avoid dealing with the problem.’ 

‘The Holocaust tragedy was possible due to the complicity of 

leaders of state institutions’ 

Bosnia 

‘They would just line them up and shoot them into the pits. The 

approximately one hundred guys whom they interrogated and 

who had dug the mass graves then had to fill them in’ 

‘whoever tried to escape was shot’ 

‘The actions of the international community encouraged, aided, 

and emboldened the executioners. ...’ 

‘We were given orders to execute these 

men…I was simply compelled to…my 

commander said if I felt sorry for these 

people that I should line up with them’ 

‘Therefore, we had to, as quickly as possible, pack things . . . we 

could only take, just enough, perhaps, for the child, one change, 

a few pairs of her clothes, some bread, and quickly leave the 

house. This we did in a very short time, and we left the house.’ 

‘They were separating boys from 12 years of age and old men to 

77 years of age.’ 

‘The soldier asked why the child was crying and she explained 

that he was hungry. The soldier made a comment like, ‘He won’t 

be hungry anymore.’ He slit the child’s throat in front of 

everybody’ 

‘The vast amount of planning and high-level coordination invested 

in killing thousands of men in a few days is apparent from the 

scale and the methodical nature in which the executions were 

carried out.’ 

Rwanda 

‘All the preconditions for genocide were present: a well organised 

civil service, … a disciplined and orderly population, reasonably 

good communications and a coherent ideology containing the 

necessary lethal potential.’ 

‘even in the cases where people did not move spontaneously but 

were forced to take part in the killings, they were helped along in 

violence by the mental and emotional lubricant of ideology’ 

‘And people were often accused of having a false identity card, 

especially if they were tall and with a straight nose and thin lips’ 

‘In time of war, people who refuse to carry out orders to commit 

violent acts can be killed’ 

‘Many were betrayed by their neighbours’ 

‘Sexual abuse of women was common and they were often 

brutally raped and killed’ 

‘At massacre sites, corpses, many of them 

those of children, have been methodically 

dismembered and the body parts stacked 

in neat separate piles.’ 

‘One should never forget how great were the horrors which the 

survivors experienced’ 

‘In such extreme cases, even the refusal to kill was a heroic act’ 

‘Either you took part in the massacre or else you were massacred 

yourself’ 


‘They took dozens of other girls and made us walk for three 

hours. During the day we were beaten and they were telling us: 

“You… we will exterminate you, you have no God.” At night we 

were raped several times.’ 

‘Massive human rights violations committed in the region include: 

extra-judicial executions, unlawful killings of civilians, torture, 

rapes, abductions, destruction of villages and property, looting of 

cattle and property, the destruction of the means of livelihood of 

the population attacked and forced displacement.’ 

‘Children have been summarily or indiscriminately killed, tortured, 

abducted and forcibly displaced; girls have, like women, been 

the particular target of rapes, abductions and sexual slavery.’ 

‘men were taken away and then executed…while women were 

shot when trying to escape from the village.’ 

“They slit the throat of my only child in 

front of my eyes. I don’t know where my 

wife is and what happened to her. It is 

only because one of the soldiers was 

merciful that I was not killed.” 

‘There is no place here for the Negroes any more’ 

‘Government forces were either involved or direct witnesses.’ 

‘Reporting this to the soldiers did not make sense. They are part 

of it.’ 

© Brian Steidle 

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43 


SAMPLE LETTER 

Dear 

I am writing to you as a matter of urgency regarding the situation in Darfur, western Sudan. 

As you will be aware there has been a wave of violence over the past four years against those of 

black African descent living in the area. Cautious estimates are that 200,000 people have been 

murdered, although many humanitarian and campaign organisations suggest it is more likely that 

400,000 people have been killed, with violence, gang rapes and forced displacement also taking 

place. 

Whilst I support Tony Blair’s recent statement that there is a need for a ‘no fly zone’ over Sudan, 

these words must be coupled with action. The no fly zone must be pushed for at the United 

Nations, alongside the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force along the Chad-Darfur border. 

Statements are of no use to the vulnerable people of Darfur unless they are turned into a reality. 

Additionally I ask you to address the situation in the UK of detaining and deporting of asylum 

seekers back to Khartoum, Sudan. Not only does this put individuals in huge danger but sending 

asylum seekers back to Khartoum, the capital city from where the government-backed violent 

regime is organised, sends a message to the Sudanese government that the UK does not 

recognise the gravity of the situation in Darfur. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has 

recommended that it is too dangerous to deport Darfuri asylum seekers back to Sudan. 

I urge you to challenge this policy of the Home Office immediately. 

Please keep me updated on any developments in relation to Darfur. 

Yours sincerely 

MAPS 

Map of Sudan with Darfur region shaded 


MAP OF VILLAGES IN DARFUR REGION 

Courtesy of Human Rights Watch 

Google Earth, the search engine’s online mapping engine, has published aerial photographs of the Darfur region, showing more than 1,600 

damaged and destroyed villages, displaced people and IDP camps. In some areas the resolution is high enough to show the burnt ruins of 

individual homes, schools, and other structures destroyed by Janjaweed militia and Sudanese forces. The new initiative, called ‘Crisis in 

Darfur’, in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, can be viewed at earth.google.com. 

44

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TIMELINE - THE DARFUR CRISIS 

Sources: Protect Darfur, BBC Online, Reuters 

April 2003 – The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) attacks 

Government forces in Darfur. 

April 2003 – Refugees begin arriving in eastern Chad to escape 

the fighting. Large numbers of civilians become internally 

displaced people (IDPs) within Darfur. Another rebel group, the 

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) emerges in Darfur. 

May 2003 – Air raids are conducted on African villages in Darfur. 

The Government of Sudan instructs the national media not to 

report about the situation in Darfur under any circumstances. 

September 2003 – Refugee numbers in Chad reach 65,000. UN 

agencies estimate at least 500,000 people in Darfur need 

humanitarian aid. 

Early December 2003 – A fresh round of attacks by Arab 

Janjaweed militias prompts at least 10,000 new refugees to 

stream into Chad. The Sudanese Government begins policy of 

restricting humanitarian access by refusing or delaying travel 

permits to Darfur. 

23 January 2004 – At least 18,000 refugees enter Chad in one 

week as militia attacks inside Darfur intensify. 

19 March 2004 – In a media interview, UN Humanitarian 

Coordinator for Sudan Mukesh Kapila says the situation in Darfur 

is comparable to what happened in the Rwandan genocide of 

1994. 

19 April 2004 – A humanitarian ceasefire is signed between the 

SLA, JEM and the Sudanese Government. Atrocities continue. 

May 2004 - Establishment of the African Union observer mission 

to monitor the humanitarian ceasefire. 

25 May 2004 – Expressing its deep concern about reports of 

human rights abuses, the Security Council issues a presidential 

statement calling on Khartoum to neutralise and disarm the 

Janjaweed. 

30 June 2004 – Kofi Annan arrives on a three day visit to Sudan 

and Chad and holds talks with Sudanese Government officials 

and United States Secretary of State Colin Powell about the 

situation in Darfur and the obstacles faced by humanitarian 

workers in distributing aid. A large number of senior officials 

from European countries also visit during this period including 

UK Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn 

and UK Foreign Minister, Jack Straw. 

30 July 2004 – Security Council adopts Resolution 1556 which 

threatens ‘economic measures’ against Sudan if it does not 

make progress in allowing humanitarian aid and in disarming the 

Janjaweed as promised in a Communiqué the Sudanese 

Governemnt signed during Kofi Annan’s visit. The Resolution 

passes 13-0 with China and Pakistan abstaining. 

August 2004 – The first AU protection force troops arrive to 

protect the AU observers monitoring the humanitarian ceasefire. 

After insistence from the Rwandan Government the troops are 

given a mandate allowing them to protect civilians in the 

immediate vicinity under immediate threat. 

2 September 2004 – Jan Pronk, the UN Special Representative 

to Sudan tells the Security Council that Khartoum has not 

disarmed the Janjaweed nor stopped their attacks against 

civilians. He calls for the AU mission to be expanded in size and 

mandate so that IDPs are better protected. 

18 September 2004 – Security Council adopts Resolution 1564 

which says it will consider more measures, including sanctions, if 

Khartoum does not comply with earlier resolutions or with plans 

to expand the AU mission. The resolution also requests that the 

Secretary General quickly set up an International Commission of 

Inquiry to ascertain whether acts of genocide have been 

committed. The Resolution is passed 11-0 with Algeria, China, 

Pakistan and the Russian Federation abstaining. 

30 September 2004 – In a Brief to the Security Council 

following their assessment mission to Dafur Louise Arbour, High 

Commissioner for Human Rights and Juan Méndez, Special 

Advisor to the Secretary General on Genocide Prevention 

recommend that international police officers must be deployed if 

the IDPs are to have any confidence that they will be protected if 

or when they leave their camps. 

4 October 2004 – Kofi Annan proposes four ways in which the 

UN can assist the AU to expand its mission, including by setting 

up a Darfur regional office of the UN Advance Mission in Sudan 

(UNAMIS). 

January 2005 – A UN report accuses the government and 

militias of systematic abuses in Darfur, but stops short of calling 

the violence genocide. Recommends that the Security Council 

refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. 

6 March 2005 – Concerned that the world was not moving fast 

enough on Darfur, Kofi Annan summons Security Council 

members to a meeting to press for a stronger international force 

on the ground in the region. 

24 March 2005 – Resolution 1590 is passed by the UN Security 

Council establishing a peacekeeping force in South Sudan. 

Darfur is tagged onto the resolution with the force in the South to 

co-ordinate with the AU force in Darfur. The Resolution requests 

that Kofi Annan report back to the Council in 30 days on ways in 

which the Southern Force can support the African Union mission. 

31 March 2005 – The Security Council passes a Resolution 

1593 referring Darfur to the ICC. The UK International 

Development Select Committee publishes a report which is 

scathing of British policy on Darfur. 

April – July 2005 – Incidence of aerial attacks decreases. This 

is thought to reflect the fact that most villages have already been 

destroyed as much as reflecting any policy change on the part 

of the Sudanese Government. 

May 2005 – AU Peace and Security Council decides to increase 

its force size from 3,300 to 7,700. 

16 September 2005 – At the UN World Summit, states agree to 

the Responsibility to Protect Principle. Under this principle, 

where states fail to protect their own civilians, other states have a 

responsibility to intervene to protect those civilians, including by 

taking action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter should 

peaceful means prove inadequate. 

January 2006 – Tensions increase on the Chad/Sudan border. 

Chad accuses Sudan of supporting Chadian rebels whilst Sudan 

accuses Chad of supporting the SLA. Some refugees cross 

back into Darfur due to insecurity in Chad. 

10 March 2006 – The AU agrees in principle to the transfer of 

AMIS to the UN and gives a green light to the UN to begin 

planning for a force in the region but under pressure from 

Sudan, AU Foreign Ministers fail to agree a date, agreeing only 

to extend the mandate of the AMIS until September 2006. 

Sudan says it will only consider accepting a UN force once a 

peace deal is agreed. 

April 2006 – Sudan prevents a UN military assessment mission 

from visiting to Darfur to gather information necessary for the 

planning of the UN force for Darfur. 

May 2006 – Khartoum government and the main rebel faction in 

Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement, sign a peace accord. 

Two smaller rebel groups reject the deal. Fighting continues. 

August 2006 – Sudan rejects a United Nations resolution calling 

for a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, saying it would 

compromise Sudanese sovereignty. 

October 2006 – Jan Pronk, the UN’s top official in Sudan, is 

expelled. 

November 2006 – African Union extends mandate of its peacekeeping 

force in Darfur for another six months. 

46

47 


December 2006 – Sudan agrees in principle to accept the 

deployment of UN troops in Darfur as part of an expanded 

peacekeeping force. 

February 2007 – The first indictments at the International 

Criminal Court: Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s State Minister for 

Humanitarian Affairs and formerly State Minister of the Interior, 

and Ali Kushayb, one of the leaders of the Janjaweed, for war 

crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. 

April 2007 – Five Senegalese soldiers serving with the African 

Union are shot dead in Darfur. Sudanese army clashes with 

Chadian soldiers in Darfur, with several deaths. Sudan vows ‘a 

firm response’. 

April 2007 – United Nations team in eastern Chad find around 

400 decomposing bodies in villages where hundreds of homes 

had been burned to the ground by militias. UN official describes 

scenes as ‘apocalyptic’. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

This booklet would not have been possible without the hard 

work, support and expertise of the following people: 

Rabbi Janet Burden – West Central Liberal Synagogue and the 

South Bucks Jewish Community 

Brendan Cox – Crisis Action 

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon – St Albans Masorti Synagogue 

Henry Grunwald – Board of Deputies of British Jews 

Rabbi Michael Harris – The Hampstead Synagogue 

Marc Kaye – UJIA Makor 

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks – Chief Rabbi of the United 

Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth 

Dr James Smith – The Aegis Trust 

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg – New North London Synagogue 

Dr Raphael Zarum – London School of Jewish Studies 

The Pears Foundation also thanks the following 

organisations: 

The Aegis Trust, Alliance Darc, American Jewish World Service, 

Amnesty International, Assembly of Masorti Synagogues, BBC 

Online, Board of Deputies of British Jews, British Foreign and 

Commonwealth Office, Crisis Action, Human Rights Watch, 

Jewish Council for Racial Equality, Jewish Community Centre for 

London, London School of Jewish Studies, Liberal Judaism, 

Make Poverty History Jewish Coalition, Movement for Reform 

Judaism, Refugee Council, RenéCassin, United Jewish Israel 

Appeal, Tzedek, World Jewish Relief, United Synagogue 

Editorial Team: Charles Keidan, Alex Singer, Hannah Weisfeld 

With support from Lisa Capelouto and Amy Philip 

Peer reviewed by Brendan Cox, Elliott Goldstein 

Design and layout by Glen Powell, The Aegis Trust 

48

This booklet has been printed on paper made from recycled fibre and fibre sourced from sustainable forests. 

Printed by MPC Print Solutions on 9Lives 55 and 80 silk recycled paper.

Darfur: A Jewish Response - Pears Foundation

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