Especially for Zionist Yaacov...This one from a Jew I respect;)
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY JEWISH FRIENDS
Since the beginning of the attack on Yugoslavia the American Jewish Committee and the
American Jewish Congress in Boston gave their full support of the NATO's bombings. It is hard
to tell whether their endorsement is an act of opportunism or ignorance. It is definitely not the
expression of high moral standards they would like us to believe.
I am not familiar with the decision making process of their main offices in New York. For that
reason I will limit my remarks to the actions of their Boston representatives in this open letter.
I have known Ms. Sheila Decter the Director of the American Jewish Congress in Boston for
more than twenty years. We collaborated on many occasions on the variety of cultural programs.
I cooperated frequently with Lawrence Lowental, the Executive Director of the American Jewish
Committee. Together we introduced the film "The Righteous Enemy." A segment of the
documentary deals with the Italian occupation of the Croatian province of Dalmatia where my
entire family was killed during the Second World War.
As a child of the Holocaust survivors and with my own personal history of victimization, when at
twelve a group of Croatian youths almost killed me and tried to burn me in a school stove, I am
very sensitive to any kind of religious or racial intolerance. I am opposed to persecution of
civilians, as much as the directors of the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish
Committee are. Still, I do not hold all Germans or all Croatians responsible for the fate of my
family or for my personal experience.
Since the beginning of the ethnic fighting in Yugoslavia eight years ago both the American Jewish
Congress and the American Jewish Committee have taken one sided and partial view of the
conflict. The organizations have distorted the truth, have refused to hear the greviances of the
other side and have suppresed information they possessed, all in order to support their
preconcieved notion of who the innocent victims are and who the murderers in the civil war. It
might have been easier to sell this black and white picture to their members, but the picture in no
way reflects the facts. Throughout the conflict militias and paramilitary forces belonging to all sides
have committed attrocities against civilians and other ethnic groups. To single out only Serbs and
especially all Serbs is not only incorrect but immoral.
I strongly believe that all those responsible for the war crimes should be brought to justice by
impartial international courts, regardless of their nationality. I also believe that international order
should be upheld by the UN and World Court to prevent the small and weak nations from being
destroyed by either evil or self-righteous empires. I also believe, as naive as it may sound, that all
nations and all conflicts should be judged by the same standards while ethnic strives should be
resolved peacefully through negotiations and not ultimatums and bombs.
After reading that the American Jewish Committee was a strong supporter of the bombings, I
called Mr. Lowental. When I asked him why his organization did not endorse an intervention in
Sudan where two million people have been killed in a civil war or Rwanda where six hundred
thousand people were killed, as compared to two thousand in Kosovo, Mr. Lowental responded
that we (Who are we? Jews? Americans? NATO?) did not have any strategic interests in Africa.
How about East Timor (250,000 dead) or Sri Lanka (80,000 dead)? No strategic interests. How
about China (1,500.000 dead), Kashmir (300,000) or Chechnya (250,000 dead)? His answer
was that those countries had atomic weapons. We have been repeatedly given similar
explanations by the US media and the US Government. This means that our high moral standards
apply only if the victims are Europeans and if the perceived perpetrators do not have atomic
weapons or are not the American NATO friends like Turkey. If that is the case, than it is
understandable that the NATO attacked Yugoslavia.
Mr. Lowental pointed out to me that the American Jewish Committee could not stand silent while
the ethnic cleansing was going on. Why was the Committee silent when 200,000 Krajina Serbs
(out of total of 900,000 ethnically cleansed Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia) were expelled from
Croatia four years ago? Mr. Lowental could not remember the incident. Well, let me remind him.
While the 150 miles long column of refugees in tractors and cars was harassed in Croatia, the US
government sent a stern statement to Yugoslavia warning them not to settle the expelled refugees
in several Serbian provinces with large minorities in order not to tilt the ethnic balance there. We
have had a chance to hear many cynical pronouncements during the civil war in former
Yugoslavia, but this one definitively tops them all. It would be pity for Mr. Lowental's checkered
memory not to remember it, despite the fact that there is nothing the American Jewish Committee
can do about that incident of ethnic cleansing now.
Six years ago, at the height of the conflict in Bosnia, Ms. Decter asked me to translate testimonies
given by a group of Bosnian Muslim prisoners that were brought to Boston (Allston) the previous
day. They gave a harrowing account about being kept for months in a dark underground military
tunnel in Hercegovina. The detainees described the torture and killings they witnessed, and talked
about their transfer to the island of Badia and their consequent release to the USA. When they
asked me to translate, the American Jewish Congress was not aware that the prisoners were not
held in Serbian but in a Croatian detention camp. When did the Serbs put them in prison? the
AJC representative repeatedly asked me. They were in a Croatian camp, I kept repeating. They
were tortured by the Croats not Serbs. This came to them as a complete surprise.
To make the situation more ironic, the former Muslim prisoners described in detail how at the
beginning of the conflict, they, together with the Croatians from the area, ethnically cleansed and
killed all the Serbs from the town of Chaplina and the surrounding villages. They showed no
remorse for their actions, but told me the story embittered by the betrayal of their former Croatian
allies. The American Jewish Congress office in Boston never released the tapes, that are probably
still in their possession. Since the tapes did not show the Serbs as being solely responsible for the
civil war in Bosnia, Sheila Decter must have decided that it is better not to ruin her imaginary
account of the conflict in Bosnia.
Long after it became apparent that the story of a systematic rape of 50,000 Muslim women by
Serbian soldiers was a hoax, both the AJ Congress and the AJ Committee continued to trumpet
the false charges. The tragic truth was that around three thousand women were raped on all sides
of the ethnic divide. I brought this to the attention of Ms. Decter and suggested that she get in
touch with Lepa Mladjenovic who was at that time running a rape victim center in the vicinity of
Belgrade for both Serbian and Muslim rape victims. Ms. Mladjenovic has impeccable credentials.
She was a well known feminist in former Yugoslavia and an active opponent of the war. During
the siege of Sarajevo she organized and sent through the Adventist Church thousands of
packages of food to the civilians in Sarajevo, regardless of their religion, thus saving hundreds of
lives. Since Ms. Mladjenovic was a Serbian, and Serbs were suspects regardless of what they
did, Sheila Decter scoffed at my suggestion and showed no interest in getting in touch with her. Of
course, since more is better, it was much easier to sell memberships to the AJ Congress by being
concerned for the 50,000 allegedly raped Muslim women, than to show a real compassion for the
true rape victims on all sides of the conflict. Now incidentally, the story of the systematic rape has
been conveniently moved to Kosovo.
The demonization of the Serbs and Yugoslavia by these two Jewish organizations extends to the
Yugoslav Jews as well. During the sanctions, I suggested on several occasions that something
should be done for the Yugoslav Jews so they would not feel completely isolated. The suggestion
was met with complete indifference, even hostility. Not a single time did they speak to Aleksandar
Singer, the President of the Jewish Federation in Belgrade, an Auschwitz survivor who also spent
three years in a labor camp under communism, to find out what his views of the conflict were.
Had they called Mr. Singer recently, they might have discovered that one of the first bombs
dropped over Yugoslavia by the NATO, destroyed the old bridge in Novi Sad and the Holocaust
memorial commemorating killing of 1219 people, 809 of them Jews at the site in 1942. They also
might have heard that Yugoslav Jews feel perfectly safe in Belgrade, as do the other minorities,
except for the NATO bombings.
In the past several years both organizations have hosted many delegations from Bosnia, with
token Jewish representatives who were never before involved in life of the Jewish community and
knew nothing about it. Unlike the Yugoslav Jews, the Bosnian Jews deserved the attention of the
AJ Congress and Committee. This approach is completely absurd, considering that the Jews of
former Yugoslavia were always one interrelated and cohesive Jewish community. The Yugoslav
Jews became Jewish communities of five different countries, only by the fact that at the time of the
breakup of Yugoslavia they happened to live in five different parts of the country. Furthermore,
around 300 Jewish refugees from Sarajevo now live in Belgrade.
In contrast to the empty posturing by the AJ Committee and Congress, the JOINT Distribution
Committee in New York has been successfully helping the victims of the civil war in Yugoslavia
regardless of their ethnic background. During the siege of Sarajevo the organization managed to
rescue from the city thousands of Jews, Serbs, Muslims and Croatians. At the Jewish Center in
Sarajevo it organized the only telephone link with the outside world and served hot meals to all
starving citizens of Sarajevo. During the sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia, which had devastating
effect on the poor and the old, the JOINT Distribution Committee opened a pharmacy in the
offices of the Jewish Federation in Belgrade. The pharmacy, still operating, has provided over the
past six years free medications both to the Jewish community and to the poor citizens of
Belgrade.
There is a Jewish saying that one who saves a human life, has saved the whole world. In contrast,
to the humanitarian activities of the JOINT Distribution Committee, the American Jewish
Committee and the American Jewish Congress have become vocal advocates of bombings and
further killings, without helping anyone.
The NATO bombings which the American Jewish Committee and Congress support has done
nothing to reduce the suffering of the ethnic Albanians. As might have been envisaged, the
removal of the international monitors, who discouraged the atrocities prior to the bombing, has
resulted in a humanitarian tragedy of enormous proportions. The relief workers who might have
continued to mitigate the suffering of the civilians are also gone. The destruction of the city of
Pristina and other towns throughout Kosovo by the NATO bombers can hardly be considered
helpful to either Albanian or Serbian civilians remaining in the cities.
Considering that prior to the NATO attack on Yugoslavia, there were no refugees outside of
Kosovo, it is clear that it is the bombings that provoked a horrific outburst of ethnic cleansing by
Serbian forces. This in no way absolves those committing the crimes from their responsibility.
The alliance's lofty pronouncements that it has nothing against Yugoslav people sound rather
hollow in view of the mounting civilian casualties damaged cities and completely destroyed
industry. The ecological disaster caused by the oil spillage into the Danube from the repeatedly hit
refineries, poisonous fumes released from the chemical plants, use of the cluster bombs and low
grade uranium, will be felt in the area for generations to come. Is this what we are supposed to
support?
It is no coincidence that the countries closest to the conflict, Greece, Italy, Macedonia and the
democratic government of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, all oppose the NATO
bombings as counterproductive. It is not surprising that the opposition parties and the leading
dissident intellectuals in Yugoslavia, whose lives are endangered not just by bombs but also by the
increased internal repression, all oppose bombing of Yugoslavia. Their painstaking work to bring
democracy to their country, which the US government never supported, now lies in ruins. It is
equally understandable that the Yugoslav Jews along with all other citizens of Yugoslavia do not
see the NATO action as a fight against Milosevic, but as a destructive war with an aim to destroy
their country and their very existence. It is hard to fathom the blind arrogance and callousness of
those living 5000 miles away, with no understanding of the area, wishing to perpetuate the killings,
in order to justify the disastrous and misguided decision by the US government and its NATO
pawns. Is this what Jewish moral response should be according to the American Jewish
Committee and the Jewish Congress?
It is difficult to believe that only a month has passed since Mr. Lowental and I introduced to over
six hundred people at the JFK Library in Boston the film "The Righteous Enemy." The
documentary tells a story about courageous Italians, both military men and civilians, who during
the Second World War defied their government in order to save thousands of lives. As we all
know, it is always safer, more opportune and much more profitable to jump on a bandwagon. I
can only wish that the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress might
have learned something from this historic example. It is useless to honor the heroic deeds from the
past, if we are, by following the stampede, unwilling to show the same compassion and concern
for all victims of the conflict.
David Mladinov |
