Ex-MKs, academics call on Ashkenazi to take stand on Chinese human rights abuses
Five hundred former lawmakers, academics, artists and other prominent figures signed a letter to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi calling on Israel to take a stand against human rights violations by China.
When it comes to coronavirus, the letter reads, “the Chinese Communist Party adopted a policy of silencing that led the disease to spread around the world and [bring] severe harm to human lives, society and the world and the Israeli economy.”
“The regime in China was willing to harm the whole world in order to defend its interests,” it states.
The letter, sponsored by Israeli advocates for the Falun Gong, a persecuted religious minority in China, states that the Chinese regime “cruelly persecutes” their co-religionists and forcibly harvests their organs. The US Congress and European Parliament, among other legislatures, condemned the practice.
The signatories called for Israel, “established after the terrible Holocaust and [with] the vow ‘never again,’” to raise its voice on the matter.
“Some factors say that silence is justified because of political or economic interests,” the letter reads. “In our opinion, no interest can justify ignoring the Jewish people’s historic responsibility.”
Cooperation with China will do more harm than good, and Israel must take a public stance, the letter stated.
Among the letter’s signatories are former Knesset speaker Avrum Burg, Likud MK and Zehut Party leader Moshe Feiglin and several ex-Meretz MKs, including Zehava Gal-On and Naomi Hazan. Professors from Israel’s universities signed the letter, as well as prominent religious-Zionist Rabbi Shlomo Aviner.
Notably, the letter does not mention the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority in China, an estimated million of whom have been forced into camps for what the CCP calls “re-education.”
Last week, drone footage taken several years ago from China’s Xinjiang region, home of the Uighurs, went viral online. The video showed people waiting to board a train, likely to the camps, blindfolded with shaved heads, surrounded by armed guards.