An Appeal from American Jews to the Green Party of Germany to Stop the Bombing of Yugoslavia.

• Position: Brief Article

[Greens across the US circulated the following petition, drafted by Robert Naiman of the Preamble Center in Washington in conjunction with Mitchel Cohen of the Green Party USA. It was signed by hundreds of Jews, whose names you can find on the S/R web site below.]

We are Jewish Americans who are deeply concerned that the memory and tragedy of the Holocaust is being invoked in order to justify an unjust bombing campaign against the civilian population of Yugoslavia. Many of us have friends who lost family members in the Holocaust, or have lost relatives ourselves. We are deeply aware of our own history and the need for the world community to intervene in situations where there is a threat of genocide, in order to prevent it. However, this is clearly not what is happening in Yugoslavia today.

We do not believe that our government's war against Yugoslavia is motivated by humanitarian concerns. This is evidenced by their refusal to airlift food and water to desperate refugees within Kosovo, as well as the paltry sums allocated for refugee relief as compared to the billions of dollars spent on the bombing. The Clinton Administration's great reluctance to pursue a negotiated solution to the conflict also indicates that this intervention is mainly about power: showing the world that the United States (and NATO, which it largely controls) is the self-appointed international policeman, and stands above international law and the United Nations. They are waging their war...