The Warped Mirror: Don't dare to care!

Are you Jewish? Are you an Israeli, or would you describe yourself in any way as pro-Israel? Are you an American?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you better 'don't dare to care' about the suffering in Darfur. Just ignore that this Sunday, April 13th, marks Global Day for Darfur, with protests planned around the world to highlight the terrible plight of the victims of this ongoing conflict. Some estimates say that close to half a million people have been killed in Darfur in the past five years; more than a million, maybe even two million people have been driven from their homes, and every day, scores of women are raped and abused. But there are people who cynically claim that to campaign against this horrific violence is just "Darfurism", which "is central to the US/Israel agenda in the remaking of the Middle East; it ... also figures in the global resource wars. These are the reasons why Google and [the] Holocaust Museum have thrown their weight behind [the] Darfur propaganda project."

Such hate-filled nonsense was posted in response to a moving article written by Holocaust survivor Bela Rosenthal in support of the global action day for Darfur. 

The piece was originally published by the British Holocaust Educational Trust, but it was also featured on The Guardian's "Comment is Free" website, where it quickly attracted so many inappropriate reader responses that the comment facility was soon shut down. In addition to readers who wanted to indulge into conspiracy theories about "Darfurism", there were others who demanded that the focus should not really be on Darfur, but on Gaza.

No surprise here: Richard Falk, the newly appointed UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, has demonstrated that it is perfectly acceptable to dismiss the genocidal massacres in Darfur and elsewhere with the assertion that "Gaza is morally far worse, although mass death has not yet resulted".

It is obvious why many Jews feel particularly disturbed by the inaction of the international community in face of the long ongoing slaughter of civilians in Darfur. As Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, put it in her introduction to Bela Rosenthal's piece: "If there is to be any meaning to the concept of 'never again', it is fundamental that people everywhere from all backgrounds and walks of life speak out and send a message that such atrocities are not acceptable in this or any other life time."

It is in this spirit that also the American Jewish Committee encourages activism to protest the violence in Darfur and to help its victims. The fact that Jews who follow this humanitarian call may well find themselves accused of  supporting "anti-Muslim imperialist motivations" is a rather sad illustration of how easily anti-Semitic sentiments masquerade as political correctness.

Given the almost obscene suspicions about Jewish activism in support of the victims of the conflict in Darfur, it is no small irony that thousands of Darfur refugees have tried to find safety in Israel. Nachman Shai has written about this issue in his JPost blog already last summer.

There has been much criticism about the handling of the resulting problems in the Israeli press - and interestingly enough, you can also read about it in the Arab press: In mid-March, Asharq Al-Awsat featured a long report on "African Refugees in Israel" that quoted one Israeli critic as saying: "We, as Jewish people, have been oppressed and displaced throughout history and it embarrasses me to see the way the government is dealing with the situation. There is neglect of the victims of Darfur that reminds me of the world's neglect in the face of the Nazi's attempt to annihilate the Jews."

To be sure, the Arabs themselves certainly have much reason to be embarrassed given the fact that Sudan is a member of the Arab League, which should therefore be the first to feel responsible for alleviating the plight of the refugees.

This is a point that is indeed addressed quite openly in a long article published recently by the English-language Sudan Tribune, an online publication based in France, which reported that some members of the Sudan Liberation Movement who found refugee in Israel opened an office for the group in Tel Aviv. This move was regarded as "breaking a taboo"; reportedly, it therefore "attracted hostile debate both inside the Sudan and in the Arab world." But as the article emphasized: "The Arab must take note that Israel is the only country in the entire region, including North Africa, which allocated a Parliament debate on Darfur."