Holocaust Museum condemns IS ‘genocide’ against Yazidi Kurds

Yazidi Kurd refugees

Yazidi Kurd refugees

KT News:

As the US military launched air-strikes against ‘Islamic State’ (IS) positions close to south Kurdistan, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned IS “crimes against humanity” committed against religious minorities in Iraq, calling the attacks on Yazidi Kurds genocidal.

“Of greatest immediate concern is the fate of up to 50,000 Yazidi civilians estimated by the UN to be under siege on Mount Sinjar in Iraq without food or water since August 3 and who face likely slaughter should they attempt to flee. Scores have reportedly already died from thirst and starvation; most victims have been children”, said the Museum in a statement yesterday.

“The majority of the approximately half million Yazidis live in Iraq, concentrated in the areas of Sinjar and Shakhan. Since August 3, IS has reportedly summarily executed hundreds of Yazidis and abducted and enslaved scores of Yazidi women. In that time, some 50,000 Yazidi civilians have fled Sinjar to the nearby mountains, where they remain surrounded by IS forces”.

Tom Berstein, the Museum’s chairman, accused the IS of genocide: “Intentionally targeting a religious group for destruction constitutes genocide. The world must act now to prevent this crime.”

The Museum condemned all attacks on religious minorities in Iraq. “In July, the 1,700-year-old Christian community of Mosul fled the city after IS demanded its members immediately convert, pay a tax, leave, or be slaughtered” it said. “That community remains under serious and imminent threat. IS has also summarily executed members of groups it considers apostate; these groups, including Shi’a Muslims, Shabaks, Turkmen, and the Yazidis, remain under constant siege. According to the UN, more than one million Iraqis have been displaced by the conflict since June, most of them members of religious minorities”.

3 Responses to Holocaust Museum condemns IS ‘genocide’ against Yazidi Kurds
  1. greg
    August 10, 2014 | 17:39

    Jews and Kurds have both suffered from persecution. After the genocide of over a million Jews in the first crusade it was Saladin, a Kurd, who let Jews return to Jerusalem. Just as there needs to be a sovereign Jewish state in Israel there needs to be a Kurdish state in Kurdistan. Fact: Jews and Kurds are also closely related genetically, and Abraham is believed to have been Kurdish.

  2. Robert J. Fishman
    August 13, 2014 | 18:44

    a very good and strong statement , we also will post on our website

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