Jewish World Watch discusses state of humanity; Panel discusses Iranian

Jewish World Watch Discusses State of Humanity, Screens Documentaries

For every 100,000 babies born, 6,500 mothers die in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan due to unavailable or inadequate medical care. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, violent conflicts over control of its rich mineral deposits have killed more people than the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur combined.

And in Burma, the lives of innocent civilians are plagued with malaria, torture and forced labor.

Images depicting these horrific conditions comprised Jewish World Watch’s (JWW) third State of Humanity Forum at Creative Artists Agency on Dec. 3., where JWW Executive Director Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug and President Janice Kamenir-Reznik welcomed more than 100 people to a screening of documentary films followed by a panel discussion.

The documentaries screened included “Losing Hope — Women in Afghanistan” (2007), “War Against Women — The Use of Rape as a Weapon in Congo’s Civil War” (2008), a “60 Minutes” report by Anderson Cooper and “Fueling Abuse: Foreign Investment and Terror in Burma” (2002).

Each of the three panelists underscored the lifeblood of foreign investments enabling these dangerous situations.

“You have to ask yourself: Who is buying these minerals?” urged Ernestine Mwanasali from Friends of Congo. She explained that the global market for Congo’s reserves of diamonds, gold, copper and manganese (a mineral found in many electronics, including cellphones and iPods) is directly arming the militias that orchestrate mass rape and genocide. “If we don’t get to the source, this conflict continues,” she said, insinuating that China, the United Kingdom and the United States play primary roles.

The conflict in the Congo began when thousands of Hutu militias fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide there, which killed more than 500,000 Tutsis. Mwanasali accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was welcomed to President Bush’s White House at least twice, of refusing to recapture the loose militias unless he can gain access to Congo’s mineral resources.

“These bloody histories are fueled and funded by foreign contributions — the U.S. chief among them,” said Sonali Kolhatkar, co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission. Kolhatkar focused her address on the reversal of women’s rights since the 1970s, when progressive views of women took root in the capital of Kabul.

She blamed U.S. troops for widespread civilian killings and disagreed with President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to send more troops to the region.
Geoffrey Cowan, former dean of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, moderated the discussion, which at times lacked interplay among the panelists, and instead allowed each advocate to speak out.

Since its inception in 2004, JWW has administered more than $2 million in direct aid to Darfur/Chad in the form of water wells and medical clinics. And although humanitarian crises around the world continue to escalate and JWW needs funds to pursue its global mission, Kamenir-Reznik said JWW is “mindful of the economic times” but asked the Jewish community to prioritize its giving in the service of human rights.

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