For Immediate Release
As the Canadian Jewish Community’s foremost human rights organization, we feel impelled to state our position on the war in Iraq.
B’nai Brith in Canada has been active in the field of human rights since 1875, working to protect the vulnerable, the oppressed and the disadvantaged. We have witnessed the ravages of war, and experienced the effects of tyranny and oppression. The Jewish people know only too well the tragedy and suffering that can ensue when a dangerous dictator is allowed to flourish unchecked. We are painfully aware that it is not an easy decision to send troops into harm’s way, or to give orders that may result in civilian casualties. Nonetheless, there are circumstances where the dangers of inaction outweigh the benefits. B’nai Brith Canada believes that the decision to disarm Saddam Hussein and remove him from power is such a case.
As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven… a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” B’nai Brith Canada sees this war as a regrettable necessity. We believe that this is a morally justified course of action.
The Iraqi regime led by Hussein is responsible for the most severe breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, perpetrated upon its own people and upon its neighbours. In the past, Kurds and Iranians have been gassed by the thousands. Iran and Kuwait have been invaded. Saudi Arabia has been threatened, and Israel, separated from the Gulf by hundreds of miles of desert wastes, has been assailed by ballistic missiles.
Overlaying all of these instances of aggression is the ongoing repression, murder, rape, and torture of the Iraqi people, especially political and religious dissidents. To countenance the continued existence of such a regime — which possesses weapons of mass destruction and is linked to international terror — is to court further human catastrophe.
It is with these facts in mind that we find ourselves compelled to support the actions undertaken this week by the United States, Britain, Australia and others. As stated recently by Elie Weisel, a Nobel Peace Laureate and a man who is intimately familiar with the horrors of war: “What it comes down to is this: We have a moral obligation to intervene where evil is in control. Today, that place is Iraq.” Our emotions may scream at us that the repugnant nature of war demands that we distance ourselves from it, but our rational ethos determines that we must look beyond our emotions to the vital necessity of securing peace in the region for future generations. Going to war in Iraq is not only a matter of tanks and missiles, it is a matter of good and evil, of right and wrong. We cannot be distracted from the repugnant evil which resides in Baghdad and threatens the citizens of Iraq and their neighbors.
We close with the words attributed to Edmund Burke, that remind us: “All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
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For further information call Joseph Ben-Ami, Director of Communications at 613-294-7313.
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s foremost advocacy and volunteer organization.
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