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Monday, July 29, 2013

Stand With Us creates a new petition against Khaybar

As an adjunct to the petition that I created to pressure human rights groups to condemn the antisemitic Ramadan TV series "Khaybar," Stand With Us created their own petition.

Unlike the limited focus of my petition, the SWU petition is addressed to "key decision makers within the U.S. and foreign governments, ambassadors, human rights organizations, and international media."

We, the undersigned, join in expressing our deep concern about Khaybar, a television series airing in the Middle East. While it is just one of the many anti-Semitic programs broadcast during Ramadan, it is particularly disturbing. The show is named after a seventh-century event during which Mohammed and his armies attacked and massacred the Jews of Khaybar in Arabia. Even today, over 1,300 years later, the term “Khaybar” is often used in chants calling for the murder of Jews. Recently, Gaza flotilla participants and activists in New York and Paris shouted in Arabic, “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud,” which translates as “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” Its chilling association is one of bloodshed and terror.

As one actor in Khaybar stated, “Through the events of the show, we will discover how this category of humans (the Jews) represents one of the ugliest groups that appeared in history.” The television series builds on a long tradition of dehumanizing Jews and hatemongering.
Go there and sign it now. It already surpassed my petition in number of signatures.

We are still following up with my petition and pushing for a response from HRW and Amnesty.