Further to the harrowing presentation by Rahima Mahmut and Ben Rogers to Magen Avot on 5 January...
As a community, we want to act against the terrible genocide of the Uyghur Muslims in China, where up to 3 million people are in concentration camps. Some governments around the world have formally declared this “Genocide” and a campaign is underway, supported by the Board of Deputies and others, for the UK to do the same. The Chief Rabbi has referred to this as “an unfathomable mass atrocity” in an article in the Guardian newspaper on 15 December 2020.
STOPUYGHURGENOCIDE is a cross community, cross party coalition, led by the World Uyghur Congress. One aim is for the international community to disrupt China's world leadership by restricting trade and collaboration.
Our government is in the process of voting for a genocide amendment to the Trade Bill, which would prevent the UK from striking preferential trade deals with countries committing genocide. In the last vote, the MP for Hendon, Matthew Offord voted against this amendment. It is vitally important that we appeal to him to change his mind before the next vote in the House of Commons on 2nd February. We have prepared a letter for you to sign if you support this cause.
Please copy the text from the attached letter make sure you to include your name and postcode (to show that you are a constituent) and send to the email address listed below. If you do not live in Hendon, please send this letter to your own MP.
Matthew Offord (Hendon) matthew.offord.mp@parliament.uk
Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) mike.freer.mp@parliament.uk
Please help us get the message out that we in the Jewish Community cannot stand by and see another people suffer without speaking out. For more info see www.stopuyghurgenocide.org.uk. Further initiatives to follow.
