Beginning on April 7, 1994, 25 years ago this Sunday, and continuing over the next 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda were slaughtered by members of Rwanda’s Hutu majority during an orchestrated campaign of widespread and unprecedented violence. Jewish World Watch stands in solidarity with the Rwandan people, and the memory of this horrific genocide…
Nothing blew me away on this trip to Bangladesh more than my visit to the largest Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, the sprawling Kutupalong megacamp where about 600,000 Rohingya refugees are living in chronically overcrowded and squalid conditions … indefinitely. The camp quite literally extends in every direction with no end in sight. It’s…
I had the privilege of meeting some extraordinary women over the course of this past week in Cox’s Bazar. There is no better time to tell their stories than on International Women’s Day. I spoke with them sitting cross-legged on the dirt or cement floors of their impermanent dwellings, and they let me catch a…
After an auspicious first day in the camps — in the sense that we got in and moved freely without incident — the second day brought unexpected challenges. I woke up to find out that street protests by the host community living adjacent to some of the camps were blocking any vehicles from going through,…
Yesterday was my first day in the camps. Haythem, from one of our partner organizations, met me and my traveling companion/friend/photographer Rares Michael Ghilezan at the airport at Cox’s Bazar. We quickly dropped off our luggage and then we were off to the camps, anxious about whether or not we would even be permitted to…
I arrived today in Cox’s Bazar, just a 1-hr flight from Dhaka, where I spent a day in transition on my trip from Los Angeles. Although the main mission of my trip has not yet begun, I have already seen and heard so much. Driving in Dhaka is an experience in and of itself. There are…
While in Washington, D.C. for the Lemkin Summit, I had the opportunity to meet with several members of Congress and/or their staff to discuss current or upcoming legislation related to the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. Because 2019 ushered in a new Congress, everything done by the previous Congress has been thrown out, and…
The second day of the Lemkin Summit was largely focused on developing advocacy skills, in preparation for meeting with policymakers on the Hill. Because, as JWW’s advocacy director, I’m pretty familiar with this, the highlight of my day was connecting with my friend Joseph Mulala Nguramo, who was a presenter on one of the panels…
I’m currently attending the Lemkin Summit at American University in Washington, D.C., organized by the Enough Project. Saturday was the first day of the conference, focusing on the importance of targeting ill-gotten gains and the networks of corruption as a means of preventing future mass atrocities. The highlight of the day was a simulation exercise…
In the last week alone, more than 10,000 Syrian civilians have fled the fighting in the ISIS-held areas of Hajin enclave in Deir ez-Zor governorate in northeast Syria for Al-Hol camp in the Syrian Kurdish YPG-controlled Hassakeh region. Those fleeing this last ISIS enclave — a sliver of land along the Euphrates River — report…