B'NAI B'RITH SUPPORTS U.S.-NATO ACTION IN YUGOSLAVIA, SAYS GOAL SHOULD BE DEMOCRACY IN SERBIA

Washington, D.C. (March 29, 1999) -- "B'nai B'rith International supports military action by the United States and its NATO allies to prevent the continued 'ethnic cleansing' of civilians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo," President Richard D. Heideman stated today. "As the world's largest Jewish human rights organization -- and ever mindful of the abandonment of the Jewish people by the nations of the world during the Nazi Holocaust -- of course we oppose the brutal denial of equal rights to minorities by majorities.

"In the Balkans, Europe and the United States, our governments have been passive for far too long, while thousands were massacred in Kosovo and, earlier, tens of thousands were massacred in Bosnia-Herzegovina. To Jews in particular, the phrase 'ethnic cleansing' has a precise and chilling meaning. When we insist on 'Never Again,' this is to what we refer. Whatever historic, political, or governmental claims Serbia has to Kosovo, the mass murder of and other criminal acts toward civilians cannot be tolerated.

"B'nai B'rith International also believes, as we have said in regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, that democracies rarely if ever go to war against other democracies. Societies that respect individual human rights -- including the rights of members of minorities as well as of majorities -- the rule of law, freedom of religion and press, and independence of the judiciary are societies able to solve problems without resort to repression.

"Therefore, the long-term U.S. and NATO objectives should be the promotion of democracy and human rights in Kosovo, Serbia, and in Yugoslavia as a whole.

"Finally, to those tempted to draw an analogy between military interventionin the Balkans on behalf of a minority versus a majority, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, we say such a comparison is clearly erroneous and propagandistic. In the Middle East, it is the Jewish State that insists on respect for minority rights, freedom of press and religion, the rule of law, an independent judiciary and on democracy in all its fundamental features.

"Israel has called, since its founding in 1948, for the resolution of Arab-Israeli problems through negotiations. It has been Israel's Arab neighbors that insisted -- and in too many cases still do -- that the Jewish State had no right to exist, that it should be 'cleansed' from the map. The Palestinian leadership must not be permitted to present itself as the voice of a seemingly oppressed minority while at the same time inciting anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish violence and denying genuine democracy and rule of law, including respect for religious minorities, to its own people."