On April 11, 2010, per our previous report, volunteers in Washington DC held a “March for Remembrance” to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah). The event was led by event representative Ted Pearce, who sought to have such a march with Christians, Jews, and others in solidarity together to show united remembrance of the Holocaust.
"March for Remembrance" April 11, 2010 - Washington DC
Ted Pearce has led similar marches in Germany and in Texas. He stated that “if only Jewish people remember the Holocaust, then I fear that in some ways the Holocaust has already been forgotten by some,” which is why he organized this latest “March for Remembrance” in Washington DC.
Ted Pearce Organizes Marchers at the Beginning of Washington DC "March of Remembrance"
TOS Ministries, based in Germany, has led such events in the past. TOS Ministries-Germany Pastor Jobst Bittner is the founder of “The March for Life,” and spoke at the Washington DC event in German with an English translator about confronting and challenging anti-Semitism in Germany. TOS Ministries’ Pastor Bittner spoke about forming a church with a mission to confront and change attitudes on anti-Semitism in Tubingen, Germany, which had a past in the Nazi regime. Pastor Bittner spoke about the efforts to combat anti-Semitism and to speak out about the Holocaust in Germany, including holding public Hanukkah services and holding marches in Germany to remember the Holocaust, like the march that was now being held in Washington DC on April 11, 2010.
TOS Ministries-Germany Pastor Jobst Bittner Speaks of Defying Anti-Semitism in Germany
Other speakers at the March for Remembrance included Avi Mizrachi (Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects), Paul Argiewicz (Holocaust survivor, liberated from Buchenwald, April 11, 1945), Peter Loth (born in Stuttot concentration camp), and David Goldkorn (survived death march from Dachau).
Holocaust survivor Paul Argiewicz spoke of his time in Nazi concentration camps and urged the world never to forget the Holocaust. Paul Argiewicz was a Polish Jewish teenager who was forced to leave his home, schooling, and family due to Nazi anti-Semitism and spent five years in Nazi forced labor camps from Auschwitz to Buchenwald as Number 176520.
Holocaust Survivor Paul Argiewicz Speaks
The message was reinforced by all attendees that the Holocaust would be remembered, and that it would be each of the attendee’s responsibility, whatever their religion, to ensure that the world will Never Forget, so that we can all be responsible for ensuring “Never Again.” Organizer Ted Pearce stated that that the event would be continued as an annual tradition on Yom HaShoah in Washington DC. After the speakers, there was a lighting of 6 candles in memory of the 6 million who were killed in the Holocaust. At a separate event that night, Immanuel’s church in Silver Spring, Maryland held a “Concert of Remembrance.”
As security barricades are erected around parts of Washington and streets near the DC Convention Center are closed down protesters for freedom in China continue to raise their voice to Communist China leader Hu Jintao, who is attending a nuclear summit there.
The Washington Post reports:
— In fact, the morning’s heaviest traffic might have been the well before dawn when the thousands of police, federal agents and uniformed military personnel arrived to man the barricades. Scores of them stared across 11th Street at a dozen supporters of Falun Gong, a spiritual sect banned in China, who stood behind barricades holding banners in Chinese.”
DC protests also reported by AFP: — “More than 100 Tibetans chanted angry slogans in a square and a park on the edge of Washington’s Chinatown, both a stone’s throw from the Washington Convention Center where President Barack Obama is hosting the leaders from 46 nations, including China’s President Hu Jintao.”
Earlier AFP report also stated:
— “In two corners of the park, Falun Gong practitioners went through the gentle motions of their meditative art, which has gained a following of 100 million in China.”
— “‘The Chinese government persecutes anything that is outside its control. If they feel threatened, they go after you, and with more than 100 million people practicing Falun Gong, they’ve become paranoid and have been doing things to practitioners, like harvesting their organs when they are still alive,’ said Dr Wenyi Wang.”
— “‘The international community has to realize that everyone has a responsibility to stop the persecution of the Falun Gong by the Chinese,’ she said.”
— “‘But a lot of people, especially in the United States and Europe, only engage China economically and turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses,’ Wang said, adding that even the Chinese have an expression that says ‘what goes around, comes around.'”
— “Lisa Tao told AFP in heavily accented English that she had come to join the protesters because ‘thousands of Falun Gong have been tortured to death and we want to send a message to Hu Jintao to stop persecuting people.”
— “‘We don’t know if he will change but we have to keep up the pressure. So we keep protesting, wherever he goes,’ she said.”
April 12, 2010 Protests Against PRC Leader Hu Jintao Calling for China FreedomApril 12, 2010 Demonstration with Tibet and China Freedom Activists (Photo: AFP)Security checkpoint near the Washington DC Convention Center (WTOP Photo/Neal Augenstein)
10:00 am – Pre-Event gathering on the Mall. Opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum.
12:00 pm – Gather on the Mall (see map)
12:15 pm – Silent Prayer Walk to the U.S. Capitol Building
1:00 pm – Main Event (Testimonies and Prayer) on the West Lawn of U.S. Capitol
Immanuel’s Church, Silver Spring, MD
6:00 pm – Benefit Concert, Guest Musicians: Marty Goetz, Ted Pearce and Others. Proceeds to benefit: Helping Hands Collation – caring for Holocaust survivors. Directions: www.immanuels.org
“The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is Sunday, April 11. The Museum designated Stories of Freedom: What You Do Matters as the theme for the 2010 observance. In accordance with its Congressional mandate, the Museum is responsible for leading the nation in commemorating the Days of Remembrance, and for encouraging and sponsoring appropriate observances throughout the United States.”
“Observances and remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) through the following Sunday (view the Remembrance Day Calendar). Days of Remembrance are observed by state and local governments, military bases, workplaces, schools, churches, synagogues, and civic centers.”
The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA, H.R. 4594, S. 2982), is the most comprehensive piece of legislation addressing violence against women and girls worldwide. Working through the international assistance that the U.S. already provides, this bi-partisan bill would expand our government’s ability to prevent violence against women caught in conflict, support non-governmental organizations that are combating violence on the ground, and put the U.S. unequivocally on the record with countries around the world in saying that ending violence against women and girls is a national priority.
R.E.A.L. summarizes reports on a new proposed domestic violence bill in Pakistan, opposition to it, and reports on domestic violence in Pakistan. In August 2009, a similar bill was reportedly “passed” by the Pakistan National Assembly, but was rejected due to inaction by the Pakistan Senate and the rest of the Pakistan government by December 2009. In January 2010, the U.S. government announced plans for $7.5 billion in aid for Pakistan.
— April 8, 2010: AP reports: “Pakistan edges closer to banning domestic violence” — after acid attack on her face, destroying her left eye, wife Zakia Perveen said “I just thought it was my destiny, my fate.”
— “Rights advocates hope a proposed law banning domestic violence will chip away at such attitudes, giving women a more even playing field and bringing Pakistan in line with a growing number of developing nations that have outlawed spousal abuse.”
— “But Islamist lawmakers in Parliament are objecting, claiming the law could tear apart the social fabric by undermining families.”
— “In 2008, there were at least 7,571 incidents of acid attacks, rapes, spousal beatings and other violence against women, according to The Aurat Foundation, a women’s rights group. Because the group relied mostly on media reports, the figure is likely a vast undercount.”
— “Other surveys have shown up to 80 percent of wives in rural parts of Pakistan fear physical violence from their husbands, while 50 percent of women in urban areas admit their husbands beat them, according to a 2009 U.S. State Department report on Pakistan.”
Pakistan: Abused Wife Zakia Perveen - who was attacked with acid in her face by her husband - losing her left eye (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
“The number of cases of violence in different categories of offenses and their province-wise breakdown is as follows. There were:
— 1384 cases of murder:
(752 in Punjab; 288 in Sindh; 266 in NWFP; 39 in Balochistan; 39 in Islamabad);
— 604 cases of honor killing:
(245 in Punjab; 284in Sindh; 14 in NWFP; 59 in Balochistan; 2 in Islamabad);
— 1987 cases of abduction/kidnapping:
(1698 in Punjab; 160 in Sindh; 64 in NWFP; 13 in Balochistan; 52 in Islamabad);
— 608 cases of domestic violence:
(271 in Punjab; 134 in Sindh; 163 in NWFP; 22 in Balochistan; 18 in Islamabad);
— 683 cases of suicide:
( 448 in Punjab; 176 in Sindh; 43 in NWFP; 10 in Balochistan; 6 in Islamabad);
— 928 cases of rape/gang-rape:
(786 in Punjab; 122 in Sindh; 7 in NWFP; 4 in Balochistan; 9 in Islamabad);
— 274 cases of sexual assault:
(227 in Punjab; 44 in Sindh; 0 in NWFP; 2 in Balochistan; 1 in Islamabad);
— 50 cases of stove burning:
(33 in Punjab; 10 in Sindh; 4 in NWFP; 1 in Balochistan; 2 in Islamabad);
— 53 cases of acid throwing:
(42 in Punjab; 9 in Sindh; 1 in NWFP; 0 in Balochistan; 1 in Islamabad);
— 1977 cases of violence were of miscellaneous nature (vanni/swara, custodial violence, torture, trafficking, child marriages, incest, threat to violence, sexual harassment, attempted murder, suicide & rape) in the four provinces and Islamabad.”
A year ago, similar media reports stated efforts were in progress on a new domestic violence law in Pakistan. In August 2009, Dawn reported that a “private bill” on domestic violence had passed in the Pakistan National Assembly, which required approval by the Pakistan Senate. The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in Pakistan has previously warned that a law against domestic violence will “push up divorce rates,” according to Dawn. But by December 25, 2009, ANI reported “the [Pakistan] Government has seemingly lost sight of it.” On December 25, 2009, ANI reported: “when the bill was sent to the Senate, Mohammad Khan Sheerani, of the JUI-F, raised some objections, leading to a deferment of hearing, and then the Government slept on the matter and now the bill has lapsed… to make it a law the Government was required to get the bill passed through the upper house within 90 days of its receipt.”
— In another report by Shirin Sadeghi, Pakistan group Women Protection Project’s Dr. Khola Iram states “When you talk about domestic violence in Pakistan, some men in the educated classes, for instance, say that women are not the ones who are dying, it’s the police officers, they are all males… They don’t consider citizen security as security of women also.”
— Shirin Sadeghi reports “Dr. Iram is subdued as she explains that Pakistan, a nation of over 90 million women and girls, does not have a domestic violence law.”
— Shirin Sadeghi also tells of how Pakistani women have been “married” to inanimate objects and even pigeons to save their inheritance. Shirin Sadeghi reports: “The concept of marrying a female family member to an inanimate object, such as the Koran, or an animal, is too often employed to ensure that the inheritance will never be lost. ‘We had a case in Bhawalpur where the lady was married to a pigeon just to save the inheritance. I mean, what kind of Islam is that?’ Dr. Iram says.”
Pakistan: Report on Al-Huda International – “Many girls have been ‘transformed’ by Ms Hashmi who now believe in limiting their existence to the four walls of the house”
Israel – SWC to President Obama: Halt Palestinian Authority Glorification of Terror
— SWC: “For the second time in less than a month, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has moved to publicly glorify mass murderers of innocent Israeli civilians.”
— “Just today, a street next to a Presidential compound in Ramallah was renamed in honor of Yehiye Ayash, Hamas’ arch terrorist and chief bomb maker, whose advanced techniques of suicide bombing led to the murder and maiming of hundreds of innocent Israelis on buses and in bus depots throughout the State of Israel.”
— “Join the Simon Wiesenthal Center in urging President Obama, who has focused all of his recent demands on Israel, to immediately and publicly denounce the PA’s hypocritical and dangerous embrace of Hamas heroes.”
