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In NYT ad, Sharansky, Henri-Levy urge Olympics boycott over China’s abuse of Uighurs
Pair joins Elie Wiesel’s son in calling on athletes, corporate sponsors ‘to walk away from these games,’ set to open in Beijing on Friday
JTA — A full-page advertisement in The New York Times on Saturday urged athletes and corporate sponsors to “walk away” from the Winter Olympic Games, set to begin on Friday in Beijing, to protest China’s persecution of the Uighurs.
“We urge the athletes and the sponsoring corporations to walk away from these games unless Beijing takes steps to reunite Uyghur families. And we urge the world’s citizens to embrace the cause of this persecuted population,” the ad stated.
The ad was paid for by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and was signed by the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, the former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky, and Eli Wiesel’s son Elisha Wiesel. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work speaking out about the lessons of the Holocaust and bringing attention to other genocides, died in 2016.
Activists have urged a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s treatment of the Uighur, a Muslim group in the northwest part of China whose members have faced forced internment in “reeducation camps” by the Chinese government. The Chinese government has said the move is meant to combat terrorism, but numerous reports say the captive Uighurs are pressured to abandon their culture. The men are also reported to have been forced into labor and the women are said to have been sterilized.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations have designated the persecution of the Uighurs a genocide. United States officials plan to boycott the Beijing Olympics in protest of the Chinese persecution of the Uighurs, though US athletes will still participate in the games. Israeli officials are not expected to follow the Americans’ lead and are expected to attend the games.
Elisha Wiesel spoke about the situation of the Uighurs at a ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day held by the United Nations on Thursday.
Full page ad in the @NYTimes today…
"The @UN must urgently invoke the Genocide Convention's legal and moral obligation to act on Xinjiang. We pray they will."
Led by @ElieWieselFdn w/ @ElishaWiesel @BHL @NatanSharansky
Thank you! pic.twitter.com/02QvXZj4vD
— Peter Irwin (@PeterIrwin_) January 29, 2022
“China, which sits on the Human Rights Council, inflicts mass internment, forced labor and forced sterilization on the Uighur people. As the world turns a blind eye to the forced separations and cultural eradication of Uighur families, other oppressors — Myanmar, ISIS and the Taliban — breathe easier, as they oppress the Rohingya, the Yazidi, and women,” Wiesel stated. “I have met with Uighur dissidents and I believe their testimony. While we pretend nothing is wrong we must instead provide refuge for the Uighur people and stand vigil for the disappeared.”
