O 'rnon
Indeed, Never Again
T
he hotel manager from Rwanda
who became a hero by managing
to save 1,268 people in the 1994
Rwandan massacre came to Farmington
Hills on the final day of February 2007.
Paul Rusesabagina began his day by
speaking to the North Farmington High
School students who had watched two
nights earlier the movie, Hotel Rwanda,
inspired by his life. He was the keynote
speaker of their 2006-07 Interdisciplinary
Study of "Humanity in Crisis: Genocide."
The students were stuck in their class-
rooms, locked down, watching him on
monitors. As Rick Jones, the principal,
said on the loud speakers, "A threat
from an outside organization on Mr.
Rusesabagina's life" forced police outside
and inside the building. High security
became his high priority.
Rusesabagina, author of the 2006 auto-
biography, An Ordinary Man, told the
extraordinary story of his 100-day night-
mare from April through July 1994 when
he and 1,268 others managed to avoid the
genocide that swept Rwanda, killing more
than 800,000 people, five murders every
minute, 8,000 every day.
Emotional Tug
On the last night of February in Metro
Detroit, Rusesabagina made his way past
the policemen stationed at Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills to tell his
story to hundreds of adults and teenag-
ers in the sanctuary. We listened intently,
trying to understand his English as he
explained that he never used weapons. He
has written that "words are the most effec-
tive weapons of death...but they are also
powerful tools of life."
He told how he watched the horror
overcome his country, how "my job did
not change in the genocide, even though
I was thrust in a sea of fire. I only spoke
the words that seemed normal and sane
to me. I did what I believed to be ordinary
things that an ordinary man would do. I
said no to outrageous actions the way I
thought that anybody would, and it still
mystifies me that so many others could
say yes."
I was mystified also, hearing how the
majority Hutus traveled the countryside
hacking and slaughtering the minority
Tutsis they called "cockroaches." What's
the difference? Tutsis were perceived as
taller with shorter noses. What did the
international community do? We had
pulled out our tourists and U.N. work-
ers and let it happen. The U.S. press was
caught up in the '94 mid-term election
featuring the anti-
Clinton backlash,
which led to a
Republican sweep of
Congress. We had all
been swept away with
the politics of silence.
We did nothing.
Rusesabagina said
the words, "never
again," are the world's
words of "fiction:'
Genocide, he said,
"has happened again and again and
"
again.
"It's still happening now at this
moment," he said.
Coincidentally, the International
Criminal Court announced the day before
that their 20-month inquiry "found evi-
dence of direct ties between the Sudanese
government and the militias known as the
janjaweed," which are blamed for most
of the carnage in Darfur, with the murders
of more than 450,000 Sudanese.
Student Support
The subject of the night was unbearably
grim, but the passion of the students was
anything but. Nineforpeace, a group of
nine North students, passed around a
petition urging sponsorship of legisla-
tion calling for "targeted divestment" of
Sudan. And students and artists from
North showed a remarkable book, entitled,
The Commemorative Edition of
the Northern Star: Recognizing and
Honoring Victims of Genocide. This
beautifully constructed and horrifying
book (sold for a small fee of $5) details
the Jewish Holocaust, and the Armenian,
Rwandan and Darfur genocides. It shows
other genocides of the 21st century. It also
lists 50 ways we can help fight genocide
right now, today. The high school students
who have given so much love and passion
to this study have created a phenomenal
landmark book that gives hope that it's still
possible to make a difference.
Rusesabagina wrote that "Our time on
earth is short and our chance to make a
difference is tiny." The audience rose to
its feet three times for this amazing man
who saved so many lives, who continues
to speak the truth as he sees it without the
fear of his death. He faced death so often
in 1994 and has faced many death threats
since, including one on Dec. 20 and now
on Feb. 28 at our neighborhood high
school in suburban Detroit.
Fearlessly, Paul Rusesabagina's mission
is to educate humanity on the horrors of
Welfare State Of 'Palestine'
Jerusalem
A
ccording to the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA), tens of billions of
dollars (one-third from U.S. taxpayers, the
rest mostly from Canada and European
countries) have been spent over the last 50
years providing for "Palestinian refugees"
and their descendants. An estimated half
million people 60 years ago, that number is
now over 4 million.
UNRWAs purpose: to ensure the
"Palestinian Right of Return" — the
destruction of Israel.
No Arab country except Jordan — where
they constitute more than two-thirds of the
population — accepts the Palestinians as
citizens. Saudi Arabia, for example, recently
passed a law allowing all foreign workers in
the country to apply for Saudi citizenship
next year — except Palestinians.
More than 400,000 "Palestinian refugees"
living in UNRWA-supported "camps" in
Lebanon cannot work or even go to school
outside their designated areas. Ditto for
Syria.
30
March 8 2007
Most "Palestinian refugees" listed by
UNRWA (which includes Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria, the West Bank and Gaza) in 2002 don't
even live in the camps, but in nearby villages
and towns. All receive free services for the
rest of their life, including their children,
their grandchildren, ad infinitum.
According to UNRWAs rules, anyone who
applied for relief, claiming they lived in
Palestine for at least two years prior to 1948
(when Israel was attacked) and claimed to
have lost property and livelihood, was enti-
tled to assistance, regardless of where they
came from or where they live today. Once a
"Palestinian refugee," always a "Palestinian
refugee:'
That explains why the number of
"Palestinian refugees" who receive aid has
grown from a few hundred thousand to 4.5
million (although no one really knows the
exact numbers because of UNRWAs faulty
records). That could double in a generation
— along with UNRWAs nearly $1.5 billion
annual budget.
UNRWA is supposed to verify that those
who receive assistance don't work. Not sur-
prisingly, however, no one checks. No one
confirms the validity
of those who receive
UNRWA benefits. After
death, certificates of
eligibility are passed
on to others. No one
checks bank accounts,
automobile registra-
tions or property own-
ership.
With multiple wives,
families can comprise
scores of children
— all "refugees."
And, according to UNRWA rules, even if
one parent is "Palestinian:' the entire family
is eligible for assistance and "refugee" status.
UNRWA openly admits that they don't
monitor programs that support terrorism
or payments to families of terrorists by the
Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Hezbollah
and (until recently) Iraq's Sadaam Hussein.
In fact, nearly all teachers employed by
UNRWA are members of terrorist-controlled
unions. Funding these teachers and the cur-
riculum of hatred and bigotry, which they
teach, supports terrorism and terrorist orga-
nizations. This may explain why so many
children are willing to blow themselves up,
carry weapons and explosives and place
themselves as shields for terrorists.
Although responsible for what goes on in
the areas it administers, UNRWA ignores the
fact that terrorists are being trained there,
including the next generation of homicide
bombers, that bomb-making factories flour-
ish inside the camps and that arms and
ammunition are stockpiled there.
UNRWA ignores the launching of thou-
sands of rocket attacks against Israel from
within territories under its responsibility.
And most outrageous, UNRWA is
accountable only to the U.N. General
Assembly, dominated by the 56-member
Organization of Islamic Conference, which is
also part of the 115-member Non-Aligned
Movement — a majority in the 191-mem-
ber U.N.
UNRWA violates its own U.N. mandate
(Resolution 302), which states (Paragraph
5): "Constructive measures should be
undertaken at an early date with a view to
the termination of international assistance
for relief"