“The Tower” July 26, 2017
Full article - http://tinyurl.com/y7f7qwny
Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor of Islamic State
captivity and UN [United Nations] goodwill ambassador, visited the Israeli
Knesset on Monday to raise awareness for the plight of her people and explain
how it relates to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
“My visit here today is to ask you to recognize
the genocide being committed against my people, in light of our peoples’ common
history of genocide,” Murad told a gathering at the Israeli parliament, The
Times of Israel reported.
She also expressed her admiration of Jewish
resilience in the face of annihilation. “The Jews and the Yazidis share a
common history of genocide that has shaped the identity of our peoples, but we
must transform our pain into action,” she said, adding, “I respect how you
rebuilt a global Jewish community in the wake of genocide. This is a journey
that lies ahead of my community.”
In August 2014, Murad was captured in her
village of Kocho in northern Iraq by Islamic State fighters. Before she was
sold and abused as a slave, she saw six of her brothers killed and her mother
executed for being too old to serve as a slave. Islamic State propaganda refers
to the indigenous Yazidi people as “devil worshippers” and “unbelievers” unworthy
of life.
“Before this genocide, I had little information
on the Jewish community because we don’t have many Jewish people in Iraq,”
Murad told The Jerusalem Post. “I had zero knowledge about the community
until I started this campaign and saw Jewish communities support us.”
“Their ability to stay strong and keep their
culture … it’s an example. I personally fell in love with doing that. The Jews
are an example. We should do the same,” she added.
Murad’s quest to bring justice to her community
and have the atrocities committed against the Yazidi people recognized as a
genocide has taken her around the global. She was brought to Israel with the
support of IsraAID and Yazda, a Yazidi non-profit organization.
During her stay, Murad met with Israeli lawmakers,
visited Yad Vashem [Holocaust Remembrance Center], addressed a delegation of
young professional women hosted by the American Jewish Committee, and spoke at
Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
“We think they’ll (Jews) understand our case
more than anybody else,” Murad said. “We have been in many countries, meeting
with governments for help for the Yazidi communities. I always wanted to come
here to Israel; a lot of victims wanted to come and ask for help from the
government and people of Israel,” she concluded.
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