Preamble
On the morning of August 3rd, 2014, Islamic State troops marched into Sinjar, Iraq. Sinjar is a region traditionally inhabited by Yazidis. This day marked the beginning of a brutal genocide against the Yazidi population, which resulted in the murder of 5,000 people and the abduction of 1,700 women and children.
The proof that this is genocide is evident in the systematic and calculated actions taken by ISIS against the Yazidi community, aligning closely with the criteria established under international law for the classification of genocide. ISIS’s campaign of mass murder targeted Yazidi men and older women, resulting in the discovery of over 80 mass graves throughout Sinjar. These mass executions were designed to decimate the Yazidi population and eliminate future generations of community leaders and elders. The abduction of Yazidi women and children was a deliberate tactic to dismantle the social fabric of the community. Girls were enslaved, subjected to sexual violence, and sold as commodities, while boys were forcibly conscripted, indoctrinated, and trained to serve in ISIS’s military ranks, stripping them of their cultural and familial identities. The treatment of captives was marked by extreme brutality, involving torture, sexual and physical violence, and other forms of abuse that inflicted irreversible trauma on survivors. These acts were intended to break the spirit of the Yazidi people and eradicate their cultural heritage. ISIS’s strategy also included using rape as a tool of war to ensure that children born to Yazidi women would be considered Muslim, not Yazidi, under Iraq’s patrilineal nationality law. This was a calculated effort to dilute the Yazidi identity and erase the community’s lineage. The destruction extended beyond human lives to encompass the obliteration of Yazidi property, infrastructure, and resources. ISIS systematically destroyed schools, hospitals, and homes, burned farms, disabled electrical networks, and polluted water sources. These actions were designed to render Sinjar uninhabitable, ensuring that the Yazidis could not return and rebuild their lives in their ancestral homeland.
Thousands of members of the Yazidi minority subsequently found refuge in Europe, primarily in Germany. Today, many of them have to fear deportation to Iraq. The situation in Iraq is complex and uncertain. Many of the survivors of the genocide are re-traumatized by this process because they have to fear that they will once again be at the mercy of Islamist terrorist groups. Meanwhile, many governments have not recognized the genocide against the Yazidis as such. As a Jewish community that, throughout the last decades, and particularly painfully on October 7, experienced Islamist terrorism,, it is our responsibility to stand up for all minorities threatened by Islamist terrorist organisations.
EUJS notes that:
1. The Jewish community and the Yazidi community are facing a common threat: radical Islamist terrorism.
2. Deportations of the Yazidi community back to Iraq put a big danger on people who are already severely traumatised.
3. Deportations to Iraq of members of the Yazidi community are neither safe nor necessary.
EUJS believes that:
1. It is a crucial part of our Jewish and European values to stand in solidarity with others. Especially with those in danger.
2. Europe has a responsibility to protect everyone affected by the consequences of radical Islamist ideology.
3. Jews and Yazidis are deeply connected through their common fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
EUJS resolves to:
1. Urge our governments to stop deportations of Yazidis.
2. Urge our governments to recognize the Yazidi genocide.
3. Raise awareness of the Yazidi genocide by collaboration with the Yazidi community, educational content, and public advocacy for the issue.
