The Die-In

Here are some photos from our recent "die-in" event. A group of us got together in the middle of campus, wearing black, and laid on the ground for 10 minutes both to spread awareness to people walking by and to show our support for the people of Darfur. The event was very successful in that we got to answer many people's questions about the genocide in Darfur, and about our group on campus. We also had many people sign letters to the Obama administration asking that he take a more proactive stance against the atrocities being committed in Sudan. If you weren't able to attend this event, don't worry- we'll have many more events throughout the year. Be sure to join our facebook group or get on our mailing list to keep informed!

Fall 2009

Fight On For Darfur meets every Tuesday at 7:30PM in VKC 105. We'd love for you to join us and get involved! Even if you can't make it to the meetings, feel free to come to any and all of our events.

We started off the semester with a screening of the documentary "War Child", about a child soldier from southern Sudan who became a world renowned rapper. We have a lot more exciting events coming up, so check back here or join our facebook group to keep updated on upcoming events!

Genocide Awareness Week 2009 Schedule

USC Fight On For Darfur Presents:

GENOCIDE AWARENESS WEEK 2009

Join us for:
CAMP DARFUR (http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/campdarfur/information) - A simulated refugee camp running all week on McCarthy Quad and…

Monday April 13th:
- ASA Presents the film “Screamers” by Carla Garabedian(http://www.screamersmovie.com/)
6:30PM
- Me To We Speaking Tour
8:00-9:30PM in THH 101
(http://www.metowe.com/main/)

Tuesday April 14th:
- "Blessed is the Match" Film Screening and Discussion
5:30 pm-8:00pm in SGM 123 (http://www.blessedisthematch.com/)

Wednesday April 15th:
- Reading of Rwandan Testimonies at Camp Darfur at 7:00pm

Thursday April 16th:
-"War Child" Film Screening and Discussion (http://www.warchildmovie.com/)
7:00pm-9:30pm in SGM 123
- Jewish World Watch Day of Action at Camp Darfur (http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/)

Blessed Is The Match Movie Showing

PLEASE COME AND WATCH AT 5:45PM APRIL 14TH, SGM 123



















WATCH THE TRAILER

WINNER, Audience Award, Best Documentary:
- Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival (2009)
- Denver Jewish Film Festival (2009)
- San Diego Jewish Film Festival (2009)
- Tucson Jewish Film Festival (2009)
- Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (2009)
- Washington Jewish Film Festival (2008)
- Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival (2008)
WINNER, Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival (2008)

Directed by Roberta Grossman and Narrated by Joan Allen, Blessed Is the Match is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews along with 31 other Jewish-Palestinian parachutists in her native Hungary. Shockingly, it was the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal - first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter.

With unprecedented access to the Senesh family archive, and through interviews, eyewitness accounts and the prolific writings of Hannah and Catherine Senesh, Blessed Is the Match recreates Hannah's mission and imprisonment. The film explores Hannah's childhood against the backdrop of significant historical events resulting in a rich portrait with several interlocking strands.

The film shows British-controlled Palestine and explores how the Kibbutz Movement drew Hannah and other idealistic Jews there in the hopes of building a Jewish state. Israeli President Shimon Peres, who knew Hannah as a young pioneer in the 1940s, appears on camera.

Finally, through Hannah's diary entries and poetry - and through her correspondence with her mother - Blessed Is the Match looks back on the life of a uniquely talented and complex girl who came of age in a world descending into madness. 'God, may there be no end,' Hannah writes in her 1942 poem Eli Eli, ...to sea, to sand, water's splash, lightning's flash. The prayer of man.'

If You Are Interested Further:
Please Look at Eitan Senesh's Book About His Aunt, Hannah and Her Courageous Story

Also Please Click Here to Access the 'Blessed Is The Match' Study Guide



Have a Blessed Passover and Easter

Volunteer at CAMP DARFUR @ USC, April 13-17, 2009

We are holding our second annual Genocide Awareness Week '09 April 13 - 17, 2009, across the USC campus.

We want YOU to get involved! Each night of the week, we will be having student volunteers camp out at CAMP DARFUR, a simulated refugee camp, on McCarthy Quad.

CAMP DARFUR is an interactive awareness and education event that brings attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and gives individuals the opportunity to discover their own power to make a difference. Camp Darfur raises awareness and examines Sudan’s Darfur region and its humanitarian crisis – genocide. A deeply concerned world community must come together united as one voice to remember the victims of past genocides and to make a call to action to end the genocide in Darfur today. Find out more here:
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/campdarfur/information.

From set-up Sunday night (4/13) to break-down Thursday evening (4/17), we will need volunteers to man Camp Darfur 24 hours a day. Whether you want to help out between your classes or curl up with a sleeping bag at night, your help and support would be greatly appreciated!

Volunteering at Camp Darfur is easy, as the camp pretty speaks for itself. Each tent is filled with photos and testimonies from five major modern genocides -- Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur. You will only be required to hang out at the camp and encourage visitors to check out the tents and find out more about the atrocity of genocide. Even if you don't know much about the genocides represented at the camp, volunteering is a great opportunity for you to become more aware yourself.

Feel free to invite your friends to volunteer with you! Not only will you be sharing this great experience with them, but you will be recruited another USC student to stand up against genocide and show their support.

If you would like to be involved with this powerful awareness event, please email USC Fight On for Darfur at fightonfordarfur AT gmail.com. We would love nothing more than to see as many diverse student groups at USC as we can come together in support of the people of Darfur.

Thanks so much for your support -- we look forward to seeing you at Camp Darfur!!

Great Event at USC on Wednesday, April 1

Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint For U.S. Policymakers

What:	Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint For U.S. Policymakers
When:	April 1, 2009 6:00 PM
Where:	University of Southern California (USC) Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, Room 240 3550 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
RSVP:	RSVP to Amber Mirafuentes at mirafuen@usc.edu or 213.740.2950
	Admission free

"The Genocide Prevention Task Force, convened by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of Peace, and co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and William Cohen, released Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers on December 8, 2008. The report explains why genocide and mass atrocities threaten core American values and national interests and how the U.S. government can prevent these crimes in the future. Join us to learn more about this report from two members of the task force's executive committee.

Presentations will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Refreshments will be served."

More info here.

NYTimes: Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Sudan’s Leader

From NYTimes.com:

PARIS — Judges at the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest Wednesday of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan for atrocities committed in Darfur, but Sudanese officials swiftly retaliated, ordering Western aid groups that provide for millions of people to shut down their operations and leave.

After months of deliberation, the judges charged Mr. Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity for playing an “essential role” in the murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur. But the judges did not charge him with genocide, as the prosecutor had requested. (more)

GENOCIDE DEFINED

Genocide: any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

a. killing members of the group;

b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

                                        - Convention for the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

To read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/reports/dsetexhe.html

The Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917

On April 24th1915, commemorated worldwide by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul after being summoned and gathered. The now leaderless Armenian people were to follow. Across the Ottoman Empire (with the exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign presence), the same events transpired from village to village, from province to province.

The remarkable thing about the following events is the virtually complete cooperation of the Armenians. For a number of reasons they did not know what was planned for them and went along with "their" government's plan to "relocate them for their own good." First, the Armenians were asked to turn in hunting weapons for the war effort. Communities were often given quotas and would have to buy additional weapons from Turks to meet their quota. Later, the government would claim these weapons were proof that Armenians were about to rebel. The able bodied men were then "drafted" to help in the wartime effort. These men were either immediately killed or were worked to death. Now the villages and towns, with only women, children, and elderly left were systematically emptied. The remaining residents would be told to gather for a temporary relocation and to only bring what they could carry. The Armenians again obediently followed instructions and were "escorted" by Turkish Gendarmes in death marches.

The death marches led across Anatolia, and the purpose was clear. The Armenians were raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered, and kidnapped along the way. The Turkish Gendarmes either led these atrocities or turned a blind eye. Their eventual destination for resettlement was just as telling in revealing the Turkish governments goal: the Syrian Desert, Der Zor. Those who miraculously survived the march would arrive to this bleak desert only to be killed upon arrival or to somehow survive until a way to escape the empire was found. Usually those that survived and escaped received assistance from those who have come to be known as "good Turks," from foreign missionaries who recorded much of these events and from Arabs. - Text by Armeniapedia.org