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China has been executing dozens of death row inmates every week, and removing their organs to sell them abroad. Thousands of Chinese are being imprisoned and tortured for the crime of opinion, and murdered in labor camps. Freedom of expression, a multi-party system, and freedom of religion are non-existent in China.

 

China annexed Tibet in 1950, destroying thousands of temples.

 

The Tibetan people are the victims of a veritable genocide. 1.2 million Tibetans have died since 1950 - that is, 1/5 of the country's total population: 350,000 have died of starvation, 350,000 have been killed in battle, 180,000 have died in prisons and labor camps, 160,000 have been executed, 95,000 have died under torture, and 9,000 have committed suicide. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees, and their number increases yearly.

 

How can we, the citizens of Israel, turn a deaf ear to the pleas of the Tibetan people, we who, as a result of the cruelty of some and of the indifference of so many others, have been the victims of the greatest genocide ever in history?

 

So:

 

We ask the state authorities not to send representatives to Beijing, to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, if the Chinese government fails to significantly improve human rights in Tibet and to grant cultural and religious autonomy to the Tibetan people.

 

We appeal to the public conscience of the Israeli athletes participating in the Olympic Games. We bid them join forces with the athletes who will demonstrate, using every possible means, in order to attract world public opinion to the way China is trampling human rights and to the plight of the Tibetan people.

 

We express our deepest concern that the 2014 Winter Olympic Games are scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia, and call on all democratic nations to pressure the IOC (International Olympic Committee) not to allow the Games to be held in countries that fail to respect human rights and the values of Olympism. They are unworthy of this honor.

 

By our campaign, we are supporting the human rights activists in China and the Dalai Lama - who is not seeking independence for Tibet but, rather, cultural and religious autonomy for it, and that a stop be put to the violence against his people.